As Beany Malone read the postcards from

her vacationing friends, she dreamed of go-

ing away on a trip herself. But it looked as

if Beany would have to spend her vacation

at home on Barberry Street with her brother

Johnny and her small nephew, Martie.

Then a letter from California gave Beany

the chance she wanted--a chance to take a

trip and, even more important, a chance to

show Norbett Rhodes, whose charm brace-

let she wore, that Beany Malone could have

fun without him.

The plan seemed simple enough: Beany

and Johnny were to drive Martie home tO

his parents in California. But "things are

always happening to the Malones." E,ven

before they left their home in Denver, they

found themselves accompanied by a "paying

guest," who paid in food instead ot~.the cash-

mlcumbered_._

by a horse who dined on two gallons of oats

each day. Once on the road, they found that

their small supply of money dwindled at an

alarming rate. And Beany s efforts to forget

all about Norbett succeed only in making

her more and more aware of her fondness for

him, and more and more resentful toward

the beautiful, scheming Cynthia who

seemed to have annexed him permanently.

Beany s father had said that any trip was

wasted unless you came back a different and

bigger person, and the truth of those words

comes to life in this story about the lively,

unpredictable, and completely lovable

Malones.