Питер Пен / Peter Pan - стр. 5

“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.”

“Peter,” said Wendy excitedly, “that was Cinderella[31], and he found her, and they lived happily ever after.”

Peter was so glad that he rose from the floor, where they were sitting, and hurried to the window.

“Where are you going?” she cried.

“I must go back now, the boys will be anxious to hear the end of the story about the Prince and the Glass Slipper. I told them as much as I knew, and they want to hear the rest[32].”

“Don’t go Peter,” she entreated, “I know such lots of stories. I’ll tell you lots more, ever so many stories.”

Wendy begged him to stay. He came back, and there was a greedy look in his eyes. Peter gripped her and began to draw her toward the window.

“Let me go![33]” she ordered him.

“Come, Wendy! Come with me and tell the other boys. You can tell us all the stories there, and darn our clothes, and tuck us in at night.”

“Oh dear, I can’t. Think of Mummy! Besides, I can’t fly.”

“I’ll teach you. I’ll teach you how to jump on the wind’s back, and then away we go.”

This was too much for her. “Oo!” she exclaimed.

“Wendy, Wendy, when you are sleeping in your silly bed you could fly with me and talk to the stars.”

“Oo!”

“And, Wendy, there are mermaids.”

“Mermaids! With tails?”

“Such long tails.”

“Oh,” cried Wendy, “to see a mermaid!”