A young girl, Juanita, runs into Miss Brian's office then to tell her that little Lois Ames has gone missing. After a thorough search does not find the girl Polly goes home to fetch her dog who then traces the little girl up in the attic behind a wall paneling. The girl says she fell asleep in a room and doesn't know how she came to be hidden in the attic. Not wanting Neighborhood House to get any bad publicity that could cause it to struggle more financially Polly asks everyone involved to keep the incident quiet.
On their first day of volunteering Polly and Margot are visited at the house by their wealthy and snobbish friend Catherine Peasley. Catherine's father is the chairman for Neighborhood House and after hearing about Polly and Margot volunteering he makes Catherine volunteer as well. Miss Brian is very excited about this because she hopes it it will influence Mr. Peasley into giving the house more funding.
The following day Polly is to run a gym class at the house however before the class starts a young boy named Jimmy falls from the gymnastic bars and breaks his arm. Polly runs him to the doctor's office and as she sits in the waiting room she replays the incident in her mind. The way in which Jimmy fell makes her believe the gymnastic bar had been loose. After Jimmy is patched up she goes back to the gym to examine the bars but they're gone. After questioning around the janitor tells Polly he had sold the bars to a junk man. This seems very strange and suspicious.
The following morning Polly arrives at the house to find Miss Brian crying over a newspaper. An article has been written about Lois and Jimmy's incidents and calls for a full investigation of Neighborhood House and Miss Brian.
After Polly sees another article in the paper talking about the recent birthday party for 90-year-old resident, Mrs. Heiserling, she decides to pay her a visit and see if she can give any information on who Dr. Brighton's next of kin is. The elderly women tells Polly that Dr. Brighton had a large collection of valuables including jade, gold, and crystal objects. He left them to his wife in his will but she was never able to find them. Polly excitedly returns to Neighborhood House to tell Margot about this missing treasure.
The girls are overheard by a little boy named Amity and Polly covers up by saying the treasure refers to a treasure hunt Neighborhood House is going to throw for the kids. This is overheard by Catherine who takes control of the idea. She plans out an elaborate night time treasure hunt with rhyming clues and sets the locations as the old quarry, the filling station, the shot tower, and the loading dock of her father's factory.
Polly is concerned that these locations are not safe for children, that the children shouldn't be running around town at night, and that the rhymes will be too hard for the younger children to figure out. But Catherine uses her father's position as director of the board to intimidate Polly into accepting her plans.
However Polly secretly works with Miss Brian to protect the 80 children who sign up for the hunt; the children will work in assigned groups of five, Polly and Margot will check into each location to make sure the children are safe, and the police chief will have the busy road in front of the filling station temporarily blocked off. Catherine is angered over these decisions but as they're announced last minute she can not have them changed.
The treasure hunt is going well until Amity's group is somehow given the wrong clue and heads to later location before all the other groups, this being the shot tower. Polly arrives just in time as Amity falls from the tower into some water. He is fine but Polly worries about this being more bad publicity. She has the children in Amity's group agree not to tell anyone of the incident.
After the hunt is over Polly heads to the newspaper office to ask the editor about the articles he's been writing about Neighborhood House. He informs her he's already received a tip off call about what happened to Amity and is writing another article. Polly explains the whole situation to him and he agrees to change his exposé on the suspected mismanagement of the house into a feature story about the treasure hunt.
The next morning Margot proposes an idea to get good publicity for the house; throw an operetta staring the children to raise money for a sick young boy named Joe. Miss Brian calls in her friend Grace Ellis who will work as the director of the show.
Polly submits an article to the newspaper about the show which is how Catherine finds out about it. She is livid that she wasn't included and storms over to Neighborhood House and screams at Grace, saying that if she, Catherine, is not made director and given control of the show then she will have her father interfere with the house. Grace doesn't pay Catherine's threats any mind however.
The night of the show runs smoothly except for the disappearance of Nina, the shows lead. She's no where to be found and Amity has to take her part which turns out to be a huge hit with the audience. After the show Polly, Margot, Grace, and Miss Brian are headed to the police station to report Nina missing when they see the doctor's car parked at Catherine's house. Once inside they find out Catherine had struck Nina with her car and brought the girl to her house to recuperate. Catherine becomes quite angry when she finds out the show went on without Nina.
The next day Polly is summoned by the newspaper editor to meet him at Neighborhood House. There she meets his friend, Mr. Lemly who is a movie producer. He saw the show last night and is interested in taking a screen test of Amity. The boy is called and they film him performing his numbers from the show. Both men head to Chicago to have the film developed and viewed.
