Wendy saw the shadow on the floor. She smiled, and she emphatically declared that soap was no good.
“I shall sew it on for you” she said, and she got out her sewing bag, and sewed the shadow on to Peter’s foot.
It was the right thing to do, for the shadow held on beautifully, and Peter was so delighted that he began to dance.
“How clever I am!” cried Peter.
The conceit of Peter was one of his most fascinating qualities. Wendy was shocked. “You conceit![26],” she exclaimed, with frightful sarcasm; “of course I did nothing!” “You did a little,” Peter said carelessly, and continued to dance.
“A little!” she replied; “if I am no use I can at least withdraw,” and she sprang into bed and covered her face with the blankets.
“Oh! Wendy, please don’t withdraw,” Peter exclaimed in great distress “I am very sorry.
Wendy, one girl is more use than twenty boys.” This was rather clever of Peter, and at these sensible words Wendy got up again. Wendy peeped out of the bed-clothes.
“Do you really think so, Peter?” “Yes, I do.” Wendy smiled. She even offered to give Peter a kiss if he liked. But the poor boy did not even know what a kiss was. Wendy decided to give him a thimble.
Peter admired the thimble very much. “Shall I give you a kiss?” he asked and, jerking a button off his coat, solemnly presented it to her.
Wendy at once fastened it on a chain which she wore round her neck. Afterwards it saved her life.
“Peter, how old are you?” asked Wendy.
“I don’t know, but quite young. I ran away the day I was born.”
Wendy was quite surprised, but interested.
“Ran away – why?”
“Because I heard my father and mother talking about what I was to be when I became a man. I don’t want to be a man. I want always to be a little boy and have fun. So I ran away and lived among the fairies.”
After a minute Wendy said, “Peter, do you really know fairies?”
“Yes, but they’re nearly all dead now. You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now, whenever a new baby is born, its first laugh becomes a fairy. Children soon won’t believe in fairies, and whenever a child says, ‘I don’t believe in fairies,’ there’s a fairy somewhere that falls down dead[27].”
Really, he thought they now talked enough about fairies. He looked about the room and it struck him that Tinker Bell disappeared! He called Tink by name.
“Peter,” cried Wendy, “is there a fairy in this room?”
“She was here just now,” he said a little impatiently. “You don’t hear her, do you?” and they both listened.
“The only sound I hear,” said Wendy, “is like a tinkle of bells.”
Peter, who knew the fairy language, of course understood it.
“Well, that’s Tink, that’s the fairy language. I think I hear her too.”
The sound came from the chest of drawers[28], and Peter made a merry face.
“Wendy,” he whispered, “I shut her up in the drawer!”
He pulled open the drawer, and out sprang Tinker Bell, very angry with him.
“Of course I’m very sorry, but how could I know you were in the drawer?”
Wendy saw the romantic figure on the cuckoo clock. “O the lovely!” she cried, though Tink’s face was still distorted with passion.
“Tink,” said Peter amiably, “this lady says she wishes you were her fairy.”
Tinker Bell answered insolently.
“What does she say, Peter?”
“She is not very polite. She says you are a great ugly girl, and that she is my fairy.”
He tried to argue with Tink. “You know you can’t be my fairy, Tink, because I am an gentleman and you are a lady.”
Tink disappeared into the bathroom. “She is quite a common fairy,” Peter explained.
They were together in the armchair by this time, and Wendy plied him with more questions.
“Peter, if you don’t live with the fairies, where do you live?”
“I live with the Lost Boys.”
“Who are they?”
“They are the children who fall out of their perambulators when the nurse is looking the other way[29]. If they are not claimed[30] in seven days they are sent far away to the Neverland to defray expenses. I’m their Captain.”
“Oh! What fun!”
“Yes,” said Peter, “but we are rather lonely. You see we have no girls there.”
“Are none of the others girls?”
“Oh, no; girls, you know, are much too clever to fall out of their prams.”
“You are very kind,” said Wendy, “so you may give me a kiss. It’s like this.” She kissed him.
“Funny!” said Peter gravely. “Now shall I give you a kiss?”
“If you wish to,” said Wendy.
But suddenly Wendy cried, “Somebody was pulling my hair.”
“That must be Tink. I never knew her so naughty before.”
“Oh! But, Peter, why did you come to our nursery window?”
“You see, I don’t know any stories. None of the Lost Boys knows any stories.”
“How perfectly awful,” Wendy said.
Peter came to listen to the lovely stories Wendy’s mother related to her children, for the Lost Boys had no mothers, and no one to tell them any stories. He also told her how he led them against their enemies, the pirates and the wolves, and how they liked to bath in the Lagoon, where beautiful mermaids sang and swam all day long.
“O Wendy, your mother was telling you such a lovely story!”
“Which story was it?”
“About the prince who couldn’t find the lady who wore the glass slipper.”
You conceit! – Ах ты воображала!
falls down dead – падает замертво
chest of drawers – комод
to look the other way – смотреть в другую сторону
If they are not claimed – Если никто не потребует их обратно
