Floggings, flags, runaway daughters, death on Mount Washington, bears, and kinky schoolteachers of old. This third volume from New Hampshire's master storyteller tells all about the state's people, places and towns.

Fritz tells stories of:
• An English earl’s edict and his daughter’s daring escape to a lovely valley in New Hampshire,

• A shoeless Newport boy’s rapid rise to world shoemaking magnate,

• The general on horseback who refused to move as the enemy’s cannonball arched toward him,

• The romantic and treacherous life of the men who worked Manchester’s log run, and

• An adopted black woman in Concord whose greatest fear was freedom.

You will discover:

• Who gave the contribution in Exeter that single-handedly saved our young republic,

• Where the only surviving American flags captured in the Revolution have been hanging for a
hundred years,

• When President Wilson stayed in a magnificent New Hampshire home named Harlakenden,

• Why a man from Keene walked all the way to Texas and back,

• How a Portsmouth woman was publicly punished for stealing shoes for her baby,

• And, finally, in the Wetherbees section, what an unusual invitation meant to a young
serviceman named Fritz.

TUESDAY DUSK, AND RAINING. I climb the stairs to the Tuck Library of the New
Hampshire Historical Society in Concord. Inside the dark room, the giant of New Hampshire
storytelling sits alone at a table with his papers, light shining over his shoulder. “Just
a little bit to go,” he says of the research. “They are so good to me here.”
We walk to the car, and I hand him the books he’ll peddle at a bookstore signing. “Thank you,”
he says. “Be well.” The voice stays with me as I drive home . . . the same voice you and I will hear
that evening on television, sharing another tale about the state he loves and knows so well.
After the library, he goes back to his old New Hampshire home, writes his stories for the week
and, on Fridays, takes a WMUR-TV film crew to a site he has chosen. He works full time at this, on his
way to creating the books that delight, inspire, and educate. His goal is to publish 1,000 stories in a
series of books. “I don’t think it’s ever been done,” he says, and I see his deep caring for his craft.
This is volume three of the Fritz Wetherbee stories, another extraordinary collection as he
writes toward his 1,000. Enjoy! -- Sara Minette, editor, Plaidswede Publishing Co.