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    Peter Pan (Painted Edition)
    Peter Pan (Painted Edition)
    Peter Pan (Painted Edition)
    Ebook190 pages2 hours

    Peter Pan (Painted Edition)

    By J.M. Barrie

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Relive the magic of finding Neverland in this beautiful Painted Edition of Peter Pan. This classic tale of never growing up and found family will delight new readers and old as they follow Wendy, Michael and John on this timeless adventure.

    This magical classic tale of childhood is now available in an exclusive collector's edition, featuring beautiful cover art from artist Laci Fowler and decorative interior pages, making it ideal for fiction lovers and book collectors alike.

    Beloved by fans around the world,?Peter Pan?is the story of a little boy who doesn’t want to grow up. This time-honored classic is now available as an exclusive collector's edition.

    Whether you're buying it as a gift or for yourself, this remarkable edition features:

    • A beautiful, high-end hardcover featuring Laci Fowler’s distinctive hand-painted art and high-end embossing/debossing treatments to bring the art to life
    • Embossed cover art and gold foiling
    • Details of the story are incorporated into the cover art as surprise finds
    • Decorative interior pages featuring pull quotes throughout
    • Matching ribbon marker and gold page edges
    • Part of a 4-volume collection including?Anne of Green Gables,?The Secret Garden, and?Winnie the Pooh
    • An excellent gift for teachers, librarians, or children's classic collectors

    In pursuit of his lost shadow, a young boy named Peter Pan enters the bedroom of three children named Wendy, Michael, and John. After Wendy manages to reattach Peter's shadow, Peter asks the three children to come with him to Neverland, the place where they’ll never have to grow up.

    When Wendy and her brothers journey with Peter to Neverland and meet his ageless band of Lost Boys, they realize Neverland isn’t as perfect as it seems when they meet the evil Captain Hook.

    Exploring the time-honored themes of the magic of imagination, courage, and the beauty of parental love, this unique collector’s edition presents J. M. Barrie’s beloved tale of friendship, memory, and family in a giftable new way.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateJul 4, 2023
    ISBN9781400336128
    Peter Pan (Painted Edition)
    Author

    J.M. Barrie

    J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright. Born in Kirriemuir, Barrie was raised in a strict Calvinist family. At the age of six, he lost his brother David to an ice-skating accident, a tragedy which left his family devastated and led to a strengthening in Barrie’s relationship with his mother. At school, he developed a passion for reading and acting, forming a drama club with his friends in Glasgow. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, he found work as a journalist for the Nottingham Journal while writing the stories that would become his first novels. The Little White Bird (1902), a blend of fairytale fiction and social commentary, was his first novel to feature the beloved character Peter Pan, who would take the lead in his 1904 play Peter Pan; or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, later adapted for a 1911 novel and immortalized in the 1953 Disney animated film. A friend of Robert Louis Stevenson, George Bernard Shaw, and H. G. Wells, Barrie is known for his relationship with the Llewelyn Davies family, whose young boys were the inspiration for his stories of Peter Pan’s adventures with Wendy, Tinker Bell, and the Lost Boys on the island of Neverland.

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    Reviews for Peter Pan (Painted Edition)

    4/5

    3,225 ratings132 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Wendy, John and Michael embark on an amazing adventure in Neveland with the eternal boy - Peter Pan. A true classic of children's literature that holds up amazingly well in both pacing and plot.
    • 4/5
      Such a beautiful book...after growing up with more child-friendly Peter Pan adaptations, it was refreshing to read this novel. I loved the cruelness/childlike nature of Peter himself, as well as the interactions between him, the pirates, and the lost boys. It has its rightful place as being a classic, and is an excellent and quick read.
    • 4/5
      Really, it's about Wendy growing up.
    • 5/5
      I have reenacted the story of Peter Pan, in the staring role myself, countless times throughout my childhood. The story of Neverland and the lost boys, the pirates, it all has fascinated me for a very long time. Last Christmas my husband got me tickets to see a reinterpretation of the play and it was the two of us, and two hundred children at the Arden Theater in Philadelphia. It’s a deep and abiding love I have for these characters, and their creator, J. M. Barrie.

