there are other ways.
Certainly they did not pretend to be sleepy, they were sleepy; and that
was a danger, for the moment they popped off, down they fell. The awful
thing was that Peter thought this funny.
There he goes again! he would cry gleefully, as Michael suddenly
dropped like a stone.
Save him, save him! cried Wendy, looking with horror at the cruel sea
far below. Eventually Peter would dive through the air, and catch
Michael just before he could strike the sea, and it was lovely the way
he did it; but he always waited till the last moment, and you felt it
was his cleverness that interested him and not the saving of human
life. Also he was fond of variety, and the sport that engrossed him one
moment would suddenly cease to engage him, so there was always the
possibility that the next time you fell he would let you go.
He could sleep in the air without falling, by merely lying on his back
and floating, but this was, partly at least, because he was so light
that if you got behind him and blew he went faster.
Do be more polite to him, Wendy whispered to John, when they were
playing Follow my Leader.
Then tell him to stop showing off, said John.
When playing Follow my Leader, Peter would fly close to the water and
touch each shark s tail in passing, just as in the street you may run
your finger along an iron railing. They could not follow him in this
with much success, so perhaps it was rather like showing off,
especially as he kept looking behind to see how many tails they missed.
You must be nice to him, Wendy impressed on her brothers. What could
we do if he were to leave us!
We could go back, Michael said.
How could we ever find our way back without him?
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