It was Oswald who first thought of looking for treasure. Oswald often thinks of very interesting things. And directly he thought of it, he did not keep it to himself, as some boys would have done, but he told the others, and said, " 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."
This is the first time that the "narrator" is so blatantly biased towards Oswald and therefore first time the reader is able to guess the identity of the narrator. Oswald does have a rather high opinion of his own brilliance and definitely views himself as the brains behind the Bastable children's adventures. This is also the pivotal moment in the novel in that it is the moment in which the children agree to become treasure seekers and therefore the decision upon which all of the adventures that the reader is told about is triggered by.
Father was very ill after Mother died, and while he was ill his business partner went to Spain. I don't know why.
This is an important quote for two reasons; firstly, it is one of the few times that the devastating effect on the children's father that was caused by their mother's death. The illness that is mentioned is most likely depression and although their father seems to be keeping the proverbial British "stiff upper lip" in front of the children with regard to finances, this quote lets the reader know that losing his wife hit him so hard that even he was unable to hide his feelings or carry on as normal.
The second factor that is important in this quote is that this is really the only time that the fall in the fortunes of the house of Bastable is explained. The children, seeing people through rose colored spectacles, as children are prone to do, merely know that their father's business partner took an unexplained, and seemingly open-ended, trip to Spain whilst their father was sick. The reader infers from this observation that the business partner fled to Spain with all of the business's money, fleecing their father, and causing him to have plenty of debt and no savings or income, or business with which to provide either.
Think how flat it would have been if the Uncle had said, when we first gave him the one and threepence farthing, "Oh, I don't want your dirty one and threepence. I'm very rich indeed." Instead of which he saved up the news of his wealth til Christmas and then told us all in one glorious burst. Besides, I can't help it if it is like Dickens, because it happened this way. Real life is often something like books.
The children are shocked to find out that far from being a "poor Indian", their Indian Uncle is in fact gloriously wealthy, but the surprise of this is almost better to them than the news itself. By keeping up the pretense of being poor he was able to see the children for the goodhearted, kind souls they really are, giving him the last of their money even though they have barely anything themselves. The news of his wealth was like an additional Christmas present. Having spent a large part of the novel trying to create a Dickensian happy ending for his siblings and himself, Oswald is now concerned that the reader will be a little bit skeptical about the happy ending, and although apologetic for this, reaffirms that this is what really happened, and that actually, life mirrors art more often than one would think.
