E-text prepared by Roger Frank
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.fadedpage.net)

LUCAS TORE DOWN THE BANK AND WADED
RIGHT INTO THE STREAM. Frontispiece (Page 61.)

THE GIRLS OF
HILLCREST FARM

OR

THE SECRET OF THE ROCKS

BY

AMY BELL MARLOWE

AUTHOR OF
THE OLDEST OF FOUR, A LITTLE MISS NOBODY,
THE GIRL FROM SUNSET RANCH, ETC.

NEW YORK

GROSSET & DUNLAP

PUBLISHERS

Made in the United States of America

Copyright, 1914, by

GROSSET & DUNLAP

The Girls of Hillcrest Farm

CONTENTS
CHAPTERPAGE
I.Everything at Once![1]
II.Aunt Jane Proposes[10]
III.The Doctor Disposes[24]
IV.The Pilgrimage[37]
V.Lucas Pritchett[51]
VI.Neighbors[61]
VII.Hillcrest[73]
VIII.The Whisper in the Dark[85]
IX.Morning at Hillcrest[96]
X.The Venture[109]
XI.At the Schoolhouse[126]
XII.The Green-Eyed Monster[134]
XIII.Lyddy Doesn’t Want It[144]
XIV.The Colesworths[161]
XV.Another Boarder[171]
XVI.The Ball Keeps Rolling[184]
XVII.The Runaway Grandmother[192]
XVIII.The Queer Boarder[199]
XIX.Widow Harrison’s Troubles[208]
XX.The Temperance Club Again[216]
XXI.Caught[224]
XXII.The Hidden Treasure[236]
XXIII.The Vendue[248]
XXIV.Professor Spink’s Bottles[258]
XXV.In the Old Doctor’s Office[269]
XXVI.A Blow-up[276]
XXVII.They Lose a Boarder[283]
XXVIII.The Secret Revealed[289]
XXIX.An Automobile Race[298]
XXX.The Hillcrest Company, Limited[303]