inevitable, and her chamber, though beautiful, looked rather conceited,
having the appearance of a nose permanently turned up.
I suppose it was all especially entrancing to Wendy, because those
rampagious boys of hers gave her so much to do. Really there were whole
weeks when, except perhaps with a stocking in the evening, she was
never above ground. The cooking, I can tell you, kept her nose to the
pot, and even if there was nothing in it, even if there was no pot, she
had to keep watching that it came aboil just the same. You never
exactly knew whether there would be a real meal or just a make-believe,
it all depended upon Peter s whim: he could eat, really eat, if it was
part of a game, but he could not stodge just to feel stodgy, which is
what most children like better than anything else; the next best thing
being to talk about it. Make-believe was so real to him that during a
meal of it you could see him getting rounder. Of course it was trying,
but you simply had to follow his lead, and if you could prove to him
that you were getting loose for your tree he let you stodge.
Wendy s favourite time for sewing and darning was after they had all
gone to bed. Then, as she expressed it, she had a breathing time for
herself; and she occupied it in making new things for them, and putting
double pieces on the knees, for they were all most frightfully hard on
their knees.
When she sat down to a basketful of their stockings, every heel with a
hole in it, she would fling up her arms and exclaim, Oh dear, I am
sure I sometimes think spinsters are to be envied!
Her face beamed when she exclaimed this.
You remember about her pet wolf. Well, it very soon discovered that she
had come to the island and it found her out, and they just ran into
each other s arms. After that it followed her about everywhere.
As time wore on did she think much about the beloved parents she had
left behind her? This is a difficult question, because it is quite
impossible to say how time does wear on in the Neverland, where it is
calculated by moons and suns, and there are ever so many more of them
than on the mainland. But I am afraid that Wendy did not really worry
about her father and mother; she was absolutely confident that they
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