Peter Pan
THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND
One of the Peter did next day was to measure Wendy and John and Michael for trees. Hook, you remember, had at the boys for they needed a tree apiece, but this was ignorance, for unless your tree you it was difficult to go up and down, and no two of the boys were the same size. Once you fitted, you in your at the top, and you at the right speed, while to you in and let out alternately, and so up. Of course, when you have the action you are able to do these without of them, and nothing can be more graceful.
But you must fit, and Peter you for your tree as as for a of clothes: the only being that the are to fit you, while you have to be to fit the tree. Usually it is done easily, as by your too many or too few, but if you are in places or the only available tree is an odd shape, Peter some to you, and after that you fit. Once you fit, great must be taken to go on fitting, and this, as Wendy was to to her delight, a whole family in perfect condition.
Wendy and Michael their trees at the try, but John had to be a little.
After a days’ they go up and as as in a well. And how they to love their home under the ground; Wendy. It of one large room, as all houses should do, with a in which you if you wanted to go fishing, and in this of a colour, which were used as stools. A Never tree hard to in the centre of the room, but every they the through, level with the floor. By tea-time it was always about two high, and then they put a door on top of it, the whole thus a table; as soon as they away, they off the again, and thus there was more room to play. There was an which was in almost any part of the room where you to light it, and across this Wendy strings, of fibre, from which she her washing. The was against the by day, and let at 6:30, when it nearly the room; and all the boys slept in it, Michael, like in a tin. There was a against until one gave the signal, when all at once. Michael should have used it also, but Wendy would have a baby, and he was the littlest, and you know what are, and the and long of it is that he was up in a basket.
It was and simple, and not what would have of an house in the same circumstances. But there was one in the wall, no larger than a bird-cage, which was the private of Tinker Bell. It be off from the of the house by a curtain, which Tink, who was most fastidious, always when or undressing. No woman, large, have had a more and bed-chamber combined. The couch, as she always called it, was a Queen Mab, with legs; and she the according to what fruit-blossom was in season. Her was a Puss-in-Boots, of which there are now only three, unchipped, to dealers; the was Pie-crust and reversible, the of an Charming the Sixth, and the and the best (the early) period of Margery and Robin. There was a from Tiddlywinks for the look of the thing, but of she the herself. Tink was very of the of the house, as was inevitable, and her chamber, though beautiful, looked conceited, having the of a nose up.
I it was all to Wendy, those boys of hers gave her so much to do. Really there were whole when, with a in the evening, she was above ground. The cooking, I can tell you, her nose to the pot, and if there was nothing in it, if there was no pot, she had to keep that it came just the same. You there would be a or just a make-believe, it all upon Peter’s whim: he eat, eat, if it was part of a game, but he not just to stodgy, which is what most children like than anything else; the next best thing being to talk about it. Make-believe was so to him that a of it you see him rounder. Of it was trying, but you had to his lead, and if you prove to him that you were for your tree he let you stodge.
Wendy’s time for and was after they had all gone to bed. Then, as she it, she had a time for herself; and she it in making new for them, and pieces on the knees, for they were all most hard on their knees.
When she sat to a of their stockings, every with a in it, she would up her arms and exclaim, “Oh dear, I am sure I sometimes think are to be envied!”
Her when she this.
You about her wolf. Well, it very soon that she had come to the and it her out, and they just ran into each other’s arms. After that it her about everywhere.
As time on did she think much about the she had left her? This is a difficult question, it is to say how time wear on in the Neverland, where it is calculated by and suns, and there are so many more of them than on the mainland. But I am that Wendy did not worry about her father and mother; she was that they would always keep the window open for her to by, and this gave her complete of mind. What did her at times was that John his only, as people he had once known, while Michael was to that she was his mother. These her a little, and to do her duty, she to the old life in their minds by setting them papers on it, as like as possible to the ones she used to do at school. The other boys this interesting, and on joining, and they for themselves, and sat the table, and hard about the questions she had on another and passed round. They were the most ordinary questions—“What was the colour of Mother’s eyes? Which was taller, Father or Mother? Was Mother or brunette? Answer all three questions if possible.” “(A) Write an essay of not less than 40 on How I my last Holidays, or The Characters of Father and Mother compared. Only one of these to be attempted.” Or “(1) Describe Mother’s laugh; (2) Describe Father’s laugh; (3) Describe Mother’s Party Dress; (4) Describe the Kennel and its Inmate.”
