Charlotte Gordon lived in the largest house in Oak Hill. The Gordons had moved to Oak Hill from Chicago and everyone liked them for, although they had a great deal of money and kept three cars and a staff of servants, Mrs. Gordon did not forget or try to make other people forget that her father had kept the grocery store in Oak Hill for years and that she had gone to school with many of the Oak Hill folk. She sent her daughter to the same school now, and Charlotte was a lovely little girl, dark-eyed and pretty and with her mother’s own charming manners and way of keeping friends.
“I’m so glad you could come,” said Mrs. Gordon kissing Meg as she met her in the hall. “Charlotte will show you where to put your things, dear. Bobby, you’ll find some of the boys upstairs who will tell you where to go.”
Upstairs in Charlotte’s room Meg found a little group of girls shaking out their hair-ribbons and comparing dresses and slippers.
“What a darling locket!” said Eleanor Gray, when Meg took off her coat. “I never saw one like it.”
“It belonged to my great-aunt Dorothy,” explained Meg. “My Aunt Polly gave it to me. I love it because it’s blue.”
In a room across the hall, Bobby found the boys. He knew them all because he saw them every day in school. Fred and Bertrand and Palmer were there and Tim Roon and Charlie Black who were already trying to do hand-springs over the beautiful carved mahogany bed with its blue satin cover.
“Come on downstairs and don’t act foolish,” growled Palmer, as Tim landed in the center of the bed. “That’s no way to behave at a party.”
“I guess I know how to act as well as you do,” retorted Tim. “But I’m ready to go down. I want to tell Mrs. Gordon to have the fire extinguishers ready in case of a fire.”
Bobby colored angrily, but Fred pinched him to remind him to keep still.
“Wait till we get him outside, and we can punch him,” whispered Fred. “But I don’t think it would be very nice to start a row in here.”