A colonial family in Bennington, Vermont, in 1777, prepares for war as the British general, Burgoyne, and his Indian allies, advance. The heroine is 12 year old Jane Louise Drew. She befriends an Indian and brings about the return of a long-lost grandmother. Interesting details of family life, -- food, clothing, furniture, dishes, ways of worship, politics, occupations of the townspeople, ways of the local tradesmen, the refugees fleeing the advancing army- and the routing of that army by Seth Warner and the Green Mountain Boys- all this adds up to history in lively terms, and good supplementary reading.