Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens | Page 5

James M. Barrie

even then he did not know that, for a bird, he was sitting on his wrong
part. It is a blessing that he did not know, for otherwise he would have
lost faith in his power to fly, and the moment you doubt whether you
can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it. The reason birds can fly
and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to
have wings.
Now, except by flying, no one can reach the island in the Serpentine,
for the boats of humans are forbidden to land there, and there are stakes
round it, standing up in the water, on each of which a bird-sentinel sits
by day and night. It was to the island that Peter now flew to put his
strange case before old Solomon Caw, and he alighted on it with relief,
much heartened to find himself at last at home, as the birds call the
island. All of them were asleep, including the sentinels, except
Solomon, who was wide awake on one side, and he listened quietly to
Peter's adventures, and then told him their true meaning.
"Look at your night-gown, if you don't believe me," Solomon said, and
with staring eyes Peter looked at his nightgown, and then at the
sleeping birds. Not one of them wore anything.
"How many of your toes are thumbs?" said Solomon a little cruelly,
and Peter saw to his consternation, that all his toes were fingers. The
shock was so great that it drove away his cold.
"Ruffle your feathers," said that grim old Solomon, and Peter tried most
desperately hard to ruffle his feathers, but he had none. Then he rose up,
quaking, and for the first time since he stood on the window-ledge, he
remembered a lady who had been very fond of him.

"I think I shall go back to mother," he said timidly.
"Good-bye," replied Solomon Caw with a queer look.
But Peter hesitated. "Why don't you go?" the old one asked politely.
"I suppose," said Peter huskily, "I suppose I can still fly?"
You see, he had lost faith.
"Poor little half-and-half," said Solomon, who was not really
hard-hearted, "you will never be able to fly again, not even on windy
days. You must live here on the island always."
"And never even go to the Kensington Gardens?" Peter asked
tragically.
"How could you get across?" said Solomon. He promised very kindly,
however, to teach Peter as many of the bird ways as could be learned
by one of such an awkward shape.
"Then I sha'n't be exactly a human?" Peter asked.
"No."
"Nor exactly a bird?"
"No."
"What shall I be?"
"You will be a Betwixt-and-Between," Solomon said, and certainly he
was a wise old fellow, for that is exactly how it turned out.
The birds on the island never got used to him. His oddities tickled them
every day, as if they were quite new, though it was really the birds that
were new. They came out of the eggs daily, and laughed at him at once,
then off they soon flew to be humans, and other birds came out of other
eggs, and so it went on forever. The crafty mother-birds, when they

tired of sitting on their eggs, used to get the young one to break their
shells a day before the right time by whispering to them that now was
their chance to see Peter washing or drinking or eating. Thousands
gathered round him daily to watch him do these things, just as you
watch the peacocks, and they screamed with delight when he lifted the
crusts they flung him with his hands instead of in the usual way with
the mouth. All his food was brought to him from the Gardens at
Solomon's orders by the birds. He would not eat worms or insects
(which they thought very silly of him), so they brought him bread in
their beaks. Thus, when you cry out, "Greedy! Greedy!" to the bird that
flies away with the big crust, you know now that you ought not to do
this, for he is very likely taking it to Peter Pan.
Peter wore no night-gown now. You see, the birds were always begging
him for bits of it to line their nests with, and, being very good-natured,
he could not refuse, so by Solomon's advice he had hidden what was
left of it. But, though he was now quite naked, you must not think that
he was cold or unhappy. He was usually very happy and gay, and the
reason was that Solomon had kept his promise and taught him many of
the bird ways. To be easily pleased, for instance, and always to be
really doing something, and to think
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