Chapter III. COME AWAY, COME AWAY! · page 31 2 3 4201“Wendy, do come with me and tell the other boys.”202Of course she was very pleased to be asked, but she said, “Oh dear, I can’t.203Think of mummy!204Besides, I can’t fly.”205“I’ll teach you.”206“Oh, how lovely to fly.”207“I’ll teach you how to jump on the wind’s back, and then away we go.”208“Oo!” she exclaimed rapturously.209“Wendy, Wendy, when you are sleeping in your silly bed you might be flying about with me saying funny things to the stars.”210“Oo!”211“And, Wendy, there are mermaids.”212“Mermaids!213With tails?”214“Such long tails.”215“Oh,” cried Wendy, “to see a mermaid!”216He had become frightfully cunning.217“Wendy,” he said, “how we should all respect you.”218She was wriggling her body in distress.219It was quite as if she were trying to remain on the nursery floor.220But he had no pity for her.221“Wendy,” he said, the sly one, “you could tuck us in at night.”222“Oo!”223“None of us has ever been tucked in at night.”224“Oo,” and her arms went out to him.225“And you could darn our clothes, and make pockets for us.226None of us has any pockets.”227How could she resist.228“Of course it’s awfully fascinating!” she cried.229“Peter, would you teach John and Michael to fly too?”230“If you like,” he said indifferently, and she ran to John and Michael and shook them.231“Wake up,” she cried, “Peter Pan has come and he is to teach us to fly.”232John rubbed his eyes.233“Then I shall get up,” he said.234Of course he was on the floor already.235“Hallo,” he said, “I am up!”236Michael was up by this time also, looking as sharp as a knife with six blades and a saw, but Peter suddenly signed silence.237Their faces assumed the awful craftiness of children listening for sounds from the grown-up world.238All was as still as salt.239Then everything was right.240No, stop!241Everything was wrong.242Nana, who had been barking distressfully all the evening, was quiet now.243It was her silence they had heard.244“Out with the light!245Hide!246Quick!” cried John, taking command for the only time throughout the whole adventure.247And thus when Liza entered, holding Nana, the nursery seemed quite its old self, very dark, and you would have sworn you heard its three wicked inmates breathing angelically as they slept.248They were really doing it artfully from behind the window curtains.249Liza was in a bad temper, for she was mixing the Christmas puddings in the kitchen, and had been drawn from them, with a raisin still on her cheek, by Nana’s absurd suspicions.250She thought the best way of getting a little quiet was to take Nana to the nursery for a moment, but in custody of course.251“There, you suspicious brute,” she said, not sorry that Nana was in disgrace.252“They are perfectly safe, aren’t they?253Every one of the little angels sound asleep in bed.254Listen to their gentle breathing.”255Here Michael, encouraged by his success, breathed so loudly that they were nearly detected.256Nana knew that kind of breathing, and she tried to drag herself out of Liza’s clutches.257But Liza was dense.258“No more of it, Nana,” she said sternly, pulling her out of the room.259“I warn you if you bark again I shall go straight for master and missus and bring them home from the party, and then, oh, won’t master whip you, just.”260She tied the unhappy dog up again, but do you think Nana ceased to bark?261Bring master and missus home from the party!262Why, that was just what she wanted.263Do you think she cared whether she was whipped so long as her charges were safe?264Unfortunately Liza returned to her puddings, and Nana, seeing that no help would come from her, strained and strained at the chain until at last she broke it.265In another moment she had burst into the dining-room of 27 and flung up her paws to heaven, her most expressive way of making a communication.266Mr. and Mrs. Darling knew at once that something terrible was happening in their nursery, and without a good-bye to their hostess they rushed into the street.267But it was now ten minutes since three scoundrels had been breathing behind the curtains, and Peter Pan can do a great deal in ten minutes.268We now return to the nursery.269“It’s all right,” John announced, emerging from his hiding-place.270“I say, Peter, can you really fly?”271Instead of troubling to answer him Peter flew around the room, taking the mantelpiece on the way.272“How topping!” said John and Michael.273“How sweet!” cried Wendy.274“Yes, I’m sweet, oh, I am sweet!” said Peter, forgetting his manners again.275It looked delightfully easy, and they tried it first from the floor and then from the beds, but they always went down instead of up.276“I say, how do you do it?” asked John, rubbing his knee.277He was quite a practical boy.278“You just think lovely wonderful thoughts,” Peter explained, “and they lift you up in the air.”279He showed them again.280“You’re so nippy at it,” John said, “couldn’t you do it very slowly once?”281Peter did it both slowly and quickly.282“I’ve got it now, Wendy!” cried John, but soon he found he had not.283Not one of them could fly an inch, though even Michael was in words of two syllables, and Peter did not know A from Z.284Of course Peter had been trifling with them, for no one can fly unless the fairy dust has been blown on him.285Fortunately, as we have mentioned, one of his hands was messy with it, and he blew some on each of them, with the most superb results.286“Now just wiggle your shoulders this way,” he said, “and let go.”287They were all on their beds, and gallant Michael let go first.288He did not quite mean to let go, but he did it, and immediately he was borne across the room.289“I flewed!” he screamed while still in mid-air.290John let go and met Wendy near the bathroom.291“Oh, lovely!”292“Oh, ripping!”293“Look at me!”294“Look at me!”295“Look at me!”296They were not nearly so elegant as Peter, they could not help kicking a little, but their heads were bobbing against the ceiling, and there is almost nothing so delicious as that.297Peter gave Wendy a hand at first, but had to desist, Tink was so indignant.298Up and down they went, and round and round.299Heavenly was Wendy’s word.300“I say,” cried John, “why shouldn’t we all go out?”1 2 3 4← previousChapter II. 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