      J. M. Barrie wrote Peter Pan, I am convinced, with the primary purpose of it being read aloud to children. Often times he address the reader and his prose affects that of a parent telling a tale that is well known and well recited. There are times when it goes on a bit too long – as when the children are first flying to Neverland – and there are words and turns of phrase that one would never find in a book published in the 21st century. However, as such is also offers a wonderful teaching point for small children (I refer here to the terms used for Tiger Lily and her community) as to not only how we address different groups of people, but also how language and society change over time.

      For being more than a century old, Peter’s tale is still one of childhood adventure and, most importantly in this, the technology age, of using your imagination. Children should have the opportunity to play act, to feel wild and free in the great outdoors, to be able to fall down and skin their knees without adults hovering over them waiting for the first sign of stress or a tear. Peter Pan embraces all that makes childhood exciting, and for that reason, and so many more, it is the perfect book for children of all ages.
    • 3/5
      Summary: Short punchy adventure story for kids and adults who want to remember what it was like to be a kid.

      Things I liked:

      * Perspective: I really loved the way he was able to really nail the way some kids look at the world (or at least it reminded me of how I used to see the world when I was a kid).

      * The narrators voice. The charming English professor style reminded me of books like Narnia and The Once and Future King.

      * The dark undertones: I definitely felt the author trying to share a few things outside of a kids adventure story, it made me glad to be reading a book versus watching a movie.


      Things I didn't like:

      * The perspective changed quite a bit quite quickly (made it a little hard to follow sometimes).

      * Some of the characters felt a little boxed up. You got given a character portrait versus the opportunity to find out about the character from their words and actions (made it a little bit more like a comic book or a fairy tale then a novel.

      Highlight: The end with Wendy and her daughter. The cumulation of the novel made me sad and happy. I think sticking to the character of Pan versus taking the easy option of having everyone live happily ever after was bold and effective choice. I loved the bitter-sweet feeling it left me with. . I remember about two pages into the book I had a great tingly feeling that made me already glad I was reading a book versus watching a disney movie.
    • 4/5
      Of course, I'd seen the Disney version many times before reading the original. I'd also read the delightfully adventurous Peter Pan and the Starcatchers series by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. No surprise that the original from 1911 was quite different from either - especially in the character of Peter Pan himself. In the original he is portrayed as much younger, more naive, selfish, and unable to focus on anything of import for more than a few minutes... just like a five or six year old child generally is. Wendy's portrayal seems slightly misogynistic by today's standards, as even in Neverland, she seems happy to stay home darning the boys socks while they go off on adventures. And the racist portrayals of the "redskins" is atrocious. Nonetheless, I was surprised to find a few tears slipping down my cheeks as I read the last couple of chapters. The book is, after all, about both the joys and the tragedy of growing up, and losing the magic of childhood.
    • 2/5
      This is surely going to be an unpopular opinion and likely to give me some hate, but I didn't like this one much. Some social commentary, some 19th/early 20th-century racism, some platitudes, a crude story and a lot of wound up nonsense.
      3* for some thoughts and the literary and cultural merit it seems to have earned only.
      Edit: I've got to lower its rating down to 2*. The book is far too boring and not ok for me to get a neutral rating. 
    • 2/5
      Meh. This barely gets 2 stars--only for the gleefully inappropriate content like the mention of fairie orgies that wouldn't fly in today's kids lit. But the racism and sexism. Woof.
    • 2/5
      Peter is a terrible child. Wendy is forced into heteronormative mommyhood. First Peoples are made into racial stereotypes (time context obviously, BUT STILL). Basically, this is all the things I don't like packaged into a "children's book." It seriously lacked Christopher Walken's drunken acting, which added some needed hilarity to the 2014 live production.
    • 3/5
      I wanted to like this more because Tinkerbell is my favorite Disney character, but this story was just okay. Tinkerbell was the selfish witch that I love, so she withstood the test of time. My favorite characters were the pirates because they were supposed to be unlikeable. The rest were mostly just annoying. I think the story fell victim to the time period in which it was written. I'm glad I read it, but I doubt I'd read it again.
    • 3/5
      I thought this was going to be a fun and cute read. It wasn't. This was more dark and creepy that I suspected.
      Still a good world, that's why is 3 stars.
    • 3/5
      I have found now that I am older I usually don't enjoy most middle grade books. It was interesting to see the difference between this and the Disney version but it just wasn't one that I couldn't put down. I found myself skimming through and just wanted to get it finished. They just don't hold my attention.
    • 3/5
      Not what I expected, was more weird than the Disney version.
    • 4/5
      Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie was originally a play written in 1904 that the author adapted to novel-form in 1911. It is truly a children’s classic with the play still being performed, the book read and the movies made about Peter Pan still being watched. This is a children’s adventure story that encourages children to dream and use their imagination. The author included pirates, Indians, mermaids and fairies in the story as well as an endearing group of lost boys that Wendy looks after when she arrives in Neverland.

