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A minute afterwards Mrs. Darling, who returned from the party, rushed into the nursery with Nana. But it was too late. The children were already on their way to the Neverland.

“Second to the right, and straight on till morning.”

That, Peter told Wendy, was the way to the Neverland. Peter just said anything that came into his head.

They were flying over the sea. Sometimes it was dark and sometimes light, and now they were very cold and again too warm.

Sometimes they were sleepy; and that was a danger, because they began to fall down. The awful thing was that Peter thought this funny.

“There he goes again!” he cried, as Michael suddenly dropped like a stone.

“Save him, save him!” cried Wendy. Eventually Peter dived through the air, and caught Michael; but he always waited till the last moment.

He could sleep in the air, he was lying on his back and floating, he was very light.

“You must be nice to him,” Wendy told her brothers. “What shall we do if he leaves us!”

“We could go back,” Michael said.

“How shall we find our way back without him?”

“That is the awful thing, John. We must go on, because we don’t know how to stop.”

This was true, Peter forgot to show them how to stop.

“There it is, the island,” said Peter calmly.

“Where, where?”

Wendy and John and Michael recognized it at once.

“John, there’s the lagoon.”

“Wendy, look at the turtles in the sand.”

“John, I see your flamingo!”

“Look, Michael, there’s your cave!”

“John, what’s that in the brushwood?”

“There’s my boat!”

“No, it isn’t. Why, we burned your boat.”

“That’s it, John, I see the smoke of the Indian camp!”

“Where? Show me.”

“There, just across the Mysterious River [36] .”

“I see now.”

Children have talked about the Neverland before. Of course the Neverland was a make-believe [37] in those days, but it was real now.

“They don’t want us to land [38] ,” said Peter.

“Who are they?” Wendy whispered, shuddering.

“Pirates.”

John asked,” Are there many pirates on the island now?”

“A lot of them,” answered Peter.

“Who is the captain now?”

“Hook,” answered Peter, and his face became very stern. “He is the worst of them all.”

“What is he like? Is he big?”

“He is not so big as he was.”

“What do you mean?”

“I cut off his right hand. But he has an iron hook instead of a right hand.”

“Tink tells me,” said Peter, “that the pirates sighted us before the darkness came, and got Long Tom out [39] .”

“The big gun?”

“Yes. Be careful.”

The pirates fired Long Tom at them.

“Are you alive?” John whispered.

“I dont know yet,” Michael answered.

Wendy disappeared. She followed Tinker Bell, but she did not know that Tink hated her.

Peter was on his way back, and the Neverland woke again into life. Far away in the Neverland the Lost Boys lived in the depths of the forest, on the banks of a lake. The trees were bare without their summer dress, and wolves prowled and howled in the distance, and wild beasts snarled in the undergrowth, and pirates sailed villainously, and Indians, who were friends of the boys, lived secretly in their wigwams in the woods. In Peter’s absence things are usually quiet on the island. The fairies take an hour longer in the morning, the Indians eat and drink heavily for six days and nights, and when pirates and Lost Boys meet they merely bite their thumbs at each other [41] . But with Peter, who hates lethargy, everything is different.

On this evening the Lost Boys were looking for Peter, the pirates were looking for the Lost Boys, the Indians were looking for the pirates, and the beasts were looking for the Indians. They were going round and round the island, but they did not meet because all were going at the same speed.

The boys wanted to see their Captain, they were six. The first one is Tootles [42] , not the least brave but the most unfortunate of all. Poor kind Tootles, there is danger in the air for you tonight. The fairy Tink wants to play a joke with you. Beware Tinker Bell!

Next comes debonair Nibs [43] , followed by Slightly [44] , who cuts whistles out of the trees [45] and dances. Slightly thinks he remembers the days before he was lost.

Curly [46] is fourth; he is a pickle. Last come the Twins [47] , who cannot be described. They are so much alike! Peter never knew what twins were, and his band were not allowed to know anything he did not know.

They lived like moles under the ground, for fear of the Pirates and the wolves. Each one had a special staircase hollowed in a tree-trunk, so that they could easily run down among the roots of the trees into their home.

Next come the pirates. They sing a dreadful song. Here, a little in advance [48] , comes handsome Cecco [49] . Here is Bill Jukes [50] , every inch of him tattooed; and Cookson [51] , and Black Murphy [52] , and Gentleman Starkey [53] , who was a school teacher; and Skylights [54] ; and Noodler [55] , and many other scoundrels.