Summer 1913, and four friends refuse to let their months stretch into dullness. Betty, Grace, Mollie, and Amy form a Camping and Tramping Club, determined to trade their finished schoolbooks for trails, tents, and the thrill of the unknown. As they plan their expedition through the countryside, they discover a mysterious five-hundred-dollar bill attached to a desperate note, and suddenly their adventure deepens from outdoor recreation into genuine suspense. Each girl carries a distinct temperament: Betty's natural leadership, Grace's beauty-conscious vanity, Mollie's quick temper, and Amy's gentle timidity. Together they navigate the complications of friendship, first romantic stirrings, and the question of who needed that money badly enough to abandon it. Written in 1913, this is a fascinating window into early twentieth-century girlhood, when independence meant hiking boots and a pocketknife, when five hundred dollars represented a small fortune, and when the greatest danger was perhaps what lay around the next bend in the trail. The prose is brisk, the friendship warm, and the mystery quietly compelling.
