{"product_id":"2940013850750","title":"THE STORY OF THE TREASURE SEEKERS","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     1.  The Council of Ways and Means\u003cbr\u003e     2.  Digging for Treasure\u003cbr\u003e     3.  Being Detectives\u003cbr\u003e     4.  Good Hunting\u003cbr\u003e     5.  The Poet and the Editor\u003cbr\u003e     6.  Noel's Princess\u003cbr\u003e     7.  Being Bandits\u003cbr\u003e     8.  Being Editors\u003cbr\u003e     9.  The G. B.\u003cbr\u003e     10. Lord Tottenham\u003cbr\u003e     11. Castilian Amoroso\u003cbr\u003e     12. The Nobleness of Oswald\u003cbr\u003e     13. The Robber and the Burglar\u003cbr\u003e     14. The Divining-rod\u003cbr\u003e     15. 'Lo, the Poor Indian!'\u003cbr\u003e     16. The End of the Treasure-seeking\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER 1. THE COUNCIL OF WAYS AND MEANS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is the story of the different ways we looked for treasure, and I\u003cbr\u003ethink when you have read it you will see that we were not lazy about the\u003cbr\u003elooking.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere are some things I must tell before I begin to tell about the\u003cbr\u003etreasure-seeking, because I have read books myself, and I know how\u003cbr\u003ebeastly it is when a story begins, \"'Alas!\" said Hildegarde with a deep\u003cbr\u003esigh, \"we must look our last on this ancestral home\"'--and then some one\u003cbr\u003eelse says something--and you don't know for pages and pages where the\u003cbr\u003ehome is, or who Hildegarde is, or anything about it. Our ancestral home\u003cbr\u003eis in the Lewisham Road. It is semi-detached and has a garden, not a\u003cbr\u003elarge one. We are the Bastables. There are six of us besides Father. Our\u003cbr\u003eMother is dead, and if you think we don't care because I don't tell you\u003cbr\u003emuch about her you only show that you do not understand people at all.\u003cbr\u003eDora is the eldest. Then Oswald--and then Dicky. Oswald won the Latin\u003cbr\u003eprize at his preparatory school--and Dicky is good at sums. Alice\u003cbr\u003eand Noel are twins: they are ten, and Horace Octavius is my youngest\u003cbr\u003ebrother. It is one of us that tells this story--but I shall not tell you\u003cbr\u003ewhich: only at the very end perhaps I will. While the story is going\u003cbr\u003eon you may be trying to guess, only I bet you don't. It was Oswald\u003cbr\u003ewho first thought of looking for treasure. Oswald often thinks of very\u003cbr\u003einteresting things. And directly he thought of it he did not keep it\u003cbr\u003eto himself, as some boys would have done, but he told the others, and\u003cbr\u003esaid--\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I'll tell you what, we must go and seek for treasure: it is always what\u003cbr\u003eyou do to restore the fallen fortunes of your House.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDora said it was all very well. She often says that. She was trying to\u003cbr\u003emend a large hole in one of Noel's stockings. He tore it on a nail when\u003cbr\u003ewe were playing shipwrecked mariners on top of the chicken-house the day\u003cbr\u003eH. O. fell off and cut his chin: he has the scar still. Dora is the only\u003cbr\u003eone of us who ever tries to mend anything. Alice tries to make things\u003cbr\u003esometimes. Once she knitted a red scarf for Noel because his chest\u003cbr\u003eis delicate, but it was much wider at one end than the other, and he\u003cbr\u003ewouldn't wear it. So we used it as a pennon, and it did very well,\u003cbr\u003ebecause most of our things are black or grey since Mother died; and\u003cbr\u003escarlet was a nice change. Father does not like you to ask for new\u003cbr\u003ethings. That was one way we had of knowing that the fortunes of the\u003cbr\u003eancient House of Bastable were really fallen. Another way was that there\u003cbr\u003ewas no more pocket-money--except a penny now and then to the little\u003cbr\u003eones, and people did not come to dinner any more, like they used to,\u003cbr\u003ewith pretty dresses, driving up in cabs--and the carpets got holes in\u003cbr\u003ethem--and when the legs came off things they were not sent to be mended,\u003cbr\u003eand we gave _up_ having the gardener except for the front garden, and\u003cbr\u003enot that very often. And the silver in the big oak plate-chest that is\u003cbr\u003elined with green baize all went away to the shop to have the dents\u003cbr\u003eand scratches taken out of it, and it never came back. We think Father\u003cbr\u003ehadn't enough money to pay the silver man for taking out the dents and\u003cbr\u003escratches. The new spoons and forks were yellowy-white, and not so heavy\u003cbr\u003eas the old ones, and they never shone after the first day or two.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFather was very ill after Mother died; and while he was ill his\u003cbr\u003ebusiness-partner went to Spain--and there was never much money\u003cbr\u003eafterwards. I don't know why. Then the servants left and there was only\u003cbr\u003eone, a General. A great deal of your comfort and happiness depends on\u003cbr\u003ehaving a good General. The last but one was nice: she used to make jolly\u003cbr\u003egood currant puddings for us, and let us have the dish on the floor\u003cbr\u003eand pretend it was a wild boar we were killing with our forks. But the\u003cbr\u003eGeneral we have now nearly always makes sago puddings, and they are\u003cbr\u003ethe watery kind, and you cannot pretend anything with them, not even\u003cbr\u003eislands, like you do with porridge.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47147647500528,"sku":"2940013850750","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013850750_p0.jpg?v=1763595515","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013850750","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}