New Treasure Seekers

By this third and final Bastable book, the family fortunes are comfortably restored, so the six children (Oswald, Dora, Dicky, Alice, Noël, and H.O.) are free to chase adventure for its own sake. Published in 1904, it gathers thirteen loosely linked stories set during holidays and visits to relatives. The youngest, H.O., stows away in a dress basket; well-meant charities such as the conscience-pudding collapse into farce; and the children keep guarding what they call the honour of the House of Bastable. Oswald narrates, forever insisting he only sets down the plain facts while steering each tale toward his own courage and good sense. The comedy lives in the gap between what he claims and what the reader can plainly see happened.