They were just questions like these, and when you not answer them you were told to make a cross; and it was what a number of John made. Of the only boy who to every question was Slightly, and no one have been more of out first, but his were perfectly ridiculous, and he came out last: a thing.
Peter did not compete. For one thing he all mothers Wendy, and for another he was the only boy on the who neither spell; not the smallest word. He was above all that of thing.
By the way, the questions were all in the past tense. What was the colour of Mother’s eyes, and so on. Wendy, you see, had been forgetting, too.
Adventures, of course, as we shall see, were of daily occurrence; but about this time Peter invented, with Wendy’s help, a new game that him enormously, until he had no more in it, which, as you have been told, was what always with his games. It in not to have adventures, in doing the of thing John and Michael had been doing all their lives, on in the air, pushing each other, going out for walks and without having killed so much as a grizzly. To see Peter doing nothing on a was a great sight; he not help looking at such times, to still to him such a thing to do. He that he had gone walking for the good of his health. For these were the most of all to him; and John and Michael had to to be also; otherwise he would have them severely.
He often out alone, and when he came you were he had had an or not. He might have it so that he said nothing about it; and then when you out you the body; and, on the other hand, he might say a great about it, and yet you not the body. Sometimes he came home with his bandaged, and then Wendy over him and it in water, while he told a tale. But she was sure, you know. There were, however, many which she to be true she was in them herself, and there were still more that were at least true, for the other boys were in them and said they were true. To them all would a book as large as an English-Latin, Latin-English Dictionary, and the most we can do is to give one as a of an hour on the island. The is which one to choose. Should we take the with the at Slightly Gulch? It was a affair, and as one of Peter’s peculiarities, which was that in the middle of a he would sides. At the Gulch, when victory was still in the balance, sometimes this way and sometimes that, he called out, “I’m to-day; what are you, Tootles?” And Tootles answered, “Redskin; what are you, Nibs?” and Nibs said, “Redskin; what are you Twin?” and so on; and they were all redskins; and of this would have ended the had not the by Peter’s methods, to be boys for that once, and so at it they all again, more than ever.
The of this was—but we have not yet that this is the we are to narrate. Perhaps a one would be the night attack by the on the house under the ground, when of them in the trees and had to be out like corks. Or we might tell how Peter saved Tiger Lily’s life in the Mermaids’ Lagoon, and so her his ally.
Or we tell of that cake the so that the boys might eat it and perish; and how they it in one spot after another; but always Wendy it from the hands of her children, so that in time it its succulence, and as hard as a stone, and was used as a missile, and Hook over it in the dark.
Or we tell of the that were Peter’s friends, particularly of the Never bird that in a tree the lagoon, and how the into the water, and still the bird sat on her eggs, and Peter gave orders that she was not to be disturbed. That is a story, and the end how a bird can be; but if we tell it we must also tell the whole of the lagoon, which would of be telling two than just one. A adventure, and as exciting, was Tinker Bell’s attempt, with the help of some fairies, to have the sleeping Wendy on a great to the mainland. Fortunately the gave way and Wendy woke, it was bath-time, and back. Or again, we might choose Peter’s of the lions, when he a circle him on the ground with an and them to it; and though he waited for hours, with the other boys and Wendy looking on from trees, not one of them to accept his challenge.
Which of these shall we choose? The best way will be to for it.
I have tossed, and the has won. This almost makes one wish that the or the cake or Tink’s had won. Of I do it again, and make it best out of three; however, to to the lagoon.