The next morning Polly finds an article in the newspaper recounting how the police were not contacted when Nina disappeared. The newspaper editor calls from Chicago to tell Polly that the article was unknowingly published by one of his men and he fully supports Neighborhood House's success. He also lets her know that Amity's screentest was a huge success.
Polly and Margot discuss the House's sudden unlucky streak and decide someone must be trying to sabotage it. Polly believes it might be Dr. Brighton unknown next of kin who wants the house to search for the missing treasure. The girls then decide to search it themselves. The begin on the lowest floor which is the gymnasium. While tapping on the walls they discover a hollow spot and begin chiseling the stone out when Catherine walks in and yells that she's going to tell her father what they're doing and runs out. Not wanting the Peaslys to find the treasure Polly moves a rack of exercise equipment in front of the area than chisels the wall six feet away to create a red herring.
The girls immediately leave and come back the next day to find Miss Brian has been instructed to ban the two girls from entering the house. She says she going to put in her resignation but Polly tells her to wait for three days and she will have everything fixed.
However Polly secretly works with Miss Brian to protect the 80 children who sign up for the hunt; the children will work in assigned groups of five, Polly and Margot will check into each location to make sure the children are safe, and the police chief will have the busy road in front of the filling station temporarily blocked off. Catherine is angered over these decisions but as they're announced last minute she can not have them changed.
The treasure hunt is going well until Amity's group is somehow given the wrong clue and heads to later location before all the other groups, this being the shot tower. Polly arrives just in time as Amity falls from the tower into some water. He is fine but Polly worries about this being more bad publicity. She has the children in Amity's group agree not to tell anyone of the incident.
After the hunt is over Polly heads to the newspaper office to ask the editor about the articles he's been writing about Neighborhood House. He informs her he's already received a tip off call about what happened to Amity and is writing another article. Polly explains the whole situation to him and he agrees to change his exposé on the suspected mismanagement of the house into a feature story about the treasure hunt.
The next morning Margot proposes an idea to get good publicity for the house; throw an operetta staring the children to raise money for a sick young boy named Joe. Miss Brian calls in her friend Grace Ellis who will work as the director of the show.
Polly submits an article to the newspaper about the show which is how Catherine finds out about it. She is livid that she wasn't included and storms over to Neighborhood House and screams at Grace, saying that if she, Catherine, is not made director and given control of the show then she will have her father interfere with the house. Grace doesn't pay Catherine's threats any mind however.
The night of the show runs smoothly except for the disappearance of Nina, the shows lead. She's no where to be found and Amity has to take her part which turns out to be a huge hit with the audience. After the show Polly, Margot, Grace, and Miss Brian are headed to the police station to report Nina missing when they see the doctor's car parked at Catherine's house. Once inside they find out Catherine had struck Nina with her car and brought the girl to her house to recuperate. Catherine becomes quite angry when she finds out the show went on without Nina.
The next day Polly is summoned by the newspaper editor to meet him at Neighborhood House. There she meets his friend, Mr. Lemly who is a movie producer. He saw the show last night and is interested in taking a screen test of Amity. The boy is called and they film him performing his numbers from the show. Both men head to Chicago to have the film developed and viewed.
The next morning Polly finds an article in the newspaper recounting how the police were not contacted when Nina disappeared. The newspaper editor calls from Chicago to tell Polly that the article was unknowingly published by one of his men and he fully supports Neighborhood House's success. He also lets her know that Amity's screentest was a huge success.
Polly and Margot discuss the House's sudden unlucky streak and decide someone must be trying to sabotage it. Polly believes it might be Dr. Brighton unknown next of kin who wants the house to search for the missing treasure. The girls then decide to search it themselves. The begin on the lowest floor which is the gymnasium. While tapping on the walls they discover a hollow spot and begin chiseling the stone out when Catherine walks in and yells that she's going to tell her father what they're doing and runs out. Not wanting the Peaslys to find the treasure Polly moves a rack of exercise equipment in front of the area than chisels the wall six feet away to create a red herring.
The girls immediately leave and come back the next day to find Miss Brian has been instructed to ban the two girls from entering the house. She says she going to put in her resignation but Polly tells her to wait for three days and she will have everything fixed.
