From small beginnings, it grows rapidly, enjoying all sorts of exciting adventures and mishaps.

    When the thief turns out to be not only a pupil at the Compton School where Dorothy is a new girl, but also her chief rival for the much coveted Lamb Bursary, Dorothy's high sense of honour does not allow her to reveal what she knows. Many are the trials and tribulations that follow, some of them due to her irresponsible brother Tom, but Dorothy eventually triumphs over all.

    Her mother is in Canada with relatives, Val is boarding one Mrs Wilby, an unpleasant old schoolfriend of her mother's, and the other new girl in the Fifth is so spoilt that she creates difficulties for everyone. This is the first book in the Myra Dakin pair.

    Fifteen-year-old Barbara has longed for boarding school and has finally persuaded her parents to let her attend the San Madero School in San Diego.

    

    

    Set there on the edge of the Downs, protected from the Channel gales by its 'Old Line' of firs, the school and its legends of rooks and a missing ruby filled Peggy's days with companionship and new adventure.