When we were poor but honest we always used to think that if only Father had plenty of business, and we did not have to go short of pocket money and wear shabby clothes (I don't mind this myself, but the girls do), we should be happy and very, very good." In this second novel of the Bastables, the family fortune has been restored, but the children can't seem to help getting into adventures and trouble. The children are eventually banished to the country, where they form the society of the Would-Be-Good to aid all of mankind and themselves in the bargain.