A comical tale, in a continuing series, about an eleven-year-old boy growing up in New York City in the early 1960s. In this installment, young Jeff Greenaway is sent away to Ponsonby Hall, a boarding school for screw-ups deep in the New Hampshire woods. He is soon set upon by a bullying gang of the oldest boys who call themselves the Ancients. It appears that they actually run the joint. Not even old Doc Stilgoe, Ponsy's headmaster, can help him. A triumph of style and humorous story-telling.