      This original story enchants with it’s magical plot and rich descriptive writing. There is also a dark undertone to this story of a little boy who never wants to grow up and tries to keep Wendy and the others from growing up as well. The idea of one’s children being stolen away is not a happy one, but I don’t believe most children understand the pain that this causes the parents. The fact that Peter continued to visit Wendy until she was an adult and then turned his attention on her daughter was quite creepy to me.

      I wasn’t sure if I had read this book before, but once I got into the story, I am convinced that it was read to me when I was young. This is a much darker story than the Walt Disney version but certainly deserves its place on the shelf of children’s beloved literature.
    • 4/5
      Good Fun in an Updated Adaptation
      Review of the Audible Original audiobook (Dec. 2019) adapted & dramatized by Paul Magrs from the original play "Peter Pan" (1904) and the novels "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens" (1906) and "Peter and Wendy" (1911) by J.M. Barrie.

      Paul Magrs adaptation updates the standard Peter Pan story from early in the 20th century to a time during the Blitz in World War II. I'm not quite sure what purpose that serves except that it makes for a better excuse for the children to want to escape from their real-life world? The other main change is that the canonical Indian tribe of the J.M. Barrie original has been PC converted to a "Lost Girls" tribe with Princess Tiger Lily intact, although they still beat on tom tom drums. There was also a bit of mild cussing that I'm sure was not present in the originals. Was that actually Wendy saying to Captain Hook to "stick it up his bum"?

      Slight shock elements aside, this was a lot of fun. The outstanding performances were definitely from Rubert Everett as Captain Hook and Adeel Akhtar as Smee, who were gleefully over the top in their roles.

      Peter Pan was one of the free Audible Originals for members in December 2019. It is available to everyone for a standard price.
    • 5/5
      A delightful tale for the young and young at heart. Adapted and retold many times in film and other books, the story of Peter Pan is one that will live in our hearts forever. If you've enjoyed any of the adaptations, I highly encourage you to go back to the source and read the original.
    • 4/5
      As an adult going back through books I read as a child, this books has grown so much more heavy. I know from people that have been in my life they are not the biggest fan.
      I have remained deeply attached to this book but maybe not the light hearted lines but the more so the in-between the lines part.

      As a mother myself with a little one of my own who regularly searches for fairies, I believe the book has just become that much more sentimental.
    • 4/5
      Although the story was very familiar to me, I don’t recall ever reading the book before. I saw the Mary Martin version on TV as a child. It struck me this time around how odd the plot is, with everyone expecting Wendy to assume the role of mother to Peter and the Lost Boys. Things have changed in the century since this book was written. Infant and child mortality was a lot higher in the early 20th century than it is now. Women’s mortality from childbirth (or other causes) was also a lot higher then. Children who had lost their mothers, or who had friends or relations who had lost their mothers, might see themselves among the motherless children of Neverland. The story may not resonate with 21st century children in the same way, and that’s a good thing.
    • 3/5
      3.5

      This was better than I expected. The ending brought it all full circle. A nice little touching piece with the theme of childhood intertwining with the yarn.
    • 4/5
      I've always loved the story of Peter Pan and finally got around to reading the book. I think that it brought out the character of Peter more than I was used to and I really enjoyed that.
    • 2/5
      Maybe I would have enjoyed this book more if I'd read it as a child, but as an adult I found it just annoyed me, tremendously, especially the character of Peter. I think this is one case in which the Disney adaption was better than the source. Seriously.
    • 4/5
      I knew the basic story of Peter Pan; still, I was a little surprised at just how dark the book is. I loved the writing style, and the adventure and excitement, but the ending and Peter in general made me sad.

