Trouble comes to Ole Ben’s farm two years after the Williams family take possession of the house and land. The year was 1937 and the USA was still suffering from a Depression. Mother had to have an operation, rains were late arriving to make the crops grow, and a neighbor boy named Spooky was threatening the whole family with a knife, especially Jimmy’s younger sister Millie. It was rumored Ole Ben, who willed these acres to his great niece Sara, had left a mysterious treasure somewhere about the place. Did he? Jimmy’s pets, golden-haired Collie Nero and Nero’s friend, a yellow clay-colored calf named Rosie, always play a major role in the Williams children’s story.