“Yes,” said Mrs. Arnold. “We must all go back to a proper home, and you must go to school, my dears. You have been very brave and very clever - and very happy, too - and now you can have a lovely home with us, and we will all be happy together.”
“But what about Jack?” asked Nora, at once.
“Jack is ours, too,” said Mrs. Arnold. “I am sure his grandfather will be glad for us to have him for always. He shall have me for his mother, and your father shall be his, too! We will all be one big family!”
Jack wanted to say such a lot but he couldn’t say a single word. It was very strange. His face just went red with joy, and he held Nora’s hand so tightly that he hurt her without meaning to. He was just about the happiest boy in the world at that moment.
“Mummy, I shall so hate leaving our dear, dear island,” said Nora. “And Willow House, too - and our cosy cave and the bubbling spring - and everything.”
“I think I might be able to buy the island for you,” said Daddy. “Then, in the holidays you can always come here and run wild and live by yourselves if you want to. It shall be your very own.”
“Oh, Daddy!” shouted the children, in delight. “We shan’t mind going to school and being proper and living in a house if we’ve got the island to go back to in the holidays! Oh, what fun it will be!”
“But I think you must leave it now and come back home for Christmas,” said Mrs. Arnold. “We have our own old home to go back to - you remember it, don’t you? Don’t you think it would be nice to have Christmas there - and a Christmas pudding - and crackers - and stockings full of presents?”
“Yes, yes, yes!” shouted all the children.
“It’s just what I longed for!” said Nora.