Peter Pan | Page 3

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This edition of Peter Pan has been created in the United States of America from a comparison of various editions determined by age to be in the Public Domain in the United States. There are questions concerning the copyright status in other countries, particulary in members or former members of the British Commonwealth. Anyone who can contribute information as to the copyrights status of earliest editions is encouraged to do so. For the present, this edition of Peter Pan is restricted to the United States, and is not to be for use or included in any storage or retrieval system in any country, other than the United States of America. To assist in the preservation of this edition in proper usage, our edition is claimed as copyright (c)1991 due to our preparations of several sources, our own research, and the inclusions of additions and explanations to the original sources.
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PETER PAN [PETER AND WENDY] BY J. M. BARRIE [James Matthew Barrie]
A Millennium Fulcrum Edition (c)1991 by Duncan Research
Contents ---------


Chapter 1
PETER BREAKS THROUGH


Chapter 2
THE SHADOW


Chapter 3
COME AWAY, COME AWAY!


Chapter 4
THE FLIGHT


Chapter 5
THE ISLAND COME TRUE


Chapter 6
THE LITTLE HOUSE


Chapter 7
THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND


Chapter 8
THE MERMAID'S LAGOON


Chapter 9
THE NEVER BIRD


Chapter 10
THE HAPPY HOME


Chapter 11
WENDY'S STORY


Chapter 12
THE CHILDREN ARE CARRIED OFF


Chapter 13
DO YOU BELIEVE IN FARIES?


Chapter 14
THE PIRATE SHIP


Chapter 15
"HOOK OR ME THIS TIME"


Chapter 16
THE RETURN HOME


Chapter 17
WHEN WENDY GREW UP


Chapter 1
PETER BREAKS THROUGH
All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, "Oh, why can't you remain like this for ever!" This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.
Of course they lived at 14 [their house number on their street], and until Wendy came her mother was the chief one. She was a lovely lady, with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth. Her romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and her sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, though there is was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner.
The way Mr. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who had been boys 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, who took a cab and nipped in first, and so he got her. He got all of her, except the innermost box and the kiss. He never knew about the box, and in time he gave up trying for the kiss. Wendy thought Napoleon could have got it, but I can picture him trying, and then going off in a passion, slamming the door.
Mr. Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only loved him but respected him. He was one of those deep ones who know about stocks and shares. Of course no one really knows, but he quite seemed to know, and he often said stocks were up and shares were down in a way that would have made any woman respect him.
Mrs. Darling was married in white, and at first she kept the books perfectly, almost gleefully, as if it were a game, not so much as a Brussels sprout was missing; but by and by whole cauliflowers dropped out, and instead of them there were pictures of babies without faces. She drew them when she should have been totting up. They were Mrs. Darling's guesses.
Wendy came first, then John, then Michael.
For a week or two after Wendy came it was doubtful whether they would be able to keep her, as she was another mouth to feed. Mr. Darling was frightfully proud of her, but he was very honourable, and he sat on the edge of Mrs. Darling's bed, holding her hand and calculating expenses, while she looked at him imploringly.