When the ship arrives, who chooses to leave, and who chooses to stay? What is each person’s reason for their choice?

Mother and father choose to stay and truly settle in the area which they've been living. Mr. Wolston, his wife, and his eldest daughter also chose to stay..... for health reasons.

Neither knew to what decision the feelings of the other inclined; each was afraid of expressing what might run counter to those feelings; but gradually it began to appear that neither entertained any strong wish to leave the peaceful island; and finally we discovered that the real wish which lay at the bottom of both our hearts was to adopt New Switzerland as thenceforward our home.

Mr. Wolston was able to join us, as the rest he had enjoyed, and the pleasure inspired by the hope of a residence among us, seemed to have given him new life. This wish he now distinctly expressed in his own name, and in that of his wife; inquiring what our intentions were, and proposing, if agreeable to us, that they, with their eldest daughter, whose health, like his own, was delicate, should make a long stay on the island, while the younger daughter went for the present to her brother at the Cape of Good Hope.

Jack and Ernest also stay behind with their parents.

`Ernest chooses to remain with me. His mother and I rejoice heartily in this decision, and promise him all the highest scientific appointments in our power to bestow.

`Jack is not going to Europe, however,' was his reply. `He means to stay here, and when Fritz is gone, he will be the best rider, and the best shot in New Switzerland, which is the summit of his ambition.