peter panpeter and wendyby j m barrie james matthew barriea mill ennium fulcrum edition c by duncan researchcontentschapter peter breaks throughchapter the shadowchapter come away come away chapter the flightchapter the island come truechapter the litt le housechapter the home under the groundchapter the mermaids lagoo nchapter the never birdchapter the happy homechapter wendys storychapter the children are carried offchapter do you believe i n fairies chapter the pirate shipchapter hook or me this time chapter the return homechapter when wendy grew upchapter peter breaks throughall children except one grow up they soon know that they will growup and the way wendy knew was this one day when she was two years ol dshe was playing in a garden and she plucked another flower and ran withit t o her mother i suppose she must have looked rather delightful formrs darling p ut her hand to her heart and cried oh why cant youremain like this for ever this was all that passed between them onthe subject but henceforth wendy kne w that she must grow up you alwaysknow after you are two two is the beginning of the end of course they lived at their house number on their street a nduntil wendy came her mother was the chief one she was a lovely lady with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth her romanticmind was like the ti ny boxes one within the other that come from thepuzzling east however many you discover there is always one more andher sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that wendy could never get though there it was perfectly conspicuous in th e right hand corner the way mr darling won her was this the many gentlemen who had beenboys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her and they all ran to her house to propose to her except mr darling whoto ok a cab and nipped in first and so he got her he got all of her except the in nermost box and the kiss he never knew about the box andin time he gave up try ing for the kiss wendy thought napoleon couldhave got it but i can picture him trying and then going off in apassion slamming the door mr darling used t o boast to wendy that her mother not only loved himbut respected him he was on e of those deep ones who know about stocksand shares of course no one really k nows but he quite seemed to know and he often said stocks were up and shares w ere down in a way thatwould have made any woman respect him mrs darling wa s married in white and at first she kept the booksperfectly almost gleefully a s if it were a game not so much as abrussels sprout was missing but by and by whole cauliflowers droppedout and instead of them there were pictures of babi es without faces she drew them when she should have been totting up they were mrs darlings guesses wendy came first then john then michael for a we ek or two after wendy came it was doubtful whether they wouldbe able to keep h er as she was another mouth to feed mr darling wasfrightfully proud of her but he was very honourable and he sat on theedge of mrs darlings bed holding her hand and calculating expenses while she looked at him imploringly she wanted to risk it come whatmight but that was not his way his way was with a pencil and a pieceof paper and if she confused him with suggestions he had to begin a tthe beginning again now dont interrupt he would beg of her i hav e one pound seventeen here and two and six at the office i cancut off my coff ee at the office say ten shillings making two nineand six with your eighteen a nd three makes three nine seven with fivenaught naught in my cheque book makes eight nine seven who is thatmoving eight nine seven dot and carry seven dont speak my own andthe pound you lent to that man who came to the door quiet chi ld dotand carry child there youve done it did i say nine nine seven yes i s aid nine nine seven the question is can we try it for a year onnine nine seve n of course we can george she cried but she was prejudiced in wendysf avour and he was really the grander character of the two remember mumps h e warned her almost threateningly and off he wentagain mumps one pound that i s what i have put down but i daresayit will be more like thirty shillings don t speak measles one five german measles half a guinea makes two fifteen six do nt waggle yourfinger whooping cough say fifteen shillings and so on it went andit added up differently each time but at last wendy just got through wit h mumps reduced to twelve six and the two kinds of measles treatedas one t here was the same excitement over john and michael had even a narrowersqueak but both were kept and soon you might have seen the three ofthem going in a ro w to miss fulsoms kindergarten school accompanied bytheir nurse mrs darli ng loved to have everything just so and mr darling had apassion for being exac tly like his neighbours so of course they hada nurse as they were poor owing to the amount of milk the childrendrank this nurse was a prim newfoundland dog called nana who hadbelonged to no one in particular until the darlings engage d her she hadalways thought children important however and the darlings had be comeacquainted with her in kensington gardens where she spent most of herspa re time peeping into perambulators and was much hated by carelessnursemaids wh om she followed to their homes and complained of to theirmistresses she proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse how thoroughshe was at bath time and up at any moment of the night if one of hercharges made the slightest cry of course her kennel was in the nursery she had a genius for knowing when a cough is a t hing to have no patiencewith and when it needs stocking around your throat she believed to herlast day in old fashioned remedies like rhubarb leaf and made sounds ofcontempt over all this new fangled talk about germs and so on it was alesson in propriety to see her escorting the children to school walkingseda tely by their side when they were well behaved and butting themback into line if they strayed on johns footer in england soccerwas called football footer for short days she never once forgot hissweater and she usually carried an umbrella in her mouth in case ofrain there is a room in the basement of miss f ulsoms school where thenurses wait they sat on forms while nana lay on the fl oor but thatwas the only difference they affected to ignore her as of an infer iorsocial status to themselves and she despised their light talk sheresented visits to the nursery from mrs darlings friends but if theydid come she firs t whipped off michaels pinafore and put him into theone with blue braiding an d smoothed out wendy and made a dash at johnshair no nursery could possib ly have been conducted more correctly andmr darling knew it yet he sometimes w ondered uneasily whether theneighbours talked he had his position in the c ity to consider nana also troubled him in another way he had sometimes a