"Oh, mummy," cried the first twin, "you mean that there is a lady also, don't you? She is not dead, is she?"

"I think I knew them," said Michael rather doubtfully.

"I am awfully glad she isn't dead," said Tootles. "Are you glad, John?"

"Listen, then, said Wendy, settling down to her story, with Michael at her feet and seven boys in the bed. "There was once a gentleman --"

"Little less noise there," Peter called out, determined that she should have fair play, however beastly a story it might be in his opinion.

"Are you glad, Nibs?"

"I wish he had been a white rat," said Nibs.

"Of course I am."

"Are you glad, Twins?"

"I had rather he had been a lady," Curly said.

"Oh, no."

"Oh dear," sighed Wendy.

"Rather."

"I knew them," John said, to annoy the others.

"We are glad."

"The gentleman's name," Wendy continued, "was Mr. Darling, and her name was Mrs. Darling."

"Quiet," their mother admonished (cautioned) them. "There was a lady also, and --"

"They were married, you know," explained Wendy, "and what do you think they had?"

"Oh dear, oh dear," sighed Wendy. "Now these three children had a faithful nurse called Nana; but Mr. Darling was angry with her and chained her up in the yard, and so all the children flew away."

"O Wendy," cried Tootles, "was one of the lost children called Tootles?"

"Quiet, Tootles. They had three descendants."

"What is descendants?"

"They flew away," Wendy continued, "to the Neverland, where the lost children are."

"It's an awfully good story," said Nibs.

"Oo!" they all moaned, though they were not really considering the feelings of the unhappy parents one jot.

"It's awfully puzzling," said Tootles, who knew the story by heart.

"No."

"Descendants are only children," said John.

"Did you hear that, John? I am a descendant."

"Yes, he was."

"Well, you are one, Twin."

"I just thought they did," Curly broke in excitedly. "I don't know how it is, but I just thought they did!"

"I am in a story. Hurrah, I am in a story, Nibs."

"White rats," cried Nibs, inspired.

"Hush. Now I want you to consider the feelings of the unhappy parents with all their children flown away."

"O Wendy, who is she?" cried Nibs, every bit as excited as if he didn't know.

"It's awfully sad," the first twin said cheerfully.

"I don't see how it can have a happy ending," said the second twin. "Do you, Nibs?"

"If you knew how great is a mother's love," Wendy told them triumphantly, "you would have no fear." She had now come to the part that Peter hated.

"Oo!"

"Let us now," said Wendy, bracing herself up for her finest effort, "take a peep into the future"; and they all gave themselves the twist that makes peeps into the future easier. "Years have rolled by, and who is this elegant lady of uncertain age alighting at London Station?"

"I do just," said Nibs, hitting back.

"Did they ever go back?"

"Think of the empty beds!"

"You see," Wendy said complacently, "our heroine knew that the mother would always leave the window open for her children to fly back by; so they stayed away for years and had a lovely time."

"I'm frightfully anxious."

"I do like a mother's love," said Tootles, hitting Nibs with a pillow. "Do you like a mother's love, Nibs?"

"Can it be -- yes -- no -- it is -- the fair Wendy!"

"Oh!"

"Oh!"

"`See, dear brothers,' says Wendy pointing upwards, `there is the window still standing open. Ah, now we are rewarded for our sublime faith in a mother's love.' So up they flew to their mummy and daddy, and pen cannot describe the happy scene, over which we draw a veil."

"And who are the two noble portly figures accompanying her, now grown to man's estate? Can they be John and Michael? They are!"

That was the story, and they were as pleased with it as the fair narrator herself. Everything just as it should be, you see. Off we skip like the most heartless things in the world, which is what children are, but so attractive; and we have an entirely selfish time, and then when we have need of special attention we nobly return for it, confident that we shall be rewarded instead of smacked.

But there was one there who knew better, and when Wendy finished he uttered a hollow groan.

So great indeed was their faith in a mother's love that they felt they could afford to be callous for a bit longer.

"What is it, Peter?" she cried, running to him, thinking he was ill. She felt him solicitously, lower down than his chest. "Where is it, Peter?"

They all gathered round him in affright, so alarming was his agitation; and with a fine candour he told them what he had hitherto concealed.

"Are you sure mothers are like that?"

"Yes."

So this was the truth about mothers. The toads!

"Long ago," he said, "I thought like you that my mother would always keep the window open for me, so I stayed away for moons and moons and moons, and then flew back; but the window was barred, for mother had forgotten all about me, and there was another little boy sleeping in my bed."

"Wendy, you are wrong about mothers."

I am not sure that this was true, but Peter thought it was true; and it scared them.

"It isn't that kind of pain," Peter replied darkly.

"Then what kind is it?"

Still it is best to be careful; and no one knows so quickly as a child when he should give in. "Wendy, let us (let's) go home," cried John and Michael together.

"Not to-night?" asked the lost boys bewildered. They knew in what they called their hearts that one can get on quite well without a mother, and that it is only the mothers who think you can't.

"Yes," she said, clutching them.

"At once," Wendy replied resolutely, for the horrible thought had come to her: "Perhaps mother is in half mourning by this time."

This dread made her forgetful of what must be Peter's feelings, and she said to him rather sharply, "Peter, will you make the necessary arrangements?"

"If you wish it," he replied, as coolly as if she had asked him to pass the nuts.

But of course he cared very much; and he was so full of wrath against grown-ups, who, as usual, were spoiling everything, that as soon as he got inside his tree he breathed intentionally quick short breaths at the rate of about five to a second. He did this because there is a saying in the Neverland that, every time you breathe, a grown-up dies; and Peter was killing them off vindictively as fast as possible.

