Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens | Page 7

six of them took the end of the string in their beaks and
flew away with it; and to his amazement it flew after them and went
even higher than they.
Peter screamed out, "Do it again!" and with great good nature they did
it several times, and always instead of thanking them he cried, "Do it
again!" which shows that even now he had not quite forgotten what it
was to be a boy.
At last, with a grand design burning within his brave heart, he begged
them to do it once more with him clinging to the tail, and now a
hundred flew off with the string, and Peter clung to the tail, meaning to
drop off when he was over the Gardens. But the kite broke to pieces in
the air, and he would have drowned in the Serpentine had he not caught
hold of two indignant swans and made them carry him to the island.
After this the birds said that they would help him no more in his mad
enterprise.
Nevertheless, Peter did reach the Gardens at last by the help of
Shelley's boat, as I am now to tell you.
The Thrush's Nest
Shelley was a young gentleman and as grown-up as he need ever
expect to be. He was a poet; and they are never exactly grown-up. They
are people who despise money except what you need for to-day, and he

had all that and five pounds over. So, when he was walking in the
Kensington Gardens, he made a paper boat of his bank-note, and sent it
sailing on the Serpentine.
It reached the island at night: and the look-out brought it to Solomon
Caw, who thought at first that it was the usual thing, a message from a
lady, saying she would be obliged if he could let her have a good one.
They always ask for the best one he has, and if he likes the letter he
sends one from Class A, but if it ruffles him he sends very funny ones
indeed. Sometimes he sends none at all, and at another time he sends a
nestful; it all depends on the mood you catch him in. He likes you to
leave it all to him, and if you mention particularly that you hope he will
see his way to making it a boy this time, he is almost sure to send
another girl. And whether you are a lady or only a little boy who wants
a baby-sister, always take pains to write your address clearly. You can't
think what a lot of babies Solomon has sent to the wrong house.
Shelley's boat, when opened, completely puzzled Solomon, and he took
counsel of his assistants, who having walked over it twice, first with
their toes pointed out, and then with their toes pointed in, decided that
it came from some greedy person who wanted five. They thought this
because there was a large five printed on it. "Preposterous!" cried
Solomon in a rage, and he presented it to Peter; anything useless which
drifted upon the island was usually given to Peter as a play-thing.
But he did not play with his precious bank-note, for he knew what it
was at once, having been very observant during the week when he was
an ordinary boy. With so much money, he reflected, he could surely at
last contrive to reach the Gardens, and he considered all the possible
ways, and decided (wisely, I think) to choose the best way. But, first,
he had to tell the birds of the value of Shelley's boat; and though they
were too honest to demand it back, he saw that they were galled, and
they cast such black looks at Solomon, who was rather vain of his
cleverness, that he flew away to the end of the island, and sat there very
depressed with his head buried in his wings. Now Peter knew that
unless Solomon was on your side, you never got anything done for you
in the island, so he followed him and tried to hearten him.

Nor was this all that Peter did to pin the powerful old fellow's good will.
You must know that Solomon had no intention of remaining in office
all his life. He looked forward to retiring by-and-by, and devoting his
green old age to a life of pleasure on a certain yew-stump in the Figs
which had taken his fancy, and for years he had been quietly filling his
stocking. It was a stocking belonging to some bathing person which
had been cast upon the island, and at the time I speak of it contained a
hundred and eighty crumbs, thirty-four nuts, sixteen crusts, a pen-wiper
and a bootlace. When his stocking was full, Solomon calculated that he