Polly then visits Mrs. Heiserling who tells her Dr. Brighton next of kin was a troublesome nephew named Peter Brighton who took off to Florida after a falling out with his uncle. Polly and Margot sneak into the house that night to search for the treasure but have to flee almost immediately when they hear the janitor messing around in Miss Brian's office.
The next day Miss Brian calls the girls back to the house and asks them to help her. The board has asked her for a report of every expenditure over the last 20 years and it's too large a job for Miss Brian to handle alone, especially since someone has messed with her files. They get to work but suddenly Polly runs off to make a long distance call. When she returns Catherine and Mr. Peasly arrive baring hammers and chiseled and go straight to the gym and start working on removing the stone.
The next day Miss Brian calls the girls back to the house and asks them to help her. The board has asked her for a report of every expenditure over the last 20 years and it's too large a job for Miss Brian to handle alone, especially since someone has messed with her files. They get to work but suddenly Polly runs off to make a long distance call. When she returns Catherine and Mr. Peasly arrive baring hammers and chiseled and go straight to the gym and start working on removing the stone.
Polly calls the newspaper editor, the mayor, and all the members of the city council and the house board and summons them there as witnesses to the discovery of the treasure. She then confronts Mr. Peasly, addressing him by his birth name of Peter Brighton, and reminds him that the treasure is currently the property of Neighborhood House. The Peaslys are helpless to steal the valuables with so many men of power present so they slip out as Polly, the editor, and the mayor discover the cache of jewels, gold, and jade.
After a celebratory dinner Polly, Margot, Miss Brian, and the editor go to Mrs. Heiserling to share the story and she says her talks with Polly have inspired her to donate her house as a Neighborhood House for her part of the town.
- This book is a rarity in that it has a large cast of minorities and a black supporting character. Amity is an African American boy and he is described as the most talented of all the children, as having a "brilliant grin which makes him one of the favorites of everyone at the community house", and he gets the screen test and becomes a movie actor.
After a celebratory dinner Polly, Margot, Miss Brian, and the editor go to Mrs. Heiserling to share the story and she says her talks with Polly have inspired her to donate her house as a Neighborhood House for her part of the town.
- This book is a rarity in that it has a large cast of minorities and a black supporting character. Amity is an African American boy and he is described as the most talented of all the children, as having a "brilliant grin which makes him one of the favorites of everyone at the community house", and he gets the screen test and becomes a movie actor.
It's also interesting to see bigotry is used as one of Catherine's evil characteristics. She is introduced as berating her "colored" servants, something she does often, and when she first appears at Neighborhood House she pulls her skirt away so it won't touch the Mexican children.
- When Nina goes missing they wait an extra hour and a half before considering reporting it to the police because they don't want it to ruin the show. They then decide to search for another hour before mentioning the police again. Miss Brian says they should keep looking themselves cause it'll look careless that they took so long to report it. Maybe Miss Brian does need to be investigated.
- Catherine is similar to Victoria from Betty Baxter's other book, Becky Bryan's Secret, in that she could very possibly be a sociopath. She seems to have no kindness for anyone besides herself and even goes so far as to hit a child with her car to get her way. I'm very curious what would have become of her after the story ends.
- I like the fact that Polly and Margot want to be social workers and that's why they volunteer at the house. I think that's an interesting career goal. A lot of these books have girls wanting to have more glamorous careers.
Overall I think this is quite good. I really like Betty Baxter's writing because she knew how to keep things moving and there's never any boring spots or places it drags. I think the premise, location, and characters are fun and unique. Baxter wrote a number of books which I look forward to reading some day.
- When Nina goes missing they wait an extra hour and a half before considering reporting it to the police because they don't want it to ruin the show. They then decide to search for another hour before mentioning the police again. Miss Brian says they should keep looking themselves cause it'll look careless that they took so long to report it. Maybe Miss Brian does need to be investigated.
- Catherine is similar to Victoria from Betty Baxter's other book, Becky Bryan's Secret, in that she could very possibly be a sociopath. She seems to have no kindness for anyone besides herself and even goes so far as to hit a child with her car to get her way. I'm very curious what would have become of her after the story ends.
- I like the fact that Polly and Margot want to be social workers and that's why they volunteer at the house. I think that's an interesting career goal. A lot of these books have girls wanting to have more glamorous careers.
Overall I think this is quite good. I really like Betty Baxter's writing because she knew how to keep things moving and there's never any boring spots or places it drags. I think the premise, location, and characters are fun and unique. Baxter wrote a number of books which I look forward to reading some day.
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