Book excerpt: This is the story of the different ways we looked for treasure, and I think when you have read it you will see that we were not lazy about the looking. This novel, the first in what is often called the "Bastable Saga" begins the story of these six children - Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice, Noel, and Horace Octavius Bastable. When their mother dies and their father's business fails, the children embark on a series of adventures. Says Oswald (the book's narrator) at the start: "I'll tell you what, we must go and seek for treasure: it is always what you do to restore the fallen fortunes of your House."