fee ling thatshe did not admire him i know she admires you tremendously george mrs darling would assure him and then she would sign to the childrento be sp ecially nice to father lovely dances followed in which theonly other servant l iza was sometimes allowed to join such a midgetshe looked in her long skirt an d maids cap though she had sworn whenengaged that she would never see ten aga in the gaiety of those romps and gayest of all was mrs darling who would pirou ette so wildly thatall you could see of her was the kiss and then if you had d ashed at heryou might have got it there never was a simpler happier family unt ilthe coming of peter pan mrs darling first heard of peter when she was ti dying up her childrensminds it is the nightly custom of every good mother aft er her childrenare asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight fo r nextmorning repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day if you could keep awake but of course youcant you w ould see your own mother doing this and you would find itvery interesting to w atch her it is quite like tidying up drawers youwould see her on her knees i e xpect lingering humorously over some ofyour contents wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up making discoveries sweet and not so sweet pressin g this to her cheek asif it were as nice as a kitten and hurriedly stowing tha t out of sight when you wake in the morning the naughtiness and evil passions withwhich you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind and on the top beautifully aired are spread out yourprettier thou ghts ready for you to put on i dont know whether you have ever seen a map o f a persons mind doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you and your o wn map canbecome intensely interesting but catch them trying to draw a map of achilds mind which is not only confused but keeps going round allthe time t here are zigzag lines on it just like your temperature on acard and these are probably roads in the island for the neverland isalways more or less an island with astonishing splashes of colour hereand there and coral reefs and rakish looking craft in the offing andsavages and lonely lairs and gnomes who are mos tly tailors and cavesthrough which a river runs and princes with six elder bro thers and ahut fast going to decay and one very small old lady with a hooked n ose it would be an easy map if that were all but there is also first dayat s chool religion fathers the round pond needle work murders hangings verbs that take the dative chocolate pudding day gettinginto braces say ninety nine three pence for pulling out your toothyourself and so on and either these are part of the island or they areanother map showing through and it is all rather conf using especiallyas nothing will stand still of course the neverlands vary a good deal johns for instance had alagoon with flamingoes flying over it at which john was shooting whilemichael who was very small had a flamingo with la goons flying overit john lived in a boat turned upside down on the sands micha el ina wigwam wendy in a house of leaves deftly sewn together john had nofri ends michael had friends at night wendy had a pet wolf forsaken byits parents but on the whole the neverlands have a family resemblance and if they stood st ill in a row you could say of them that they haveeach others nose and so fort h on these magic shores children at playare for ever beaching their coracles simple boat we too have beenthere we can still hear the sound of the surf th ough we shall land nomore of all delectable islands the neverland is the s nuggest and mostcompact not large and sprawly you know with tedious distances betweenone adventure and another but nicely crammed when you play at it byda y with the chairs and table cloth it is not in the least alarming but in the t wo minutes before you go to sleep it becomes very real thatis why there are ni ght lights occasionally in her travels through her childrens minds mrs darl ingfound things she could not understand and of these quite the mostperplexi ng was the word peter she knew of no peter and yet he washere and there in joh n and michaels minds while wendys began to bescrawled all over with him the name stood out in bolder letters thanany of the other words and as mrs darling gazed she felt that it hadan oddly cocky appearance yes he is rather coc ky wendy admitted with regret her mother hadbeen questioning her but wh o is he my pet he is peter pan you know mother at first mrs darling d id not know but after thinking back into herchildhood she just remembered a pe ter pan who was said to live with thefairies there were odd stories about him as that when children died hewent part of the way with them so that they shoul d not be frightened she had believed in him at the time but now that she was m arried andfull of sense she quite doubted whether there was any such person besides she said to wendy he would be grown up by this time oh no he isnt grown up wendy assured her confidently and he isjust my size she m eant that he was her size in both mind and body shedidnt know how she knew s he just knew it mrs darling consulted mr darling but he smiled pooh pooh ma rk mywords he said it is some nonsense nana has been putting into theirhe ads just the sort of idea a dog would have leave it alone and itwill blow ove r but it would not blow over and soon the troublesome boy gave mrs darlin g quite a shock children have the strangest adventures without being trouble d by them for instance they may remember to mention a week after the eventha ppened that when they were in the wood they had met their deadfather and had a game with him it was in this casual way that wendy onemorning made a disquiet ing revelation some leaves of a tree had beenfound on the nursery floor which certainly were not there when thechildren went to bed and mrs darling was puzz ling over them when wendysaid with a tolerant smilei do believe it is th at peter again whatever do you mean wendy it is so naughty of him no t to wipe his feet wendy said sighing shewas a tidy child she explained in quite a matter of fact way that she thought petersometimes came to the nurs ery in the night and sat on the foot of herbed and played on his pipes to her unfortunately she never woke so shedidnt know how she knew she just knew what nonsense you talk precious no one can get into the house withoutknocking i think he comes in by the window she said my love it is three flo ors up were not the leaves at the foot of the window mother it was qu ite true the leaves had been found very near the window mrs darling did not know what to think for it all seemed so natural towendy that you could not di smiss it by saying she had been dreaming my child the mother cried why d id you not tell me of this before i forgot said wendy lightly she was in a hurry to get her breakfast oh surely