Sneaky tell-tale! Tink called out from somewhere round the corner.
It doesn t matter, Peter said.
O Peter, you know it matters.
Well, then, come with me to the little house.
May I, mummy?
Certainly not. I have got you home again, and I mean to keep you.
But he does so need a mother.
So do you, my love.
Oh, all right, Peter said, as if he had asked her from politeness
merely; but Mrs. Darling saw his mouth twitch, and she made this
handsome offer: to let Wendy go to him for a week every year to do his
spring cleaning. Wendy would have preferred a more permanent
arrangement; and it seemed to her that spring would be long in coming;
but this promise sent Peter away quite gay again. He had no sense of
time, and was so full of adventures that all I have told you about him
is only a halfpenny-worth of them. I suppose it was because Wendy knew
this that her last words to him were these rather plaintive ones:
You won t forget me, Peter, will you, before spring cleaning time
comes?
Of course Peter promised; and then he flew away. He took Mrs. Darling s
kiss with him. The kiss that had been for no one else, Peter took quite
easily. Funny. But she seemed satisfied.
Of course all the boys went to school; and most of them got into Class
III, but Slightly was put first into Class IV and then into Class V.
Class I is the top class. Before they had attended school a week they
saw what goats they had been not to remain on the island; but it was
too late now, and soon they settled down to being as ordinary as you or
me or Jenkins minor. It is sad to have to say that the power to fly
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