One day when his friend Davey is sick, Foster secretly follows them to Gone-Away Lake. The cousins readily set to work and make one of the attics habitable. Minnie and Pindar eventually suggest they make a clubhouse in the attic of one of the empty houses. Julian and Portia keep their discovery a secret but visit their new friends every day. Pindar gives the children directions to a path that will take them back to the main road. Minnie and Pindar warn the children not to risk crossing the swamp again, as there is an area called The Gulper that acts as quicksand. Although Minnie grows most of their food in her garden, Pindar drives an old motorcar into town once a month to pick up additional supplies. The siblings restored enough of two houses on either side of town so that they could live comfortably. No one did until Minnie and Pindar, in their old age, decided to take up residence there. The houses were boarded up, with all their furniture left inside them, because families thought they might one day return. After a dam was built, the water drained away, and now the area is known as Gone-Away Lake. The elderly siblings used to spend every summer in the area, when the swamp was Tarrigo Lake. They search a little longer and meet Minnehaha Cheever and her brother, Pindar Payton. Afraid they may have stumbled on a ghost town, Portia begs to leave, but Julian calms her long enough to hear a voice from a television. Before they can figure out the mystery of who would try and boat in a place with no lake, they see a deserted row of houses. They come across a swamp with a rowboat in it. The cousins continue to explore the woods and eventually become lost. Portia’s hopes for wealth are dashed when Julian reminds her that if the boulder were a real philosopher’s stone, the penknives they’d used to scrape off the moss would have turned to gold. Julian translates two of the words as Philosopher’s Stone and excitedly explains that such a stone was believed to turn things into gold. They find a giant boulder with Latin words inscribed on it. Julian and Portia pack a picnic lunch and set out to explore the woods.
The morning after their arrival, Foster makes friends with Davey, a neighbor boy who enjoys playing make believe as much as Foster does. Not only do Portia and Foster travel alone for the first time, but they get to stay in their relatives’ new home in the country.
They enjoy spending the summer with their Uncle Jake, Aunt Hilda and 12-year-old cousin, Julian. They are on their annual trip to visit their relatives, which is a highlight for the siblings. Eleven-year-old Portia Blake and her brother, Foster, 6, are excited to be traveling alone on a train.
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