The Kilroys #18

When Pointfalls High School holds a charity dance where girls pay to attend and draw boys' names from a fishbowl to ensure no one sits out, the scheme sets off a chain reaction of trades, mix-ups, and regrets among the Kilroy kids and their classmates. As the evening approaches, one lost ticket and a series of last-minute swaps threaten to upend everyone's plans, leaving the dancers scrambling to figure out who's actually going with whom.

Wilbur Morton schemes to break up Natch Kilroy and his steady girl Judy by snapping a candid photo of Natch with another girl—but when his camera work repeatedly fails, he turns to a trick: a composite photo showing Natch with a beautiful stranger. When Judy receives the doctored picture in the mail, Natch has to prove his innocence and expose Wilbur's photographic con before he can win back his girl's trust.

When two teenage boys find a purse stuffed with cash meant for the class dance, they wrestle with whether to keep it or do the right thing—only to discover that honesty, it seems, comes with an unexpected twist. Written with plenty of teenage scheming and wisecracks, "Honesty Is the Best Policy!" is a fun little lesson in character that doesn't quite land the way the boys hoped.

When a phone company representative shows up at the Kilroys' house with orders to disconnect their line—thanks to complaints from neighbors about the kids monopolizing the party line—the family bands together to keep him from finding it. As Mr. Lugg searches the house and waits for the phone to ring, the kids devise a clever plan involving some old toy phones and a well-timed call that nearly gets their unwitting visitor fired. It's a playful battle of wits between a stubborn official and a resourceful household determined to outsmart him.

When Natch's friend Jackson drags him to the dentist's office, things spiral into comical chaos as patients endure the whirring drill and the dentist's no-nonsense style. What starts as a simple appointment becomes a test of nerve—and a reminder that not everyone's as fearless about the chair as they claim to be. It's a lighthearted romp through the waiting room terrors that had readers laughing back in 1949.