Hugo, the son of a charcoal maker, is an independent little fellow who lives deep in the woods. When he isn’t learning from spiders, he goes to school and promptly visits with each pupil asking about their families. After that, he settles down – to a nap. One day, he and his friend Josephine decide to earn some money and come up with ingenious schemes ranging from mushroom harvests to delivering mail on a towering antique bicycle.
Into their cheerful world comes a strange, aloof girl whose icy manner is resented by her classmates. How Hugo and Josephine finally recognize her pathetic loneliness and draw her out of her shell makes a profound and touching story.

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