listened reverently. I think she said, Poor Tootles, he whispered.
She lives, Peter said briefly.
Slightly cried instantly, The Wendy lady lives.
Then Peter knelt beside her and found his button. You remember she had
put it on a chain that she wore round her neck.
See, he said, the arrow struck against this. It is the kiss I gave
her. It has saved her life.
I remember kisses, Slightly interposed quickly, let me see it. Ay,
that s a kiss.
Peter did not hear him. He was begging Wendy to get better quickly, so
that he could show her the mermaids. Of course she could not answer
yet, being still in a frightful faint; but from overhead came a wailing
note.
Listen to Tink, said Curly, she is crying because the Wendy lives.
Then they had to tell Peter of Tink s crime, and almost never had they
seen him look so stern.
Listen, Tinker Bell, he cried, I am your friend no more. Begone from
me for ever.
She flew on to his shoulder and pleaded, but he brushed her off. Not
until Wendy again raised her arm did he relent sufficiently to say,
Well, not for ever, but for a whole week.
Do you think Tinker Bell was grateful to Wendy for raising her arm? Oh
dear no, never wanted to pinch her so much. Fairies indeed are strange,
and Peter, who understood them best, often cuffed them.
But what to do with Wendy in her present delicate state of health?
Let us carry her down into the house, Curly suggested.
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