"My father was in the English navy; and my old mother, who is yet alive, has a house of her own in the town! It's only through my having married a French wife that has took me over here along with the Parlyvoos!" "How strange!" exclaimed Bob.

"Why, we went to see only the other day a Mrs Craddock, who has a daughter who's very ill, that my aunt Polly goes to see; and she told us she had a son married to a French girl and he was living at Saint Malo!" "Why, that's me!" cried Jacques; although "Jacques" no longer to us.
"I'm Jim Craddock, and the old lady that you saw is my mother! My word! this is a rum start!" After the curious coincidence of Bob and Dick being rescued by the son of "the old egg-woman," as they always called her, between whom and themselves Rover had in the original instance scraped an acquaintance, nothing would content Jim Craddock but that he must bear up at once for Portsmouth, and restore Bob and Dick to those who bewailed them as lost, as well as return the battered little yacht, which the lugger had in tow astern, to her proper owner.
The meeting between Bob and his parents is too sacred a matter to touch upon here; but, it is easy enough to imagine the delight of those welcoming one coming back to them as it were from the dead; Dick, too, being received like another son.
As for Nellie, her joy was so great at beholding again her brother Bob, whom she loved so dearly, that she laughed till she cried and then fainted; while, on her recovery, she laughed and cried again, though she did not faint a second time! But, you should only have seen Rover when he saw his young master.
Sarah, "the good Sarah," said that she would never forget "the way in which that there dog went on as long as she lived!" Of course, it can be well understood that there were no ill-feelings between Bob and the retriever anent the desertion of the latter from the cutter on the day of the boys' terribly punished escapade; though, the mystery of the dog's swimming ashore so strangely on that memorable occasion, it may be mentioned here, was never cleared up! The Captain, it must be said, behaved much more unconcernedly than Rover.
"By Jove! I told you they'd turn up all right!" said he, chuckling away at such a rate that he could hardly stop to get out the next words.

"I always told you so, didn't I ma'am--now, didn't I ?" "My gracious goodness, Cap'en Dresser, why you were the first to give them up!" cried Mrs Gilmour laughing.

"Sure, I never did see such a man!" At this the Captain chuckled still more; and he then told Dick, whom every one was as glad almost to see amongst them again as they were to see Bob, that he intended, when he got strong enough, to send him into the navy so as to prevent him from going to sea again! After a few days' rest, in order to recuperate from the effects of the strain on all their nerves, Bob's father said they must all go back to town, their holiday limit being at length reached.
Bob and Nellie, on this intimation, began a round of leave-taking which would well-nigh have consumed another long holiday, to have been carried out in accordance with their intention; for they wanted to say "good- bye!" to all their favourite haunts and many acquaintances of the animate and inanimate world in turn.
Yes, they must see once more the halcyon spot where they caught the Pandalus, that gem of their aquarium; they had to bid adieu to Mrs Craddock's cottage, and the old lady herself and daughter; and again inspect the place where the unfortunate _Bembridge Belle_ was wrecked.
They had to give a handshake, too, to their friend Hellyer--and all his fellow-coastguardsmen; besides having to go over the Captain's yacht, which had been sparred and rigged anew, the little _Zephyr_ looking now "as fresh as paint again" after her eventful vicissitudes adrift in the Channel.
Aye, they paid farewell visits to every one and everything, and then wanted to begin over again, it was so hard to part with them all! At last, however, the ordeal was accomplished; and all their goods and chattels and new acquisitions, especially the aquarium and its various occupants, that terrible Mesembryanthemum included, being properly packed up and labelled, behold the party one fine morning at the railway-station on their way to London as soon as the train should start! Here Rover, despite his frantic howls on escaping his former prison, was snugly incarcerated in the guard's van; when the others, after exchanging last words with Mrs Gilmour and the Captain, entered a saloon-carriage which had been reserved for them for the journey, Bob and Nell, it may be taken for granted, being the last to get in, loth to leave "aunt Polly" and "that dear old sailor" who had won their hearts, as well as say "good-bye" to Dick, the whilom uninvited guest of their first eventful journey "Down the line," and subsequent faithful companion of Bob in his wonderful adventures by sea and land..