she must have been dreaming but on the other hand there were the leaves mrs darling examinedthem very carefull y they were skeleton leaves but she was sure theydid not come from any tree t hat grew in england she crawled about thefloor peering at it with a candle for marks of a strange foot sherattled the poker up the chimney and tapped the wa lls she let down atape from the window to the pavement and it was a sheer drop of thirtyfeet without so much as a spout to climb up by certainly wendy h ad been dreaming but wendy had not been dreaming as the very next night show ed thenight on which the extraordinary adventures of these children may besa id to have begun on the night we speak of all the children were once more in bed ithappened to be nanas evening off and mrs darling had bathed them and sung to them till one by one they had let go her hand and slid away intothe la nd of sleep all were looking so safe and cosy that she smiled at her fears n ow andsat down tranquilly by the fire to sew it was something for michael who on his birthday was getting intoshirts the fire was warm however and the n ursery dimly lit by threenight lights and presently the sewing lay on mrs darl ings lap thenher head nodded oh so gracefully she was asleep look at the four ofthem wendy and michael over there john here and mrs darling by thefire th ere should have been a fourth night light while she slept she had a dream sh e dreamt that the neverland had cometoo near and that a strange boy had broken through from it he did notalarm her for she thought she had seen him before i n the faces of manywomen who have no children perhaps he is to be found in the faces ofsome mothers also but in her dream he had rent the film that obscures the neverland and she saw wendy and john and michael peeping throughthe gap the dream by itself would have been a trifle but while she was dreamingthe window of the nursery blew open and a boy did drop on the floor he was accomp anied by a strange light no bigger than your fist whichdarted about the room l ike a living thing and i think it must have beenthis light that wakened mrs da rling she started up with a cry and saw the boy and somehow she knew at once that he was peter pan if you or i or wendy had been there we shouldhave seen that he was very like mrs darlings kiss he was a lovelyboy clad in skeleton leaves and the juices that ooze out of trees butthe most entrancing thing abou t him was that he had all his first teeth when he saw she was a grown up he gn ashed the little pearls at her chapter the shadowmrs darling scr eamed and as if in answer to a bell the door opened and nana entered returned from her evening out she growled and sprangat the boy who leapt lightly throug h the window again mrs darlingscreamed this time in distress for him for she t hought he was killed and she ran down into the street to look for his little b ody but itwas not there and she looked up and in the black night she could se enothing but what she thought was a shooting star she returned to the nurs ery and found nana with something in her mouth which proved to be the boys sh adow as he leapt at the window nana hadclosed it quickly too late to catch him but his shadow had not hadtime to get out slam went the window and snapped i t off you may be sure mrs darling examined the shadow carefully but it was quite the ordinary kind nana had no doubt of what was the best thing to do w ith this shadow shehung it out at the window meaning he is sure to come back for it letus put it where he can get it easily without disturbing the childre n but unfortunately mrs darling could not leave it hanging out at thewind ow it looked so like the washing and lowered the whole tone of thehouse she th ought of showing it to mr darling but he was totting upwinter great coats for john and michael with a wet towel around hishead to keep his brain clear and i t seemed a shame to trouble himbesides she knew exactly what he would say i t all comes of having adog for a nurse she decided to roll the shadow up and put it away carefully in a drawer until a fitting opportunity came for tel ling her husband ah me the opportunity came a week later on that never to be forgotten friday of course it was a friday i ought to have been speciall y careful on a friday she used to sayafterwards to her husband while perhaps nana was on the other side ofher holding her hand no no mr darling alw ays said i am responsible for it all i george darling did it mea culpa mea cu lpa he had had a classicaleducation they sat thus night after night reca lling that fatal friday till everydetail of it was stamped on their brains and came through on the otherside like the faces on a bad coinage if only i had not accepted that invitation to dine at mrs darlingsaid if only i had not poured my medicine into nanas bowl said mr darling if only i had pretended to like the medicine was what nanas wet eyessaid my lik ing for parties george my fatal gift of humour dearest my touchiness about trifles dear master and mistress then one or more of them would brea k down altogether nana at thethought its true its true they ought not to h ave had a dog fora nurse many a time it was mr darling who put the handkerch ief tonanas eyes that fiend mr darling would cry and nanas bark was t he echo ofit but mrs darling never upbraided peter there was something in the right hand corner of her mouth that wanted her not to call peter names the y would sit there in the empty nursery recalling fondly everysmallest detail o f that dreadful evening it had begun so uneventfully so precisely like a hundr ed other evenings with nana putting on thewater for michaels bath and carryin g him to it on her back i wont go to bed he had shouted like one who sti ll believed that hehad the last word on the subject i wont i wont nana it i snt sixoclock yet oh dear oh dear i shant love you any more nana i tellyo u i wont be bathed i wont i wont then mrs darling had come in wearing he r white evening gown she haddressed early because wendy so loved to see her in her evening gown with the necklace george had given her she was wearing wendy s braceleton her arm she had asked for the loan of it wendy loved to lend he rbracelet to her mother she had found her two older children playing at be ing herself and fatheron the occasion of wendys birth and john was saying i am happy to inform you mrs darling that you are now a mother in just suc h a tone as mr darling himself may have used on the realoccasion wendy had danced with joy just as the real mrs darling must have done then john was b orn with the extra pomp that he conceived due to thebirth of a male and michae l came from his bath to ask to be born also but john said brutally that they d id not want any more michael had nearly cried nobody wants me he said and of course thelady in the evening dress could not stand that i do she s aid i so want a third