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PETER PAN `
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[PETER AND WENDY] `
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BY `
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J. M. BARRIE `
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[James Matthew Barrie] `
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A Millennium Fulcrum Edition `
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(c)1991 by Duncan Research `
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Contents `
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Chapter 1 PETER BREAKS THROUGH `
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Chapter 2 THE SHADOW `
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Chapter 3 COME AWAY, COME AWAY! `
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Chapter 4 THE FLIGHT `
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Chapter 5 THE ISLAND COME TRUE `
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Chapter 6 THE LITTLE HOUSE `
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Chapter 7 THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND `
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Chapter 8 THE MERMAID'S LAGOON `
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Chapter 9 THE NEVER BIRD `
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Chapter 10 THE HAPPY HOME `
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Chapter 11 WENDY'S STORY `
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Chapter 12 THE CHILDREN ARE CARRIED OFF `
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Chapter 13 DO YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES? `
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Chapter 14 THE PIRATE SHIP `
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Chapter 15 "HOOK OR ME THIS TIME" `
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Chapter 16 THE RETURN HOME `
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Chapter 17 WHEN WENDY GREW UP `
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Chapter 1 `
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PETER BREAKS THROUGH `
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All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will `
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grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two `
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years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower `
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and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather `
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delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, `
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"Oh, why can't you remain like this for ever!" This was all that `
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passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that `
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she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the `
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beginning of the end. `
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Of course they lived at 14 [their house number on their street], `
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and until Wendy came her mother was the chief one. She was a lovely lady, `
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with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth. Her romantic mind `
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was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the `
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puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and `
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her sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, `
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though there is was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner. `
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The way Mr. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who `
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had been boys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that `
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they loved her, and they all ran to her house to propose to her `
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except Mr. Darling, who took a cab and nipped in first, and so he `
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got her. He got all of her, except the innermost box and the `
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kiss. He never knew about the box, and in time he gave up trying `
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for the kiss. Wendy thought Napoleon could have got it, but I `
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can picture him trying, and then going off in a passion, slamming `
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the door. `
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Mr. Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only `
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loved him but respected him. He was one of those deep ones who `
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know about stocks and shares. Of course no one really knows, `
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but he quite seemed to know, and he often said stocks were up and `
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shares were down in a way that would have made any woman respect `
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him. `
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Mrs. Darling was married in white, and at first she kept the `
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books perfectly, almost gleefully, as if it were a game, not so `
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much as a Brussels sprout was missing; but by and by whole `
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cauliflowers dropped out, and instead of them there were pictures `
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of babies without faces. She drew them when she should have been `
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totting up. They were Mrs. Darling's guesses. `
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Wendy came first, then John, then Michael. `
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For a week or two after Wendy came it was doubtful whether they `
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would be able to keep her, as she was another mouth to feed. Mr. `
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Darling was frightfully proud of her, but he was very honourable, `
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and he sat on the edge of Mrs. Darling's bed, holding her hand `
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and calculating expenses, while she looked at him imploringly. `
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She wanted to risk it, come what might, but that was not his way; `
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his way was with a pencil and a piece of paper, and if she `
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confused him with suggestions he had to begin at the beginning `
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again. `
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"Now don't interrupt," he would beg of her. `
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"I have one pound seventeen here, and two and six at the office; `
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I can cut off my coffee at the office, say ten shillings, making `
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two nine and six, with your eighteen and three makes three nine seven, `
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with five naught naught in my cheque-book makes eight nine seven -- `
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who is that moving? -- eight nine seven, dot and carry seven -- `
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don't speak, my own -- and the pound you lent to that man who came to `
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the door -- quiet, child -- dot and carry child -- there, you've `
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done it! -- did I say nine nine seven? yes, I said nine nine `
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seven; the question is, can we try it for a year on nine nine seven?" `
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"Of course we can, George," she cried. But she was prejudiced `
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in Wendy's favour, and he was really the grander character of the `
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two. `
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"Remember mumps," he warned her almost threateningly, and off `
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he went again. "Mumps one pound, that is what I have put down, `
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but I daresay it will be more like thirty shillings -- don't `
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speak -- measles one five, German measles half a guinea, makes `
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two fifteen six -- don't waggle your finger -- whooping-cough, `
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say fifteen shillings" -- and so on it went, and it added up `
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differently each time; but at last Wendy just got through, `
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with mumps reduced to twelve six, and the two kinds of measles `
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treated as one. `
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There was the same excitement over John, and Michael had even a `
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narrower squeak; but both were kept, and soon, you might have seen `
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the three of them going in a row to Miss Fulsom's Kindergarten `
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school, accompanied by their nurse. `
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Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling `
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had a passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of `
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course, they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount `
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of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland `
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dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until `
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the Darlings engaged her. She had always thought children `
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important, however, and the Darlings had become acquainted with `
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her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent most of her spare time `
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peeping into perambulators, and was much hated by careless `
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nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to `
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their mistresses. She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse. `
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How thorough she was at bath-time, and up at any moment of the `
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night if one of her charges made the slightest cry. Of course `
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her kennel was in the nursery. She had a genius for knowing when `
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a cough is a thing to have no patience with and when it needs `
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stocking around your throat. She believed to her last day in `
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old-fashioned remedies like rhubarb leaf, and made sounds of `
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contempt over all this new-fangled talk about germs, and so on. `
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It was a lesson in propriety to see her escorting the children to `
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school, walking sedately by their side when they were well `
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behaved, and butting them back into line if they strayed. On `
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John's footer [in England soccer was called football, "footer" `
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for short] days she never once forgot his sweater, and she `
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usually carried an umbrella in her mouth in case of rain. There `
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is a room in the basement of Miss Fulsom's school where the `
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nurses wait. They sat on forms, while Nana lay on the floor, `
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but that was the only difference. They affected to ignore her as `
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of an inferior social status to themselves, and she despised `
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their light talk. She resented visits to the nursery from Mrs. `
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Darling's friends, but if they did come she first whipped off `
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Michael's pinafore and put him into the one with blue braiding, `
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and smoothed out Wendy and made a dash at John's hair. `
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No nursery could possibly have been conducted more correctly, `
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and Mr. Darling knew it, yet he sometimes wondered uneasily `
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whether the neighbours talked. `
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He had his position in the city to consider. `
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Nana also troubled him in another way. He had sometimes a `
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feeling that she did not admire him. "I know she admires you `
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tremendously, George," Mrs. Darling would assure him, and then `
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she would sign to the children to be specially nice to father. `
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Lovely dances followed, in which the only other servant, Liza, `
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was sometimes allowed to join. Such a midget she looked in her `
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long skirt and maid's cap, though she had sworn, when engaged, `
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that she would never see ten again. The gaiety of those romps! `
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And gayest of all was Mrs. Darling, who would pirouette so wildly `
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that all you could see of her was the kiss, and then if you had `
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dashed at her you might have got it. There never was a simpler `
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happier family until the coming of Peter Pan. `
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Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her `
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children's minds. It is the nightly custom of every good mother `
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after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put `
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things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper `
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places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If `
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