But the lady would not make the best of it, and he was unhappy. He
ceased to look at her, but even then she would not let go of him. He
skipped about and made funny faces, but when he stopped it was just as
if she were inside him, knocking.
Oh, all right, he said at last, and gulped. Then he unbarred the
window. Come on, Tink, he cried, with a frightful sneer at the laws
of nature; we don t want any silly mothers; and he flew away.
Thus Wendy and John and Michael found the window open for them after
all, which of course was more than they deserved. They alighted on the
floor, quite unashamed of themselves, and the youngest one had already
forgotten his home.
John, he said, looking around him doubtfully, I think I have been
here before.
Of course you have, you silly. There is your old bed.
So it is, Michael said, but not with much conviction.
I say, cried John, the kennel! and he dashed across to look into
it.
Perhaps Nana is inside it, Wendy said.
But John whistled. Hullo, he said, there s a man inside it.
It s father! exclaimed Wendy.
Let me see father, Michael begged eagerly, and he took a good look.
He is not so big as the pirate I killed, he said with such frank
disappointment that I am glad Mr. Darling was asleep; it would have
been sad if those had been the first words he heard his little Michael
say.
Wendy and John had been taken aback somewhat at finding their father in
the kennel.
Surely, said John, like one who had lost faith in his memory, he
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