The Margaret Montfort Series

This is seriously one of my favorite series. It was written by Laura E. Richards, the first book being published in 1987 and the last book in 1904. The chronology runs as follows -

Three Margarets
Margaret Montfort
Peggy
Rita
Fernley House
The MerryweathersThe first book, Three Margarets, deals with three cousins, all named Margaret Montfort, who come to spend the summer with their Uncle John, whom they have never met. The three Margarets (called Margaret, Peggy and Rita) have never met each other either - one is from New England, one from the West, and one from Cuba. They spend the summer together at Fernley - Uncle John's home - with their great-aunt Faith, and while they wait for their Uncle John to return home from a trip, they get to know each other.

The second book is called Margaret Montfort. Margaret is with her Uncle John at Fernley, and misses companionship of her own age. Uncle John arranges for three motherless distant cousins to come and stay for a while - Basil, Merton and Susan D. (or Battle, Murder, and Sudden Death, as their father calls them). At the same time, an elderly and persnickety cousin of Uncle John arrives unbidden, determined to keep house for him. This book also introduces Gerald Merryweather - a jolly young man.

The third book is Peggy. Peggy is determined to follow the example of her beloved Margaret by becoming educated, so she goes away to a boarding school. While there whe meets a host of other schoolgirls and must decide whose example to follow. Chief among these girls are the Snowy Owl (Gertrude Merryweather, sister to Gerald), the Fluffy, and the Goat (Grace Wolfe, a scapegoat and somewhat of a fascinating lone wolf).

Anyway, I am absolutely not going to spoil all the books for you by giving a book report on them.  Also, there are a lot of them, and they also connect into the author's Hildegarde series, and I wouldn't know where to stop.  Suffice it to say that Rita has got to be one of my favorite books out of the series, but you must read Three Margarets first.  Well, I suppose you don't have to, because it can stand on it's own well enough, but it's better if you do.

But read them all!  They're all online, and you can find them easily at Gutenberg.  A great series, and one of my favorites!