child boy or girl asked michael not too hopefully boy then he had leapt into her arms such a little thing for mr and mr s darling and nana to recall now but not so little if that was to bemichael s last night in the nursery they go on with their recollections it was then that i rushed in like a tornado wasnt it mr darlingwould say scorning himself and indeed he had been like a tornado perhaps there was some excuse for him he too had been dressing forthe party and all had gone well with him until he came to his tie itis an astounding thing to have to tell but this man though he knewabout stocks and shares had no real mastery of his tie sometime s thething yielded to him without a contest but there were occasions when it would have been better for the house if he had swallowed his pride andused a m ade up tie this was such an occasion he came rushing into the nursery with t hecrumpled little brute of a tie in his hand why what is the matter fathe r dear matter he yelled he really yelled this tie it will not tie he became dangerously sarcastic not round my neck round the bed post oh yes tw enty times have i made it up round the bed post but round myneck no oh dear no begs to be excused he thought mrs darling was not sufficiently impressed a nd he went onsternly i warn you of this mother that unless this tie is round myneck we dont go out to dinner to night and if i dont go out to dinnerto night i never go to the office again and if i dont go to theoffice again you and i starve and our children will be flung into thestreets even then mrs darling was placid let me try dear she said andindeed that was what he had come to ask her to do and with her nicecool hands she tied his tie for him wh ile the children stood around tosee their fate decided some men would have res ented her being able todo it so easily but mr darling had far too fine a natur e for that hethanked her carelessly at once forgot his rage and in another mo mentwas dancing round the room with michael on his back how wildly we rom ped says mrs darling now recalling it our last romp mr darling groaned o george do you remember michael suddenly said to me how did you getto k now me mother i remember they were rather sweet dont you think geo rge and they were ours ours and now they are gone the romp had ended with the appearance of nana and most unluckily mr darling collided against her covering his trousers with hairs theywere not only new trousers but they were the first he had ever hadwith braid on them and he had had to bite his lip to prevent the tearscoming of course mrs darling brushed him but he began to tal k againabout its being a mistake to have a dog for a nurse george nana is a treasure no doubt but i have an uneasy feeling at times that she looks upon thechildren as puppies oh no dear one i feel sure she knows they ha ve souls i wonder mr darling said thoughtfully i wonder it was anop portunity his wife felt for telling him about the boy at first hepooh poohed t he story but he became thoughtful when she showed him theshadow it is nob ody i know he said examining it carefully but it doeslook a scoundrel we were still discussing it you remember says mr darling whennana came in with michaels medicine you will never carry the bottle inyour mouth again nan a and it is all my fault strong man though he was there is no doubt that he had behaved ratherfoolishly over the medicine if he had a weakness it was for thinkingthat all his life he had taken medicine boldly and so now when michae ldodged the spoon in nanas mouth he had said reprovingly be a man michael wont wont michael cred augh eft he roo toget a chocolate for him and mr darling thought this showed want offirmness mot her dont pamper him he called after her michael when i wasyour age i took medicine without a murmur i said thank you kindparents for giving me bottles to make me well he really thought this was true and wendy who was now in h ernight gown believed it also and she said to encourage michael thatmedicin e you sometimes take father is much nastier isnt it ever so much nastier mr darling said bravely and i would take itnow as an example to you michael if i hadnt lost the bottle he had not exactly lost it he had climbed in the dead of night to thetop of the wardrobe and hidden it there what he did no t know was thatthe faithful liza had found it and put it back on his wash stan d i know where it is father wendy cred t and she was off before he could stop her immediatelyhis spirits sank in the strangest way john he said shuddering its most beastly stu ff its that nasty sticky sweet kind it will soon be over father john said cheerily and then in rushedwendy with the medicine in a glass i have been as quick as i could she panted you have been wonderfully quick he r father retorted with avindictive politeness that was quite thrown away upon her michaelfirst he said doggedly father first said michael who was of a suspicious nature i shall be sick you know mr darling said threateni ngly come on father said john hold your tongue john his father rap ped out wendy was quite puzzled i thought you took it quite easily father that is not the point he retorted the point is that thee h proud heart was nearlybursting and it is nt fair i would say it though it were with my lastbreath it isnt fair father i am waiting said michael coldly its all very well to say you a re waiting so am i waiting fathers a cowardly custard so are you a cowardly custard im not frightened neither am i frightened w ell then take it well then you take it wendy had a splendid idea why not both take it at the same time certainly said mr darling are you re ady michael wendy gave the words one two three and michael took his medicin e but mr darling slipped his behind his back there was a yell of rage from michael and o father wendy exclaimed what do you mean by o father m r darling demanded stop that row michael i meant to take mine but i i missed g at him just as ifth ey did not admire him look here all of you he said entreatingly as soon as nana had gone into the bathroom i have just thought of asplendid joke i shall pour my medicine into nanas bowl and she willdrink it thinking it is milk it was the colour of milk but the children did not have their fatherssens e of humour and they looked at him reproachfully as he poured themedicine into nanas bowl what fun he said doubtfully and they didnot dare expose him wh en mrs darling and nana returned nana good dog he said patting her i hav e put a little milk intoyour bowl nana nana wagged her tail ran to the me dicine and began lapping it thenshe gave mr darling such a look not an angry l ook she showed him thegreat red tear that makes us so sorry for noble dogs an d crept int h h uld not givein in a horrid silence mrs darling smelt the bowl o george shesaid its your medicine it was only a joke he roared while she com forted her boys and wendyhugged nana much