The publishers are grateful to the estate of Miss Jennie Hall and to hermany friends for assistance in planning the publication of this book.Especial thanks are due to Miss Nell C. Curtis of the Lincoln School,New York City, for helping to finish Miss Hall's work of choosing thepictures, and to Miss Irene I. Cleaves of the Francis Parker School,Chicago, who wrote the captions. It was Miss Katharine Taylor, now ofthe Shady Hill School, Cambridge, who brought these stories to ourattention.

Do you like to dig for hidden treasure? Have you ever found Indianarrowheads or Indian pottery? I knew a boy who was digging a cave ina sandy place, and he found an Indian grave. With his own hands heuncovered the bones and skull of some brave warrior. That brown skullwas more precious to him than a mint of money. Another boy I knew wasmaking a cave of his own. Suddenly he dug into an older one made yearsbefore. He crawled into it with a leaping heart and began to explore. Hefound an old carpet and a bit of burned candle. They proved that someone had lived there. What kind of a man had he been and what kindof life had he lived—black or white or red, robber or beggar oradventurer? Some of us were walking in the woods one day when we saw abone sticking out of the ground. Luckily we had a spade, and we set towork digging. Not one moment was the tool idle. First one bone and thenanother came to light and among them a perfect horse's skull. We felt asthough we had rescued Captain Kidd's treasure, and we went home drapedin bones.

Suppose that instead of finding the bones of a horse we had uncovered agold-wrapped king. Suppose that instead of a deserted cave that boyhad dug into a whole buried city with theaters and mills and shops andbeautiful houses. Suppose that instead of picking up an Indian arrowheadyou could find old golden vases and crowns and bronze swords lying inthe earth. If you could be a digger and a finder and could choose yourfind, would you choose a marble statue or a buried bakeshop with breadtwo thousand years old still in the oven or a king's grave filled withgolden gifts? It is of such digging and such finding that this booktells.

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