Not so much as a sorry-to-lose-you between them! If she did not mind the parting, he was going to show her, was Peter, that neither did he.

"Let's keep her prisoner."

"It will be worse than before she came," they cried.

"I am just Tootles," he said, "and nobody minds me. But the first who does not behave to Wendy like an English gentleman I will blood him severely."

"Ay, chain her up."

He drew back his hanger; and for that instant his sun was at noon. The others held back uneasily. Then Peter returned, and they saw at once that they would get no support from him. He would keep no girl in the Neverland against her will.

"Tootles," she cried, "I appeal to you."

Was it not strange? She appealed to Tootles, quite the silliest one.

In her extremity an instinct told her to which of them to turn.

Grandly, however, did Tootles respond. For that one moment he dropped his silliness and spoke with dignity.

"We shan't let her go."

Then having given the necessary instructions to the redskins he returned to the home, where an unworthy scene had been enacted in his absence. Panic-stricken at the thought of losing Wendy the lost boys had advanced upon her threateningly.

"Wendy," he said, striding up and down, "I have asked the redskins to guide you through the wood, as flying tires you so."

"Thank you, Peter."

Nibs had to knock twice before he got an answer, though Tink had really been sitting up in bed listening for some time.

"You are to get up, Tink," Nibs called, "and take Wendy on a journey."

"Then," he continued, in the short sharp voice of one accustomed to be obeyed, "Tinker Bell will take you across the sea. Wake her, Nibs."

Of course Tink had been delighted to hear that Wendy was going; but she was jolly well determined not to be her courier, and she said so in still more offensive language. Then she pretended to be asleep again.

"Who are you? How dare you? Go away," she cried.

"She says she won't!" Nibs exclaimed, aghast at such insubordination, whereupon Peter went sternly toward the young lady's chamber.

"Tink," he rapped out, "if you don't get up and dress at once I will open the curtains, and then we shall all see you in your negligee (nightgown)."

This made her leap to the floor. "Who said I wasn't getting up?" she cried.

In the meantime the boys were gazing very forlornly at Wendy, now equipped with John and Michael for the journey. By this time they were dejected, not merely because they were about to lose her, but also because they felt that she was going off to something nice to which they had not been invited. Novelty was beckoning to them as usual.

"Dear ones," she said, "if you will all come with me I feel almost sure I can get my father and mother to adopt you."

Crediting them with a nobler feeling Wendy melted.

The invitation was meant specially for Peter, but each of the boys was thinking exclusively of himself, and at once they jumped with joy.

"Oh no," said Wendy, rapidly thinking it out, "it will only mean having a few beds in the drawing-room; they can been hidden behind the screens on first Thursdays."

"Peter, can we go?" they all cried imploringly. They took it for granted that if they went he would go also, but really they scarcely cared. Thus children are ever ready, when novelty knocks, to desert their dearest ones.

"But won't they think us rather a handful?" Nibs asked in the middle of his jump.

"And now, Peter," Wendy said, thinking she had put everything right, "I am going to give you your medicine before you go." She loved to give them medicine, and undoubtedly gave them too much. Of course it was only water, but it was out of a bottle, and she always shook the bottle and counted the drops, which gave it a certain medicinal quality. On this occasion, however, she did not give Peter his draught (portion), for just as she had prepared it, she saw a look on his face that made her heart sink.

"All right," Peter replied with a bitter smile, and immediately they rushed to get their things.

"Get your things, Peter," she cried, shaking.

"No," he answered, pretending indifference, "I am not going with you, Wendy."

"Yes, Peter."

To show that her departure would leave him unmoved, he skipped up and down the room, playing gaily on his heartless pipes. She had to run about after him, though it was rather undignified.

"No."

"To find your mother," she coaxed.

Now, if Peter had ever quite had a mother, he no longer missed her. He could do very well without one. He had thought them out, and remembered only their bad points.

She had to take his hand, and there was no indication that he would prefer a thimble.

"No."

"Now then," cried Peter, "no fuss, no blubbering; good-bye, Wendy"; and he held out his hand cheerily, quite as if they must really go now, for he had something important to do.

Peter not coming! They gazed blankly at him, their sticks over their backs, and on each stick a bundle. Their first thought was that if Peter was not going he had probably changed his mind about letting them go.

The awful cynicism of this made an uncomfortable impression, and most of them began to look rather doubtful. After all, their faces said, were they not noodles to want to go?

"But, Peter --"

"You will remember about changing your flannels, Peter?" she said, lingering over him. She was always so particular about their flannels.

"Peter isn't coming."

"No, no," he told Wendy decisively; "perhaps she would say I was old, and I just want always to be a little boy and to have fun."

But he was far too proud for that. "If you find your mothers," he said darkly, "I hope you will like them."

And so the others had to be told.

"Yes."

"Yes."

"And you will take your medicine?"

That seemed to be everything, and an awkward pause followed. Peter, however, was not the kind that breaks down before other people. "Are you ready, Tinker Bell?" he called out.

"Ay, ay."

Tink darted up the nearest tree; but no one followed her, for it was at this moment that the pirates made their dreadful attack upon the redskins. Above, where all had been so still, the air was rent with shrieks and the clash of steel. Below, there was dead silence. Mouths opened and remained open. Wendy fell on her knees, but her arms were extended toward Peter. All arms were extended to him, as if suddenly blown in his direction; they were beseeching him mutely not to desert them. As for Peter, he seized his sword, the same he thought he had slain Barbecue with, and the lust of battle was in his eye.

"Then lead the way."