Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

After leaving the house, Jacob scrambles his way back through the woods and bog. He sees when he returns that the sun is setting; he’s spent the whole day going to and from the house. He finds his dad in the pub and explains what happened, conveniently leaving out details about Dylan and Worm bailing before Jacob got there. He explains the house is dilapidated, but he still wants to ask around to find out what happened to it. Jacob’s dad asks if he feels closer to understanding his grandfather, and Jacob isn’t sure.

Jacob’s dad says that he gave up trying to understand Jacob’s grandfather a long time ago. He explains that Grandpa Portman didn’t know how to be a dad, and he dealt with it by being gone all the time. Jacob thinks back to a story he knows, when his father was four or five and had never been trick or treating. Grandpa Portman promised to take him when he got off from work, and Jacob’s grandmother bought a big pink bunny costume for his dad. Jacob’s dad waited from 5 p.m. until nightfall, but his grandfather never came home. His grandmother took a picture of this incident, much to his father’s embarrassment.

Jacob’s dad explains that he doesn’t want Jacob to get hurt; he doesn’t want Jacob to have one image of his grandfather and then to discover who he might really have been. Jacob’s dad and Aunt Susie often thought his grandfather might have been cheating on his grandmother. They once found a letter addressed to him which read, “I love you, I miss you, when are you coming back.” They tore it up and flushed it down the toilet. Jacob is upset, and Jacob’s dad apologizes, knowing Jacob worships his grandfather. Furious, Jacob says his father is wrong about his grandfather and he’s going to prove it.

Jacob gets up and leaves, knowing that he does worship his grandfather. His stories meant that it was possible to live a magical life. To come out of the horrors of war as an “honorable and good and brave person […] that was magical.” He doesn’t want to think that his grandfather was an adulterer or a bad father.

Jacob returns to the little museum, looking around the different displays and gasping at one of a blackened corpse. The curator then comes in, impressed that Jacob took the shock so well. The curator introduces himself officially as Martin Pagett, and Jacob asks about the corpse. Martin explains that he’s called the “Old Man”—he’s 2700 years old but was only 16 years old when he died. He was found in the bog, which is why his body is so well preserved. Martin says that it is likely the corpse went to his death willingly, as his people believed that bogs were gateways to the realm of gods. Martin dramatically recites a few lines of poetry that he wrote about the corpse, and Jacob applauds.

Jacob then asks about the people that lived in the children’s home, and Martin explains that no one has lived there since World War II. Cairnholm had a gun battery at the far tip of the island, which made it a military target. One of the Germans’ bombs went off track and hit the children’s home. Jacob is confused, thinking that that can’t be right. It explains the house’s condition, but the letter from Miss Peregrine, postmarked from Cairnholm, was sent just 15 years ago. Martin explains that his Uncle Oggie is 83 and might be able to tell Jacob more about it.

Ten minutes later, Jacob meets Oggie, who’s wearing a blazer and pajama bottoms, rocking in an easy chair in his living room. Oggie says he remembers the children’s home—the kids who lived there were “odd.” They weren’t regular orphan children, and many of them didn’t speak English. Jacob explains that many of them were refugees. Oggie goes on, talking about what it was like during the war, particularly the night of the bombing. He says that it was like “giants stamping across the island.” The date of the bombing was September 3, 1940.

Hearing the date, Jacob is startled—it’s the date his grandfather stated before he died. Martin asks if anyone survived the blast, and Oggie says that there was just one—a young man not much older than Jacob. He came into town without a scratch on him, asked for the next boat to the mainland, and said he wanted to kill the monsters who murdered his people. Jacob says that the young man was his grandfather before excusing himself to walk back to the pub, wanting to digest what he heard. He imagines his grandfather the morning after the bomb, realizing that even after escaping Germany, there was no escaping the monsters.

Jacob finds his dad in the pub and explains what he discovered. His dad grows angry that Jacob’s grandfather never brought this up. Jacob reasons that perhaps his grandfather was distant because he had already lost two sets of family and was protecting himself emotionally. Jacob’s dad says that Jacob came along at the right time: just when his dad got over the fear of having a family. Jacob doesn’t know what to say or if he should apologize that his grandfather didn’t love his dad enough.

That night, Jacob tosses and turns once more. He can’t stop thinking about the letters, wondering if the one his dad and Aunt Susie found was also from Miss Peregrine. Jacob thinks that either his grandfather was corresponding with a dead person, or someone was using Miss Peregrine’s identity to hide something—perhaps an affair. Jacob has so many questions, and he doesn’t know how to find answers.

That morning, Jacob wakes to see a large bird atop his dresser. He calls to his dad, and as his dad comes in the bird flies out Jacob’s open window. They discover a feather on the ground, and Jacob’s dad remarks that it’s rare for peregrines to get so close to humans. The name of the bird startles Jacob, who tries to convince himself that it’s a coincidence. At breakfast, Jacob concludes that he owes it to himself to make one more trip to the house, a lot of which he didn’t explore. He hopes that he might find a photo album or diary, even though he’s terrified of what else he might find there.