1902. Take a journey into America's past through this classic fictional diary of a young boy living near Exeter, New Hampshire in the 1860s. Soda water at the corner store, fighting in the schoolyard, making hayseed cigars, getting lickings from his father and other everyday experiences create a unique window into the realities of life in 19th century New England. Written with the unguarded honesty of an eleven-year-old, this fiction rings with a truth that only children and master storytellers can craft. The book propelled Henry Shute to national prominence.