"There's only one thing I know," Mother said grimly. "You and Patsy are going to be bobbed and banged."

This sounded awful to Patsy, but Joan explained to her and to all the other Mitchell children that it only meant that Mother was going to cut their hair short to save time. And Mother—affectionate and busy, anything but grim, really—was being very sensible. For it was a hot summer in wartime Washington. Daddy had gone off to join his ship, leaving the rest of the Mitchell family to their own devices in a rambling old house with an interesting backyard. The only thing he had forbidden them to do was acquire a pet dog, which complicated matters somewhat.

A shed belonging to "The White Elephant," an empty house next door, at first provided excellent headquarters for the children's War Work Club, and it was not until the house was taken by a rich lady with a bully of a son and a sad little refugee orphan girl from England that the Mitchells fully realized that not all children nowadays are completely happy.

This rich and colorful story concerns what the Mitchells did about it, in the affectionate, typically American way, and, in addition to its warm, human appeal, clearly reflects the spirit of the times.

From the dust jacket