The days of the founding of St. Louis and the rather exciting story of its fourteen year old founder Auguste Chouteau who started up the Mississippi River from New Orleans in 1764 with his step-father, Pierre Laclede and fifty men, to start a fur trading post. Young Auguste's dramatic escape from home with a mistreated half-Indian ward of the fur company's manager; Laclede's deep trust in the two lads; trouble with the English and the Indians that was instigated by the treaty at the end of the French and Indian War; the decision to build a city and the initial work by Auguste after Pierre's accident with a mill wheel -- all are idealistically told but with a gratifying sense of immediacy and a very well sensed picture of pioneer activity. Auguste and the Indian boy Charlie, mature in their knowledge of man and the out-of-doors. The erection of the first buildings on the site of St. Louis is a joyful experience.