      I tried to read this with my 6-year-old, but had a hard time keeping his interest. He loved the illustrations and interactive elements of this gorgeous edition.
    • 4/5
      I was pleased with how close this is to the stage play (a favorite of my childhood). After Peter Pan in Kensington Park, I expected this to suck. Color me pleasantly surprised.
    • 4/5
      Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie is the classical tale of Peter Pan that boy who could not grow up and his adventures in Neverland with Wendy, lost boys, Tinkerbell and Captain Hook. The book have beautiful illustration throughout and is written like a beginners chapter book The first chapters of Peter Pan begins with Peter Pan visiting Wendy, John and Michael Darling, later with Tinkerbell who help the children fly with the help of fairy dust to Neverland . In Neverland the children met the Lost Boys, the Natives and Captain Hook and set sail on a fun adventure. The theme of this book is childhood and imagination which is shown through the character Peter Pan.
    • 5/5
      Peter Pan, written by J.M. Barrie is just one variation of the well known Disney classic Peter Pan. The story is about a little boy who didn't want to grow up and lives on an island called Neverland. He has adventures and a well known enemy called Captain Hook. The story is about a girl named Wendy and her two brothers who fly off to Neverland with a boy named Peter Pan and they go on many awfully big adventures.

      This story is a classic and one of the older chapter book versions of Peter Pan. Its story is slightly different from the well known Disney Peter Pan and one that I believe students would love to read. I hope to someday be able to teach a middle school English class and have them read this book for many reasons. It is a story that I love and am passionate about and I believe I could easily show and share that passion with my students.
    • 4/5
      I'd never read Peter Pan before, and coming to it for the first time as an adult, I found it to be wonderful. It straddles that old world line of horrible old children's stories. It has moments that are far more Brothers Grimm than Disney; the Lost Boys are unrepentant killers and they are killed in turn, while Tiger Lily, Tinkerbelle and Wendy are winkingly far more away of romance than Peter. I was less charmed by the relentless patriarchy of the only female characters being shoehorned into a mother role by every boy or man in sight. I would have liked one adventure where Wendy was her own hero.
    • 4/5
      I read this *after* reading about how sad J.M. Barrie was, and his mother, after losing his teenage brother.

      It puts a weird spin on the entire story, and it already seems quite dated ("redskins" "Indians") and surreal even without the fantastic elements. Why was the dog the children's nanny?

      It's a fun story, but there were just sad and odd undertones throughout, it was hard to forget the psychology and sadness around it.
    • 4/5
      I love this edition of the story. The illustrations added so much to it and kept me so intrigued with what was happening. Minalima did a GREAT job and I can't wait to see what book they come out with next. That said, this is a children's classic and if you're looking for the Disney version of the story this is not it, though they didn't stray too, too far from the original. I would recommend this story to anyone. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
    • 4/5
      Don't be fooled: this is the novel reprinted under the title of the play. If you're looking for the play try OUP's Peter Pan and Other Plays.

      I am given to understand that Barrie tinkered with the story over a thirty year period, so that although the play premièred before the novel, the text as published in 1928 represents Barrie's final conception. The novel is a snapshot of an earlier vision. There are distinct differences. In the play Peter is clearly dead. There were a couple of suggestions here that Barrie had that in mind, but Neverland appears to be more a place of the imagination. The play is crystallised and the novel more fluid. Which you prefer is very subjective. I prefer the play, but don't want to underrate the novel which is written with great charm and real moments of magic.
    • 5/5
      Hilarious, satirical, wierd. The reviewers who complain about the stereotypical Indians, pirates, etc. seem to have failed to notice that what Barrie was describing was an Edwardian boy's fantasy of adventure. It is called Neverland for a reason.

    Book preview

    Peter Pan (Painted Edition) - J.M. Barrie

    CHAPTER I

    PETER BREAKS THROUGH

    All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, Oh, why can’t you remain like this for ever! This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.

