Peter Pan
THE RETURN HOME
By three that they were all their stumps; for there was a big sea running; and Tootles, the bo’sun, was among them, with a rope’s end in his hand and tobacco. They all cut off at the knee, smartly, and up, with the true roll and their trousers.
It need not be said who was the captain. Nibs and John were and second mate. There was a woman aboard. The were the mast, and in the fo’c’sle. Peter had already himself to the wheel; but he all hands and delivered a address to them; said he they would do their like hearties, but that he they were the of Rio and the Gold Coast, and if they at him he would tear them. The the note understood, and they him lustily. Then a orders were given, and they the ship round, and her for the mainland.
Captain Pan calculated, after the ship’s chart, that if this weather they should the Azores about the 21st of June, after which it would save time to fly.
Some of them wanted it to be an ship and others were in of it a pirate; but the captain them as dogs, and they not their to him in a robin. Instant was the only safe thing. Slightly got a dozen for looking when told to take soundings. The was that Peter was just now to Wendy’s suspicions, but that there might be a when the new was ready, which, against her will, she was making for him out of some of Hook’s garments. It was among them that on the night he this he sat long in the with Hook’s cigar-holder in his mouth and one hand clenched, all but for the forefinger, which he and like a hook.
Instead of the ship, however, we must now return to that home from which three of our had taken so long ago. It a to have neglected No. 14 all this time; and yet we may be sure that Mrs. Darling not us. If we had returned sooner to look with at her, she would have cried, “Don’t be silly; what do I matter? Do go and keep an on the children.” So long as mothers are like this their children will take of them; and they may to that.
Even now we into that familiar only its are on their way home; we are on in of them to see that their are properly and that Mr. and Mrs. Darling do not go out for the evening. We are no more than servants. Why on earth should their be properly aired, that they left them in such a thankless hurry? Would it not them well right if they came and that their were the week-end in the country? It would be the lesson they have been in need of since we met them; but if we in this way Mrs. Darling would us.
One thing I should like to do immensely, and that is to tell her, in the way have, that the children are back, that they will be here on Thursday week. This would so the to which Wendy and John and Michael are looking forward. They have been it out on the ship: mother’s rapture, father’s of joy, Nana’s through the air to them first, when what they ought to be prepared for is a good hiding. How to it all by the news in advance; so that when they enter Mrs. Darling may not offer Wendy her mouth, and Mr. Darling may pettishly, “Dash it all, here are those boys again.” However, we should no thanks for this. We are to know Mrs. Darling by this time, and may be sure that she would us for the children of their little pleasure.
“But, my dear madam, it is ten days till Thursday week; so that by telling you what’s what, we can save you ten days of unhappiness.”
“Yes, but at what a cost! By the children of ten minutes of delight.”
“Oh, if you look at it in that way!”
“What other way is there in which to look at it?”
You see, the woman had no proper spirit. I had meant to say about her; but I her, and not one of them will I say now. She not need to be told to have ready, for they are ready. All the are aired, and she the house, and observe, the window is open. For all the use we are to her, we might well go to the ship. However, as we are here we may as well and look on. That is all we are, lookers-on. Nobody wants us. So let us watch and say things, in the that some of them will hurt.
The only to be in the night-nursery is that nine and six the is no longer there. When the children away, Mr. Darling in his that all the was his for having Nana up, and that from to last she had been than he. Of course, as we have seen, he was a man; he might have passed for a boy again if he had been able to take his off; but he had also a of and a lion’s to do what right to him; and having the out with after the of the children, he on all and into the kennel. To all Mrs. Darling’s dear to him to come out he sadly but firmly:
“No, my own one, this is the place for me.”
In the of his he that he would the until his children came back. Of this was a pity; but Mr. Darling did he had to do in excess, otherwise he soon gave up doing it. And there was a more man than the once proud George Darling, as he sat in the of an talking with his wife of their children and all their ways.
Very was his to Nana. He would not let her come into the kennel, but on all other he her implicitly.
Every the was with Mr. Darling in it to a cab, which him to his office, and he returned home in the same way at six. Something of the of of the man will be if we how he was to the opinion of neighbours: this man every movement now attention. Inwardly he must have torture; but he a when the his little home, and he always his to any lady who looked inside.
It may have been Quixotic, but it was magnificent. Soon the meaning of it out, and the great of the public was touched. Crowds the cab, it lustily; girls it to his autograph; appeared in the class of papers, and him to dinner and added, “Do come in the kennel.”
On that Thursday week, Mrs. Darling was in the night-nursery George’s return home; a very sad-eyed woman. Now that we look at her closely and the of her in the old days, all gone now just she has her babes, I I won’t be able to say about her after all. If she was too of her children, she couldn’t help it. Look at her in her chair, where she has asleep. The of her mouth, where one looks first, is almost up. Her hand moves on her as if she had a pain there. Some like Peter best, and some like Wendy best, but I like her best. Suppose, to make her happy, we to her in her sleep that the are back. They are two miles of the window now, and strong, but all we need is that they are on the way. Let’s.
It is a we did it, for she has started up, calling their names; and there is no one in the room but Nana.
“O Nana, I my dear ones had come back.”
Nana had eyes, but all she do was put her on her mistress’s lap; and they were together thus when the was back. As Mr. Darling puts his out to his wife, we see that his is more than of yore, but has a expression.