good he said bitterly my wearing myself to thebone trying to be funny in this house and still wendy hugge d nana thats right he shouted coddle her nobody coddles me oh dear no i a m only the breadwinner why should ibe coddled why why why george mrs d arling entreated him not so loud the servantswill hear you somehow they ha d got into the way of calling liza theservants let them he answered rec klessly bring in the whole world but irefuse to allow that dog to lord it in my nursery for an hour longer the children wept and nana ran to him beseech ingly but he waved herback h ace for you is the yard and there you go to be tied u pthis instant george george mrs darling whispered remember what i tol d youabout that boy alas he would not listen he was determined to show wh o was master inthat house and when commands would not draw nana from the kenne l helured her out of it with honeyed words and seizing her roughly draggedhe r from the nursery he was ashamed of himself and yet he did it it was all owin g to his too affectionate nature which craved foradmiration when he had tied h er up in the back yard the wretchedfather went and sat in the passage with his knuckles to his eyes in the meantime mrs darling had put the children to be d in unwontedsilence and lit their night lights they could hear nana barking a ndjohn whimpered it is because he is chag he said little guessing what wasabout to happen that is her bark when she smells danger danger are you sure wendy oh yes mrs darling quivered and went to the window it was securely fastened she looked out and the night was peppered with stars they werecrowding round the house as if curious to see what was to take place there but she did not notice this nor that one or two of the smallerones win ked at her yet a nameless fear clutched at her heart and madeher cry oh how i wish that i wasnt going to a party to night even michael already half asl eep knew that she was perturbed and heasked can anything harm us mother after the night lights are lit nothing precious she said they are the eyes a mother leaves behindher to guard her children she we her ot her he cried im glad of you they were the last words she was to hear fro m him for a long time no was only a few yards distant but there had been a slight fall ofsnow and father and mother darling picked their way over it de ftly notto soil their shoes they were already the only persons in the street and all the stars were watching them stars are beautiful but they maynot take an active part in anything they must just look on for ever itis a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that nostar now knows what it w as so the older ones have become glassy eyedand seldom speak winking is the s tar language but the littleones still wonder they are not really friendly to peter who had amischievous way of stealing up behind them and trying to blow t h grown ups out of the way so as soon as the doorof closed on mr and mrs darling there was a commotion in thefirmament and the smallest o f all the stars in the milky way screamedoutnow peter chapter come away come away for a moment after mr and mrs darling left the house the night lightsby the beds of the three children continued to burn clearly th ey wereawfully nice little night lights and one cannot help wishing that they could have kept awake to see peter but wendys light blinked and gavesuch a yawn that the other two yawned also and before they could closetheir mouths al l the three went out there was another light in the room now a thousand time s brighter thanthe night lights and in the time we have taken to say this it h ad beenin all th e out it was not really alight it m ade this light by flashing about so quickly but when it cameto rest for a seco nd you saw it was a fairy no longer than your hand but still growing it was a girl called tinker bell exquisitely gownedin a skeleton leaf cut low and squar e through which her figure couldbe seen to the best advantage she was slightly inclined to embonpoint plump hourglass figurea moment after the fairys entrance the window was blown open by thebreathing of the little stars and pe ter dropped in he had carriedtinker bell part of the way and his hand was stil l messy with the fairydust tinker bell he called softly after making su re that the childrenwere asleep tink where are you she was in a jug for the moment andliking it extremely sh shadow the loveliest tinkle as of golden bells answered him it is the fairylanguage you o rdinary children can never hear it but if you were tohear it you would know th at you had heard it once before tink said that the shadow was in the big box she meant the chest ofdrawers and peter jumped at the drawers scattering thei r contents tothe floor with both hands as kings toss hapence to the crowd in amoment he had recovered his shadow and in his delight he forgot that hehad shut tinker bell up in the drawer if he thought at all but i dont believe h e ever thought it was thathe and his shadow when brought near each other would join like dropsof water and when they did not he was appalled he tried to sti ck iton with soap from the bathroom but that also fa bed she was not alarmed to seea stranger crying on the nursery floor s he was only pleasantlyinterested boy she said courteously why are you crying peter could be exceeding polite also having learned the grand manner atfairy ceremonies and he rose and bowed to her beautifully she was muchple ased and bowed beautifully to him from the bed whats your name he asked wendy moira angela darling she replied with some satisfaction whatis y our name peter pan she was already sure that he must be peter but it did seem acomparatively short name is that all yes he said rather sharply he felt for the first time that it was ashortish name im so sor ry said wendy moira angela it doesnt matter peter gulped he address peter had a sinking for the first time he felt that perhaps it was afunny address no it isnt he said i m ean wendy said nicely remembering that she was hostess is thatwhat they put on the letters he wished she had not mentioned letters dont get any letters he said contemptuously but your mother gets letters dont h ave a mother he said not only had he no mother but he hadnot the slightest d esire to have one he thought them very over ratedpersons wendy however felt at once that she was in the presence of atragedy o peter no wonder you were crying she said and got out of bed andran to him i wasnt crying about mothers he said rather indignantly i wascrying because i cant get my shad ow to s gged and she wasfrightfully sorry for peter how awful she said but she could nothelp smiling when she saw that he had been trying to stick it on withsoap how exactly like a boy fortunately she knew at once what to do it must be sewn on she said just a little patronisingly whats sewn he asked youre dreadfully ignoran t no im not but she was