_Dear Boys and Girls_:
When your grandfather tells you a story, do you ever interrupt him to
ask: "But is it all true?" And doesn't he often answer: "I don't
know," or "I don't know when it's really true, and when it begins to
be like a story book." And so, when you read through my little
book--if you do read right through it to the very last page--you may
wonder whether all my history stories really happened.
Yes--and no! I do know that cross old Peter Stuyvesant of New
Amsterdam hated our people, but I never found any record of the Jewish
boy who wanted to play with the governor's niece, pretty Katrina. The
histories tell us how gallant young Franks became the friend of George
Washington, but none of them mention that the Jewish soldier saved a
Tory from the angry mob.
You understand now, don't you? So I'm going to turn the page right
away that you may read for yourselves of the three Jews who whispered
together on the deck of the "Santa Maria," as Columbus and his crew
crossed the Sea of Darkness in search of a New Land.