"A boy had to ride sometimes, or he would burst in pieces! Twelve-year-old Dirk, a son of the plain people, dearly loved his family and would not have traded shoes with any city boy. But, still, the ways of his people were so -this way exactly and no other way! It was hard to want to ride a horse so badly he 'could taste it,' and to have to forego the pleasure because 'a horse is to work.'" [book jacket]