exulting in his ignorance i shall sew it on for you mylittle man she said though he was tall as herself and she got out her housewife sewing bag and sewed the shadow on to peters foot i dare say it will hurt a little she warned him oh i shant cry said peter who was already of the opinion that hehad never cried in his life and he clenched his teeth and did notcry hghtfu lly but peter boylike was indifferent to appearances and he was now jumping ab out inthe wildest glee alas he had already forgotten that he owed his blisst o wendy he thought he had attached the shadow himself how clever iam he cro wed rapturously oh the cleverness of me it is humiliating to have to confe ss that this conceit of peter wasone of his most fascinating qualities to put it with brutal frankness there never was a cockier boy but for the moment wendy was shocked you conceit braggart sheexclaimed with frightful sarcas m of course i did nothing you did a little peter said carelessly and c ontinued to dance a little she replied with hauteur pride if i am no use i can atleast withdraw and she spra away and when thisfailed he sat on the end of the bed and tappe d her gently with his foot wendy he said dont withdraw i cant help crowi ng wendy whenim pleased with myself still she would not look up though she waslistening eagerly wendy he continued in a voice that no woman hasever yet been able to resist wendy one girl is more use than twentyboys now w endy was every inch a woman though there were not very manyinches and she peep ed out of the bed clothes do you really think so peter yes i do i think its perfectly sweet of you she declared and ill get upagain an d she sat with him on the side of the bed she also saidshe would give him a ki ss if he liked but peter did not know what shemeant and he he ed stiffly and not tohurt his feeling she gave him a thimble now said he shall i give you a kiss and she replie d with a slightprimness if you please she made herself rather cheap by incl iningher face toward him but he merely dropped an acorn button into herhand so she slowly returned her face to where it had been before andsaid nicely tha t she would wear his kiss on the chain around her neck it was lucky that she d id put it on that chain for it was afterwards tosave her life when people in our set are introduced it is customary for them toask each others age and so wendy who always liked to do the correctthing asked peter how old he was it was not really a happy question toask him it was like an examination paper t h yknew nothing abo ut it he had merely suspicions but he said at aventure wendy i ran away the d ay i was born wendy was quite surprised but interested and she indicated i n thecharming drawing room manner by a touch on her night gown that hecould sit nearer her it was because i heard father and mother he explained in a lowvoice talking about what i was to be when i became a man he wasextrao rdinarily agitated now i dont want ever to be a man he saidwith passion i want always to be a little boy and to have fun soi ran away to kensington gar dens and lived a long long time among thefairies she gave him a look of t he most intense admiration and he thought itwas because he had run away but it was really because his surprise for they were rather a nuisance to him getting in his way and so on and indeed he sometimes had to give them a hiding spanking still hel iked them on the whole and he told her about the beginning of fairies you s ee wendy when the first baby laughed for the first time itslaugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about and that was the beginning of fairies tedious talk this but being a stay at home she liked it and s o he went on good naturedly there ought to be one fairy forevery boy and gi rl ought to be isnt there no you see children know such a lot now t hey soon dont believe infairies and every time a child says i dont believe in fairies there is a fairy somewhe et i cant think whereshe has gone to he said rising and he called tink by name wendysheart went flutter with a sudden thrill peter she cried clutching him you dont mean to tell me that thereis a fai ry in this room she was here just now he said a little impatiently you dont hearher do you and they both listened the only sound i hear sai d wendy is like a tinkle of bells well thats tink thats the fairy langu age i think i hear her too the sound came from the chest of drawers and pet er made a merry face no one could ever look quite so merry as peter and the lo veliest ofgurgles was his laugh he had his first laugh still wendy he w hispered gleefully i do believe i shut her up in thed d f course im very sorry but how co uld i know you were in the drawer wendy was not listening to him o peter she cried if she would onlystand still and let me see her they hardly ever stand still he said but for one moment wendy sawthe romantic figure com e to rest on the cuckoo clock o the lovely she cried though tinks face was still distorted with passion tink said peter amiably this lady says she wishes you were herfairy tinker bell answered insolently what does she say peter he had to translate she is not very polite she says you are a greathuge ugly girl and that she is my fairy he tried to argue with t ink you know you cant be my fairy tink because i am an gentleman and y dapologetica lly she is called tinker bell because she mends the potsand kettles tinker tin worker similar to cinder plus elle toget cinderellathey were together in the armchair by this time and wendy plied himwith more questions if you dont live in kensington gardens now sometimes i do still but where do you live mostly now with the lost boys who are they they are the children who fall out of their perambulators when thenurse i s looking the other way if they are not claimed in sevendays they are sent far away to the neverland to defray expenses imcaptain what fun it must be yes said cunning peter but we are rather lonely you see we have nofe male compani hink she said it is perfectlylovely the way you talk about girls john there just despises us for reply peter rose and kicked john out of be d blankets and all onekick this seemed to wendy rather forward for a first me eting and shetold him with spirit that he was not captain in her house however john continued to sleep so placidly on the floor that she allowed himto rem ain there and i know you meant to be kind she said relenting so you may gi ve me a kiss for the moment she had forgotten his ignorance about kisses i thoughtyou would want it back he said a little bitterly and offered toret urn her the thimble oh dear said the nice wendy i dont mean a kiss i me an a thimble whats that his time peter thimbled her and almost immedi ately she screeched what is it wendy it was exactly as if someone were pulling my hair that must have been tink i never knew her so naughty befor e and indeed tink was darting about again