“We’d better get a proper boat,” said Jack. “Our old boat is a leaky old thing now.”

It wasn’t long before a car was brought round to the door, and Jack, Captain and Mrs. Arnold were motoring to the lakeside. They hired a big boat from a fisherman there, and set off to the secret island. Jack wondered and wondered what the children would say!

Meanwhile the three children were getting more and more worried! It was past tea-time now, and getting dark. Where could Jack be?

“I can hear the splash of oars!” cried Peggy at last. They ran down to the beach, and saw the outline of the boat in the twilight coming near to the island. And then Mike saw that it was a bigger boat than their own - and there were three people in it, instead of one!

“That means Jack’s been caught - and these people have been sent to get us!” he thought, and his heart sank. But then, to his amazement, he heard Jack’s clear voice ringing out over the darkening water.

“Mike! Peggy! Nora! It’s all right! I’ve brought a Christmas present for you!”

The three children stared. Whatever could Jack mean? But when the boat landed, and Captain and Mrs. Arnold sprang out, they soon knew!

“Mummy! Oh, Mummy! And Daddy!” shrieked the children, and flung themselves at their father and mother. You couldn’t tell which were children and which were grown-ups, because they were all so mixed up. Only Jack was alone. He stood apart, looking at them - but not for long. Nora stretched out her hand and pulled him into the crowd of excited, happy people.

“You belong, too, Jack,” she said.

Everyone seemed to be laughing and crying at the same time. But at last it was so dark that no one could see anyone else. Jack lighted the lantern that Mike had brought down to the beach, and led the way to the cave. He badly wanted Captain and Mrs. Arnold to see how lovely it was.

They all crowded inside. There was a bright fire crackling just outside, and the cave was warm and cosy. Jack hung the lantern up and placed two wooden stools for the children’s parents. Peggy flew to heat some milk, and put out rolls of bread and some potted meat she had been saving up for Christmas. She did so want her mother to see how nicely she could do things, even though they all lived in a cave!

“What a lovely home!” said Mrs. Arnold, as she looked round and saw the shelves, the stools, the table, the beds, and everything. The cave was very neat and tidy, and looked so cosy and friendly. How they all talked! How they jumped up and down and laughed and told first this thing and then the other! Only one thing made Captain and Mrs. Arnold angry - and that was the tale of how unkind Aunt Harriet and Uncle Henry had been.

“They shall be punished,” said Captain Arnold, and that was all he said about them.

Daisy chose to moo loudly that night, and Captain Arnold laughed till the tears came into his eyes when he heard about the night that poor Daisy had had to swim behind the boat to the island! And when he heard how she had mooed and frightened away the people who had come to look for them, he laughed still more!

“Somebody will have to write a book about your adventures.” he said. “I never in my life heard anything like them. We didn’t have such thrilling adventures on our island! We just lived with the native people there till a boat picked us up! Very dull indeed!”

Jack disappeared at that moment, and when he came back he carried a great load of heather. He flung it down in a corner.

“You’ll stay with us to-night, won’t you, Captain?” he said. “We’d love to have you. Please do.”

“Of course!” said Captain Arnold. And Mrs. Arnold nodded her dark head. “We will all be together in the cave," she said. “Then we shall share a bit of your secret island, children, and know what it is like.”

So that night the children had visitors! They all fell asleep on their heather beds at last, happy, excited, and very tired. What fun to wake up to-morrow with their own father and mother beside them!

Mike awoke first in the morning. He sat up and remembered everything. There were his father and mother, fast asleep on their heathery bed in the corner of the cave! It was true then - he hadn’t dreamt it all! They were alive and well, and had got their children again - everything was lovely.

Mike crept out to light the fire. He could not possibly go to sleep again. The day was just creeping in at the cave entrance. The sky was a very pale blue, and the sun was trying to break through a thin mist in the east. It was going to be fine!

When the fire was crackling merrily everyone woke up. Nora flung herself on her mother, for she could not believe she really had a mother again, and had to keep hugging her and feeling her. Soon the cave was filled with talk and laughter.

Peggy and Nora got the breakfast. Mike showed his father the inner cave and their stores. Jack flew off to milk Daisy. The hens clucked outside, and Nora fetched in four brown eggs.

Fish from Jack’s line, eggs, rolls, the rest of the potted meat, and a tin of peaches made a fine breakfast, washed down with hot tea. The fire died down and the sunshine came in at the cave entrance. Everyone went outside to see what sort of a day it was.

The lake sparkled blue below. The bare trees swung gently in the breeze. Nora told her mother all about the wild raspberries and strawberries and nuts, and Peggy chattered about the seeds they had planted, and the baskets they could make.

And then Captain Arnold said, “Well, I think it’s about time we were going.”

The children looked up at him. “Going! What do you mean, Daddy? Leave our island?”

“My dears,” said Captain Arnold, “you can’t live here always - besides, there is no need for you to, now. You are not runaways any more. You are our own children that we love, and we must have you with us.”

“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.

“I was going to buy you some red crackers yesterday, Nora,” said Jack, "but I heard the great news before I had bought anything!”

“You shall all have red crackers!” said Captain Arnold, with a laugh. “Now, what about getting off in the boat?”