    Of course they lived at 14, and until Wendy came her mother was the chief one. She was a lovely lady, with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth. Her romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and her sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, though there it was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner.

    The way Mr. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who had been boys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her, and they all ran to her house to propose to her except Mr. Darling, who took a cab and nipped in first, and so he got her. He got all of her, except the innermost box and the kiss. He never knew about the box, and in time he gave up trying for the kiss. Wendy thought Napoleon could have got it, but I can picture him trying, and then going off in a passion, slamming the door.

    Mr. Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only loved him but respected him. He was one of those deep ones who know about stocks and shares. Of course no one really knows, but he quite seemed to know, and he often said stocks were up and shares were down in a way that would have made any woman respect him.

    Mrs. Darling was married in white, and at first she kept the books perfectly, almost gleefully, as if it were a game, not so much as a Brussels sprout was missing; but by and by whole cauliflowers dropped out, and instead of them there were pictures of babies without faces. She drew them when she should have been totting up. They were Mrs. Darling’s guesses.

    Wendy came first, then John, then Michael.

    For a week or two after Wendy came it was doubtful whether they would be able to keep her, as she was another mouth to feed. Mr. Darling was frightfully proud of her, but he was very honourable, and he sat on the edge of Mrs. Darling’s bed, holding her hand and calculating expenses, while she looked at him imploringly. She wanted to risk it, come what might, but that was not his way; his way was with a pencil and a piece of paper, and if she confused him with suggestions he had to begin at the beginning again.

    Now don’t interrupt, he would beg of her.

    I have one pound seventeen here, and two and six at the office; I can cut off my coffee at the office, say ten shillings, making two nine and six, with your eighteen and three makes three nine seven, with five naught naught in my cheque-book makes eight nine seven—who is that moving?—eight nine seven, dot and carry seven—don’t speak, my own—and the pound you lent to that man who came to the door—quiet, child—dot and carry child—there, you’ve done it!—did I say nine nine seven? yes, I said nine nine seven; the question is, can we try it for a year on nine nine seven?

    Of course we can, George, she cried. But she was prejudiced in Wendy’s favour, and he was really the grander character of the two.

    Remember mumps, he warned her almost threateningly, and off he went again. Mumps one pound, that is what I have put down, but I daresay it will be more like thirty shillings—don’t speak—measles one five, German measles half a guinea, makes two fifteen six—don’t waggle your finger—whooping-cough, say fifteen shillings—and so on it went, and it added up differently each time; but at last Wendy just got through, with mumps reduced to twelve six, and the two kinds of measles treated as one.

    There was the same excitement over John, and Michael had even a narrower squeak; but both were kept, and soon, you might have seen the three of them going in a row to Miss Fulsom’s Kindergarten school, accompanied by their nurse.

    Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of course, they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her. She had always thought children important, however, and the Darlings had become acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent most of her spare time peeping into perambulators, and was much hated by careless nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their mistresses. She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse. How thorough she was at bath-time, and up at any moment of the night if one of her charges made the slightest cry. Of course her kennel was in the nursery. She had a genius for knowing when a cough is a thing to have no patience with and when it needs stocking around your throat. She believed to her last day in old-fashioned remedies like rhubarb leaf, and made sounds of contempt over all this new-fangled talk about germs, and so on. It was a lesson in propriety to see her escorting the children to school, walking sedately by their side when they were well behaved, and butting them back into line if they strayed. On John’s footer days she never once forgot his sweater, and she usually carried an umbrella in her mouth in case of rain. There is a room in the basement of Miss Fulsom’s school where the nurses wait. They sat on forms, while Nana lay on the floor, but that was the only difference. They affected to ignore her as of an inferior social status to themselves, and she despised their light talk. She resented visits to the nursery from Mrs. Darling’s friends, but if they did come she first whipped off Michael’s pinafore and put him into the one with blue braiding, and smoothed out Wendy and made a dash at John’s hair.

    No nursery could possibly have been conducted more correctly, and Mr. Darling knew it, yet he sometimes wondered uneasily whether the neighbours talked.

    He had his position in the city to consider.

