One to Make Ready

But when twelve-year-old Minta, at the end of the spring term, came face to face with the dismal prospect of going away to school that very fall -- in Hardwick, all of ten miles away! -- she was rebelliou. She NEVER wanted to leave the place and the people she loved so dearly; and she was especially troubled by a little nibbling fear that her place at home might be taken by the new baby her mother and father were expecting in September.

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley understood their daughter, and couldn't have been more affectionate and reassuring; and old Auntie Joe, who lived with them, showed just the right mixture of common sense and sympathy. So by the time the "summer people" began to arrive, Minta was ready -- almost -- to forget her troubles. It was such fun to have her friends from Boston, Lucy and Jane, back again! No day was long enough, however, for all the things they found to do together: helping Bud Fernald to haul lobster traps, camping out on an offshore island, dressing up for the Firemen's Ball, and -- best of all -- playing wonderful games of make-believe in a secret cave.

It was partly through the "rescue" of the cave's mysterious inhabitant that Minta learned a great deal about people, and about what growing up really means. And by the end of a wonderfully eventful summer she had come to understand, too, that even with its occasional troubles, life is "full of wonderful good things."