using offensive language she says she will do that to you wendy every time i give you athimble but w hy why tink again tink replied you silly ass peter could not under stand why but wendy understood and she was just slightly disappointed when he admitted that he came to the nursery window not to see her but to listento st ories you see i dont know any stories none of the lost boys knows anysto ries how perfectly awful wendy said do which story was it a bout the prince who couldnt find the lady who wore the glassslipper pet er said wendy excitedly that was cinderella and he found her and they lived happily ever after peter was so glad that he rose from the floor where the y had beensitting and hurried to the window where are you going she cri ed with misgiving to tell the other boys dont go peter she entreat ed i know such lots of stories those were her precise words so there can b e no denying that it was shewho first tempted him he came back and there w as a greedy look in his eyes now which ought tohave alarmed her but did not oh the stories i could tell to the boys she cried and then peter ey pleas ed to be asked but she said oh dear icant think of mummy besides i cant fly ill teach you oh how lovely to fly ill teach you how to jum p on the winds back and then away we go oo she exclaimed rapturously wendy wendy when you are sleeping in your silly bed you might beflying abou t with me saying funny things to the stars oo and wendy there are me rmaids mermaids with tails such long tails oh cried wendy t o see a mermaid he had become frightfully cunning wendy he said how we should allrespect you she was wriggling her body in distress it was quite as if she weretrying to remain on the nursery floor but he had no pity fo r her d you could darn our clothes and make pockets for us none of us hasany pockets how could she resist of course its awfully fascinating she cried peter would you teach john and michael to fly too if you lik e he said indifferently and she ran to john and michaeland shook them wake up she cried peter pan has come and he is toteach us to fly john rubbe d his eyes then i shall get up he said of course he wason the floor already hallo he said i am up michael was up by this time also looking as shar p as a knife with sixblades and a saw but peter suddenly signed silence their faces assumedthe awful craftiness of children listening for sounds from the gr own upworld all was as s heard out with the light hide quick cr ied john taking command for theonly time throughout the whole adventure and th us when liza entered holding nana the nursery seemed quite its old self very d ark andyou would have sworn you heard its three wicked inmates breathingange lically as they slept they were really doing it artfully frombehind the window curtains liza was in a bad temper for she was mixing the christmas puddings inthe kitchen and had been drawn from them with a raisin still on hercheek by nanas absurd suspicions she thought the best way of gettinga little quiet was to take nana to the nursery for a moment but incustody of course ther e you suspicious brute she said not sorry th g ged by his success bre athed so loudly that theywere nearly detected nana knew that kind of breathing and she tried todrag herself out of lizas clutches but liza was dense n o more of it nana she said sternly pullingher out of the room i warn you if you bark again i shall go straightfor master and missus and bring them home f rom the party and then oh wont master whip you just she tied the unhappy dog up again but do you think nana ceased to bark bring master and missus hom e from the party why that was just what shewanted do you think she cared wheth er she was whipped so long as hercharges were safe unfortunately liza returned to her puddings andnana seeing that no help would come from h e ve way of making a communication mr and mrs darling knew atonce that something terrible was happening in their nursery and withouta good bye to their hostes s they rushed into the street but it was now ten minutes since three scoundr els had been breathingbehind the curtains and peter pan can do a great deal in ten minutes we now return to the nursery its all right john announc ed emerging from his hiding place isay peter can you really fly instead of troubling to answer him peter flew around the room takingthe mantelpiece on the way how topping said john and michael how sweet cried wendy yes im sweet oh i am sweet said peter forgetting his mannersagain i t hs knee he was quite apractical boy you just think lo vely wonderful thoughts peter explained and theylift you up in the air he showed them again youre so nippy at it john said couldnt you do it very slowlyonce peter did it both slowly and quickly ive got it now we ndy criedjohn but soon he found he had not not one of them could fly an inch though even michael was in words of two syllables and peter did notknow a f rom z of course peter had been trifling with them for no one can fly unless the fairy dust has been blown on him fortunately as we have mentioned one of his hands was messy with it and he blew some on each of them with the most sup erb results now h ately he was borneacross the room i flewed he screamed while still in mid air john let go and met wendy n ear the bathroom oh lovely oh ripping look at me look at me look at me they were not nearly so elegant as peter they could not help kicking alittle but their heads were bobbing against the ceiling and the re isalmost nothing so delicious as that peter gave wendy a hand at first bu t had to desist tink was so indignant up and down they went and round and ro und heavenly was wendys word i say cried john why shouldnt we all go o ut of course it was to this that peter had been luring them michael was ready he wanted to see how long it too nce it was j ust at this moment that mr and mrs darling hurried with nanaout of they ran into the middle of the street to look up at thenursery window and yes it was still shut but the room was ablazewith light and most heart gripping sight of all they could see inshadow on the curtain three little figures in night atti re circlinground and round not on the floor but in the air not three figur es four in a tremble they opened the street door mr darling would have rushe dupstairs but mrs darling signed him to go softly she even tried tomake her heart go softly will they reach the nursery in time if so how delightful for them andwe shall all breathe a sigh of relief but there w hat thelittle stars were watching them once again the stars blew the window open and that smallest star of all called outcave peter then peter knew that there was not a moment to lose come he criedimperiously and soare d out at once into the night followed by john andmichael and wendy mr and mrs darling and nana rushed into the nursery too late thebirds were flown chapter the flightsecond to the right and straight