JOHNNY CHRISTMAS

The story of a frontiersman, of the new West he came to know through guerrilla bands in Texas, through trapping in the Central Rockies, through trading along the Spanish trail to California. It is also the story of a boy's growing up, and of his becoming informed of the hatred the Spanish and Mexicans held for the Americans. In the years between 1836 and 1845, Johnny learns the fate of raiders attacked by Mexicans and Comanches, learns the implacability of the old ways when confronted by indomitable, aggressive Americans. Johnny throws in with Tom Gitt- is taught the life of trapping and hunting in Ute territory. Still restless, he leaves his squaw and Tom, turning West, and eventually back again in Taes as the United States claims its new territory. A colorful picture of the unsettled West, of the types of men who opened it; and a ""Western"" of believable proportions. Good reading in a super-western market.