Company, of which Dick was now
president; Tom, secretary; and Sam, treasurer.

While at Putnam Hall the three Rovers had become acquainted with three
charming girls, Dora Stanhope and her cousins Nellie and Grace Laning.
This acquaintance had ripened into loving intimacy, and when Dick went
into business he had made Dora Stanhope his life-long partner. A short
while after this Tom married Nellie Laning and Sam married Grace.

When first married, Dick and his beautiful wife Dora had begun
housekeeping in a small apartment, but a few years later the three
brothers had purchased a plot of ground on Riverside Drive, overlooking
the Hudson river, and there they had built three handsome houses, Dick
living in the middle house, and Tom on one side and Sam on the other.

Before the young people had moved into the new homes, Dick and Dora
became the proud parents of a little son, who was named John, after Mr.
Laning. The son was followed by a daughter, Martha, so named after her
Great Aunt Martha of Valley Brook Farm, where the older boys had spent
many of their youthful days. Little Jack, as he was called, was a bright
lad with many of the qualities which had made his father so well liked
and so successful in life.

About the time Jack's sister Martha was born, Tom and Nellie Rover came
forward with twin boys, one of whom they named Anderson, after his
grandfather, and the other Randolph, after Uncle Randolph, of Valley
Brook Farm. Andy and Randy, as they were always called for short, were
exceedingly clever and active lads, in this particular being a second
edition of their father. Andy was usually saying things that were more
or less funny, and Randy thought that playing some trick was the finest
thing in the world.

"You can't find fault with those kids, Tom," Dick Rover said more than
once. "They are chips off the old block."

"Well, I suppose they are," Tom Rover would reply, with a twinkle in his
eye. "But if they never do anything that is really mean or harmful, I
won't care."

About the same time the twins were born, Sam and Grace Rover came along
with a beautiful little girl, whom they named Mary, after Mrs. Laning.
Then, a year later, the girl was followed by a sturdy little boy, who
was christened Fred, after Sam Rover's old school chum, Fred Garrison.

Living so close together--the three stone mansions on Riverside Drive
were connected--the younger generation of Rover boys, as well as the
girls, were brough