The house dated back to Revolutionary times and had many weird and romantic legends attached to it. The girls, anxious to see the old place for themselves, had decided to spend their vacation there, and a little later some boys had joined them.
They had an unusual and exciting time of it and the climax of the whole outing was the finding of a shabby old trunk which was hidden away in the attic. This trunk contained five thousand dollars’ worth of rare old coins and queer postage stamps, and this small fortune enabled Billie not only to replace the statue she had broken but gave her more than enough to send herself to Three Towers Hall and her brother Chet to Boxton Military Academy.
But we forgot entirely to introduce the boys! And they at least considered themselves by far the most important part of the story. Here they are then—First of all comes Chetwood Bradley, Billie’s brother, whom his friends called Chet for short. Chet was a lovable boy, good-looking, quiet, reserved and devoted to Billie—whose real name, by the way, was Beatrice.
Then there was Ferd Stowing, an all-around good-natured boy who always added a great deal to whatever fun was at hand. And last, but not least, Laura’s brother Teddy. Teddy was fifteen, as were the other boys, but, unlike them, he looked quite a good deal older than he was. He was tall, with wavy hair and handsome gray eyes and an athletic build which was the envy of most of the boys at North Bend, where the young folks lived. Teddy had always liked Billie a lot because, as he told his sister, Laura, Billie was the nearest like a boy of all the girls he knew. She liked sports almost as well as he did and so as a matter of course they played tennis and hiked and skated a good deal together.
Returning from their vacation in the old homestead at Cherry Corners, the girls went straight to Three Towers Hall, the boarding school to which their parents were sending them, partly because the young folks wanted to go and partly because the high school at North Bend was hopelessly inefficient and unsatisfactory.
At the same time, the boys departed for Boxton Military Academy which was only a little over a mile from the boarding school and which was also situated close to Lake Molata.
The good times the young folks had at school are told in the second volume of the series entitled, “Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall.” The most startling thing that happened during the year was the capture of the man whom the boys and girls had named the “Codfish” on account of his peculiarly fish-like mouth. The latter had once attempted to steal Billie’s precious trunk, and had later on been suspected of planning and carrying out a robbery at Boxton Military Academy. Later, he had robbed Miss Race, one of the teachers at the Hall.
The girls had made new friends—and enemies also,—at Three Towers Hall. Chief among the enemies were Amanda Peabody and her chum, Eliza Dilks. The girls were both sneaks and tattletales, and the former, being jealous of Billie and her chums, had done her best to make life unbearable for them at Three Towers. That the disagreeable girls had not succeeded, was not in the least their fault.
Another enemy of Billie’s had been Rose Belser, a pretty, black-haired, very vain girl who was also jealous of Billie because of her unusual and immediate popularity with the girls. However, even Rose was won over to Billie’s side in the end and became sincerely repentant for her mean behavior.
Connie Danvers, a pretty, fluffy-haired girl, became a staunch friend of the chums at once, and it was she who had invited Billie and Laura and Vi to spend their vacation at Lighthouse Island where her parents had a summer bungalow. Connie’s Uncle John, an interesting, bluff character, lived at the lighthouse on the island.