In spite, however, of the disagreeable and miserly Joseph Peabody, Betty would not have missed her adventures at the farm for anything.  In the first place, she met Bob Henderson there, and a better boy-chum a girl never had than Bob.  Although Bob had been born and brought up in a poorhouse, and at first knew very little about himself and his relatives, even a girl like Betty could see that this “poorhouse rat” as he was slurringly called by Joseph Peabody, possessed natural refinement and a very bright mind.

Betty and Bob became loyal friends, and when Betty, in the second volume, called “Betty Gordon in Washington,” had fairly to run away from Bramble Farm to meet her Uncle Dick in the national capital, badly treated Bob ran away likewise, on the track of somebody who knew about his mother’s relatives.  Betty’s adventures in Washington began with a most astonishing confusion of identities through which she met the Littells—­a charming family consisting of a Mr. Littell, who was likewise an “Uncle Dick”; a motherly Mrs. Littell, who never found young people—­either boys or girls—­troublesome; three delightful sisters named Louise, Roberta, and Esther Littell; and a Cousin Elizabeth Littell, who good-naturedly becomes “Libbie” instead of “Betty” so as not to conflict in anybody’s mind with “Betty” Gordon.

The fun they all had in Washington while Betty waited for the appearance of her real Uncle Dick, especially after Bob Henderson turned up and was likewise adopted for the time being by the Littell family, is detailed to the full in that second story.  And at last both Betty and Bob got news from Oklahoma, where Mr. Richard Gordon was engaged, which set them traveling westward in a great hurry—­Betty to meet Uncle Dick at Flame City and her boy chum hard on the trace of two elusive aunts of his, his mother’s sisters, who appeared to be the only relatives he had in the world.

Betty and Bob discovered the aunts just in time to save them from selling their valuable but unsuspected oil holdings to sharpers, and in “Betty Gordon in the Land of Oil” one of the most satisfactory results that Betty saw accomplished was the selling of the old farm for Bob and his aunts for ninety thousand dollars.

Uncle Dick decided that Betty must go to a good school in the fall, and they chose Shadyside because the Littells and their friends were going there.  Bob, now on a satisfactory financial plane, arranged to attend the Salsette Military Academy which was right across the lake from the girls’ boarding school, Uncle Dick, who was now Bob’s guardian, having advised this.

Hastening back from Oklahoma, while Uncle Dick was called to Canada to examine a promising oil field there, Betty and Bob met the girls and boys they previously got acquainted with in Washington and some other friends, and Betty at least began her boarding school experience with considerable confidence as well as delight.

It was not all plain sailing as subsequent events prove; yet in “Betty Gordon at Boarding School,” the fourth volume of the series, Betty had many; pleasant adventures as well as school trials.  She was particularly interested in the fortunes of Norma and Alice Guerin, who had been Betty’s friends when she was living at Bramble Farm; and it was through Betty’s good offices that great happiness came to the Guerin girls and their parents.