With Father in Washington and Cuffy, their housekeeper, away visiting a sick cousin, almost anything might happen to the Melendy kids left behind at the Four-Story Mistake. In the Melendy family, adventures are inevitable: Mr. Titus and the catfish; Rush's opposition of Opus 3; Mona's first rhubarb pie; Randy's arrowhead; and the auction! But best of all is the friendship with Mark Herron, which begins with a scrap-drive and comes to a grand climax on Oliver's birthday.

Here is Elizabeth Enright's classic story of a long and glorious summer in the country with the resourceful, endearing Melendy bunch.