    Nana also troubled him in another way. He had sometimes a feeling that she did not admire him. I know she admires you tremendously, George, Mrs. Darling would assure him, and then she would sign to the children to be specially nice to father. Lovely dances followed, in which the only other servant, Liza, was sometimes allowed to join. Such a midget she looked in her long skirt and maid’s cap, though she had sworn, when engaged, that she would never see ten again. The gaiety of those romps! And gayest of all was Mrs. Darling, who would pirouette so wildly that all you could see of her was the kiss, and then if you had dashed at her you might have got it. There never was a simpler happier family until the coming of Peter Pan.

    Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her children’s minds. It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can’t) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up drawers. You would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering humorously over some of your contents, wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up, making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek as if it were as nice as a kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight. When you wake in the morning, the naughtiness and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on.

    I don’t know whether you have ever seen a map of a person’s mind. Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a child’s mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time. There are zigzag lines on it, just like your temperature on a card, and these are probably roads in the island, for the Neverland is always more or less an island, with astonishing splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers, and a hut fast going to decay, and one very small old lady with a hooked nose. It would be an easy map if that were all, but there is also first day at school, religion, fathers, the round pond, needle-work, murders, hangings, verbs that take the dative, chocolate pudding day, getting into braces, say ninety-nine, three-pence for pulling out your tooth yourself, and so on, and either these are part of the island or they are another map showing through, and it is all rather confusing, especially as nothing will stand still.

    Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. John’s, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingoes flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it. John lived in a boat turned upside down on the sands, Michael in a wigwam, Wendy in a house of leaves deftly sewn together. John had no friends, Michael had friends at night, Wendy had a pet wolf forsaken by its parents, but on the whole the Neverlands have a family resemblance, and if they stood still in a row you could say of them that they have each other’s nose, and so forth. On these magic shores children at play are for ever beaching their coracles. We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more.

    Of all delectable islands the Neverland is the snuggest and most compact, not large and sprawly, you know, with tedious distances between one adventure and another, but nicely crammed. When you play at it by day with the chairs and table-cloth, it is not in the least alarming, but in the two minutes before you go to sleep it becomes very real. That is why there are night-lights.

    Occasionally in her travels through her children’s minds Mrs. Darling found things she could not understand, and of these quite the most perplexing was the word Peter. She knew of no Peter, and yet he was here and there in John and Michael’s minds, while Wendy’s began to be scrawled all over with him. The name stood out in bolder letters than any of the other words, and as Mrs. Darling gazed she felt that it had an oddly cocky appearance.

    Yes, he is rather cocky, Wendy admitted with regret. Her mother had been questioning her.

    But who is he, my pet?

    He is Peter Pan, you know, mother.

    At first Mrs. Darling did not know, but after thinking back into her childhood she just remembered a Peter Pan who was said to live with the fairies. There were odd stories about him, as that when children died he went part of the way with them, so that they should not be frightened. She had believed in him at the time, but now that she was married and full of sense she quite doubted whether there was any such person.

    Besides, she said to Wendy, he would be grown up by this time.

    Oh no, he isn’t grown up, Wendy assured her confidently, and he is just my size. She meant that he was her size in both mind and body; she didn’t know how she knew, she just knew it.

    Mrs. Darling consulted Mr. Darling, but he smiled pooh-pooh. Mark my words, he said, it is some nonsense Nana has been putting into their heads; just the sort of idea a dog would have. Leave it alone, and it will blow over.

    But it would not blow over and soon the troublesome boy gave Mrs. Darling quite a shock.

    Children have the strangest adventures without being troubled by them. For instance, they may remember to mention, a week after the event happened, that when they were in the wood they had met their dead father and had a game with him. It was in this casual way that Wendy one morning made a disquieting revelation. Some leaves of a tree had been found on the nursery floor, which certainly were not there when the children went to bed, and Mrs. Darling was puzzling over them when Wendy said with a tolerant smile:

    I do believe it is that Peter again!

    Whatever do you mean, Wendy?

    It is so naughty of him not to wipe his feet, Wendy said, sighing. She was a tidy child.

    She explained in quite a matter-of-fact way that she thought Peter sometimes came to the nursery

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