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

THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST FARM

CHAPTER I

EVERYTHING AT ONCE!

Whenever she heard the siren of the ladder-truck, as it swung out of its
station on the neighboring street, Lydia Bray ran to the single window
of the flat that looked out on Trimble Avenue.

They were four flights up. There were twenty-three other families in this
"double-decker." A fire in the house was the oldest Bray girl's nightmare
by night and haunting spectre by day.

Lydia just couldn't get used to these quarters, and they had been here
now three months. The old, quiet home on the edge of town had been so
different. To it she had returned from college so short a time ago to see
her mother die and find their affairs in a state of chaos.

For her father was one of those men who leave everything to the capable
management of their wives. Euphemia, or "'Phemie," was only a schoolgirl,
then, in her junior year at high school; "Lyddy" was a sophomore at
Littleburg when her mother died, and she had never gone back.

She couldn't. There were two very good reasons why her own and even
'Phemie's education had to cease abruptly. Their mother's income, derived
from their grandmother's estate, ceased with her death. They could not
live, let alone pursue education "on the heights," upon Mr. Bray's wages
as overseer in one of the rooms