on till morning that peter had told wendy was the way to the neverland but evenbirds car rying maps and consulting them at windy corners could nothave sighted it with these instructions peter you see just saidanything that came into his head ok their fancy john and michael raced michael gett ing a start they recalled with contempt that not so long ago they had though tthemselves fine fellows for being able to fly round a room not long ago b ut how long ago they were flying over the sea beforethis thought began to dist urb wendy seriously john thought it was theirsecond sea and their third night sometimes it was dark and sometimes light and now they were very coldand a gain too warm did they really feel hungry at times or were theymerely pretendi ng because peter had such a jolly new way of feedingthem his way was to pursue birds who had food in their mouths suitablefor humans and snatch it from them then the birds w eter did not seem to know that th iswas rather an odd way of getting your bread and butter nor even thatthere are other ways certainly they did not pretend to be sleepy they were sleepy and thatwas a danger for the moment they popped off down they fell the awful thing was that peter thought this funny there he goes again he would cry gleefully as michael suddenlydropped like a stone save him save him cr ied wendy looking with horror at the cruelsea far below eventually peter would dive through the air and catchmichael just before he could strike the sea and it was lovely the wayhe did it but he always waited till the last moment and you felt itwas his cleverness that tythat th e next time you fell he would let you go he could sleep in the air without f alling by merely lying on his backand floating but this was partly at least be cause he was so lightthat if you got behind him and blew he went faster d o be more polite to him wendy whispered to john when they wereplaying follo w my leader then tell him to stop showing off said john when playing follow my leader peter would fly close to the water andtouch each sharks tai l in passing just as in the street you may runyour finger along an iron railin g they could not follow him in thiswith much success so perhaps it was rather like showing off especiallyas he kept looking behind t ever find our way back without him well then we could go on sa id john that is the awful thing john we should have to go on for we dont know how to stop this was true peter had forgotten to show them how to stop john said that if the worst came to the worst all they had to do was togo straight on for the world was round and so in time they must comeback to thei r own window and who is to get food for us john i nipped a bit out of that eagles mouth pretty neatly wendy after the twentieth try wendy re minded him and even though webecame good at picking up food see how we bump a gainst clouds and thingsif he is not near to give us a hand indeed h fly ey bumpinto it if nana had been with them she wo uld have had a bandage roundmichaels forehead by this time peter was not with them for the moment and they felt rather lonely upthere by themselves he could go so much faster than they that he wouldsuddenly shoot out of sight to have some adventure in which they had noshare he would come down laughing over something fearfully funny he hadbeen saying to a star but he had already forg otten what it was or hewould come up with mermaid scales still sticking to him and yet not beable to say for certain what had been happening it was really r atherirritating to children who had never seen a mermaid and if he forget s them so quic he ome into his eyesas he was about to pass them the time of day and go on once even shehad to call him by name im wendy she said agitatedly he was very sorry i say wendy he whispered to her always if yousee me forgetting you just keep on saying i m wendy and then illremember of course this was rather unsatisfactory however to make amends heshowed them how to lie out flat on a strong wind tha t was going theirway and this was such a pleasant change that they tried it se veraltimes and found that they could sleep thus with security indeed theywou ld have slept longer but peter tired quickly of sleeping and soonhe would cry in his captain voice we get off who e t perha ps so much owing to theguidance of peter or tink as because the island was loo king for them itis only thus that any one may sight those magic shores th ere it is said peter calmly where where where all the arrows are po inting indeed a million golden arrows were pointing it out to the children alldirected by their friend the sun who wanted them to be sure of theirway b efore leaving them for the night wendy and john and michael stood on tip toe in the air to get theirfirst sight of the island strange to say they all reco gnized it atonce and until fear fell upon them they hailed it not as something long dreamt of and seen at last but as a familiar the h leg look michael theres your cave john whats that i n the brushwood its a wolf with her whelps wendy i do believe thats your littlewhelp theres my boat john with her sides stove in no it is nt why we burned your boat thats her at any rate i say john i see the sm oke of the redskincamp where show me and ill tell you by the way smoke curls whether theyare on the war path there just across the mysterious r iver i see now yes they are on the war path right enough peter was a little annoyed with them for knowing so much but if hewanted to lord it over t hem his triumph was at hand for have i not toldyou that anon fear fe eag arose in itand spread black shadows moved a bout in them the roar of the beasts ofprey was quite different now and above a ll you lost the certainty thatyou would win you were quite glad that the night lights were on youeven liked nana to say that this was just the mantelpiece o ver here andthat the neverland was all make believe of course the neverlan d had been make believe in those days but itwas real now and there were no nig ht lights and it was getting darkerevery moment and where was nana they ha d been flying apart but they huddled close to peter now hiscareless manner had gone at last his eyes were sparkling and a tinglewent through them every time they touc a if they were pushing the ir waythrough hostile forces sometimes they hung in the air until peter hadb eaten on it with his fists they dont want us to land he explained w ho are they wendy whispered shuddering but he could not or would not say t inker bell had been asleep on hisshoulder but now he wakened her and sent her on in front sometimes he poised himself in the air listening intently with h ishand to his ear and again he would stare down with eyes so bright thatthey seemed to bore two holes to earth having done these things hewent on again his courage was almost appalling would you like an adventure now hesaid c asually to john or would you e f