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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the woods near home could teach you more than the classroom?
Yan loves birds, animals and wild places, but he wants more than knowledge from books. With his practical friend Sam Raften, he sets out to make a home in the woods nearby. They build a tepee, gather supplies and begin to turn a longing for adventure into daily camp life.
In Two Little Savages, Ernest Thompson Seton joins a boyhood story with a handbook of outdoor skills. Caleb Clark, an older woodsman, helps the boys learn from the land. Their camp draws on their understanding of Plains Native customs, while fair rules, games and tests of nerve bring courage, honesty and friendship into focus.
What you’ll discover
- A camp taking shape Follow Yan and Sam as they build a tepee and make the woods their home.
- Skills beyond the classroom Explore fire by friction, track reading and archery through the boys' efforts to live outdoors.
- Nature seen up close Share Yan's close attention to birds, trees, tracks and the habits of wild creatures.
- Friendship tested by adventure See how Yan's love of nature meets Sam's practical energy in their shared camp.
- A code to live by Discover how camp rules and honors give the boys ways to test courage and honesty.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you love camping, birds and tracks, if you remember playing outdoors until dark, or if you like tales of friendship with real craft in them.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A curious boy needs someone who listens
- A hidden valley becomes his own
- His passion is mistaken for rebellion
- The farm makes room for Yan
- Useful teachers appear in unlikely places
- Friendship leaves room for imperfect companions
- Camp mistakes bring practical and moral lessons
- Quiet observation makes the woods clearer
- Learning grows through each honest try
Who’s who
- Yan (Little Beaver)A thin, bookish boy who loves birds and wild things and longs for someone to share his learning.
- Sam Raften (Woodpecker)The farmer's son, a slow-talking, practical companion and dry joker who shares Yan's woodland adventures and plans to become a dentist.
- Guy Burns (Sapwood, Hawkeye)A freckled neighbor boy with sharp eyes, big boasts and a wish to belong to the tribe.
- William RaftenSam's father, a shrewd, gruff, prosperous farmer who prizes education and cannot bear to see animals mistreated.
- Caleb ClarkAn old trapper who lived among the Sioux, shares his woodcraft with the boys, and holds a grudge against Raften.
- Granny de NeuvilleThe Sanger Witch, a herb healer who feeds birds and distrusts the Raftens.
- Si LeeA hired man with many half-learned trades who teaches the boys sewing and taxidermy.
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Two Little Savages in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Two Little Savages
by Ernest Thompson Seton · 1903
A lonely boy in a Canadian town learns birds from a stranger, then camps in a teepee with a farmer's son.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“In the woods, the silent watcher sees the most.”
In short
What would you give for one name? Yan, a twelve-year-old in a small Canadian town, presses his nose against a taxidermist's window to read the labels on stuffed birds.
Two Little Savages at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h 40 min6 h 5 min fast, 9 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 109,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1903by Ernest Thompson Seton
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A boy hungry for names finds a teacher
Yan lives for wild things in a town that has no room for them. His father is poor and stern, and he forbids nature study because he thinks it will spoil schooling. The ban only makes Yan sneak out to the fields.
He has almost no books. His walk to school winds past the taxidermist's shop, where twelve birds carry labels. Yan memorizes them, but the last label is turned away from the glass. He saves ten cents to buy a book on the birds of Canada, and the book proves almost worthless.
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Details
- First published
- 1903
- Language
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- Level
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Cite this edition
Seton, Ernest Thompson. Two Little Savages. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/two-little-savages.
Seton, E. T. (2026). Two little savages. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/two-little-savages (Original work published 1903)
Seton, Ernest Thompson. Two Little Savages. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/two-little-savages.
@book{seton2026two,
author = {Seton, Ernest Thompson},
title = {Two Little Savages},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/two-little-savages},
note = {First published 1903}
}
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What is Two Little Savages about?
It follows Yan, a boy who loves birds and Indian lore, from a strict town home to a Canadian farm. There he and a farmer's son named Sam build a teepee, make their own gear and form an Indian tribe.
Is Two Little Savages a true story?
It is a novel, but Seton based it on his own boyhood and outdoor experience. It was published in 1903, and the woodcraft in it, from tracking to fire making, reflects his real knowledge.
Who is Caleb Clark in Two Little Savages?
Caleb is an old trapper who once lived among the Sioux. He knows how to make a teepee, a drum and a bow-drill fire, and he shares that lore with the boys while carrying an old feud with Sam's father.
The author
Ernest Thompson Seton
1860–1946 · Canadian-American naturalist and writer
Ernest Thompson Seton was a British-born naturalist, artist, and storyteller who worked across Canada and the United States and helped shape the early scouting movement. Wild Animals I Have Known pioneered the realistic animal story and made him famous.
“In the woods, the silent watcher sees the most.”
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