He gave his to Liza, who took it scornfully; for she had no imagination, and was of the of such a man. Outside, the who had the home were still cheering, and he was naturally not unmoved.
“Listen to them,” he said; “it is very gratifying.”
“Lots of little boys,” Liza.
“There were to-day,” he her with a flush; but when she her he had not a word of for her. Social success had not him; it had him sweeter. For some time he sat with his out of the kennel, talking with Mrs. Darling of this success, and pressing her hand when she said she his would not be by it.
“But if I had been a weak man,” he said. “Good heavens, if I had been a weak man!”
“And, George,” she said timidly, “you are as full of as ever, aren’t you?”
“Full of as ever, dearest! See my punishment: in a kennel.”
“But it is punishment, isn’t it, George? You are sure you are not it?”
“My love!”
You may be sure she his pardon; and then, drowsy, he in the kennel.
“Won’t you play me to sleep,” he asked, “on the piano?” and as she was to the day-nursery he added thoughtlessly, “And that window. I a draught.”
“O George, ask me to do that. The window must always be left open for them, always, always.”
Now it was his turn to her pardon; and she into the day-nursery and played, and soon he was asleep; and while he slept, Wendy and John and Michael into the room.
Oh no. We have it so, that was the planned by them we left the ship; but something must have since then, for it is not they who have in, it is Peter and Tinker Bell.
Peter’s tell all.
“Quick Tink,” he whispered, “close the window; it! That’s right. Now you and I must away by the door; and when Wendy comes she will think her mother has her out; and she will have to go with me.”
Now I what had puzzled me, why when Peter had the he did not return to the and Tink to the children to the mainland. This had been in his all the time.
Instead of that he was he with glee; then he into the day-nursery to see who was playing. He to Tink, “It’s Wendy’s mother! She is a lady, but not so as my mother. Her mouth is full of thimbles, but not so full as my mother’s was.”
Of he nothing about his mother; but he sometimes about her.
He did not know the tune, which was “Home, Sweet Home,” but he it was saying, “Come back, Wendy, Wendy, Wendy”; and he exultantly, “You will see Wendy again, lady, for the window is barred!”
He in again to see why the music had stopped, and now he saw that Mrs. Darling had her on the box, and that two were on her eyes.
“She wants me to the window,” Peter, “but I won’t, not I!”
He again, and the were still there, or another two had taken their place.
“She’s of Wendy,” he said to himself. He was angry with her now for not why she not have Wendy.
The was so simple: “I’m of her too. We can’t have her, lady.”
But the lady would not make the best of it, and he was unhappy. He to look at her, but then she would not let go of him. He about and faces, but when he stopped it was just as if she were him, knocking.
“Oh, all right,” he said at last, and gulped. Then he the window. “Come on, Tink,” he cried, with a at the laws of nature; “we don’t want any mothers;” and he away.
Thus Wendy and John and Michael the window open for them after all, which of was more than they deserved. They on the floor, of themselves, and the one had already his home.
“John,” he said, looking around him doubtfully, “I think I have been here before.”
“Of you have, you silly. There is your old bed.”
“So it is,” Michael said, but not with much conviction.
“I say,” John, “the kennel!” and he across to look into it.
“Perhaps Nana is it,” Wendy said.
But John whistled. “Hullo,” he said, “there’s a man it.”
“It’s father!” Wendy.
“Let me see father,” Michael eagerly, and he took a good look. “He is not so big as the I killed,” he said with such that I am Mr. Darling was asleep; it would have been sad if those had been the he his little Michael say.
Wendy and John had been taken at their father in the kennel.
“Surely,” said John, like one who had in his memory, “he used not to sleep in the kennel?”
“John,” Wendy said falteringly, “perhaps we don’t the old life as well as we we did.”
A upon them; and them right.
“It is very careless of mother,” said that John, “not to be here when we come back.”
It was then that Mrs. Darling playing again.
“It’s mother!” Wendy, peeping.
“So it is!” said John.
“Then are you not our mother, Wendy?” asked Michael, who was surely sleepy.
“Oh dear!” Wendy, with her of remorse, “it was time we came back.”
“Let us in,” John suggested, “and put our hands over her eyes.”
But Wendy, who saw that they must the news more gently, had a plan.
“Let us all into our beds, and be there when she comes in, just as if we had been away.”
And so when Mrs. Darling to the night-nursery to see if her husband was asleep, all the were occupied. The children waited for her of joy, but it did not come. She saw them, but she did not they were there. You see, she saw them in their so often in her that she this was just the around her still.
She sat in the chair by the fire, where in the old days she had nursed them.
They not this, and a cold upon all the three of them.
“Mother!” Wendy cried.
“That’s Wendy,” she said, but still she was sure it was the dream.
“Mother!”
“That’s John,” she said.
“Mother!” Michael. He her now.
“That’s Michael,” she said, and she out her arms for the three little selfish children they would again. Yes, they did, they Wendy and John and Michael, who had out of and to her.
“George, George!” she when she speak; and Mr. Darling to her bliss, and Nana came in. There not have been a sight; but there was none to see it a little boy who was in at the window. He had had that other children can know; but he was looking through the window at the one from which he must be for barred.
