Peter Pan & Other Magical Adventures For Children - 10 Classic Fantasy Books in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). J. M. Barrie
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have a shot at her). Oh, Tootles!
TOOTLES (gulping). I did it. When ladies used to come to me in dreams I said 'Pretty mother,' but when she really came I shot her! (He perceives the necessity of a solitary life for him.) Friends, good-bye.
SEVERAL (not very enthusiastic). Don't go.
TOOTLES. I must; I am so afraid of Peter.
(He has gone but a step toward oblivion when he is stopped by a crowing as of some victorious cock.)
OMNES. Peter!
(They make a paling of themselves in front of WENDY as PETER skims round the tree-tops and reaches earth.)
PETER. Greeting, boys! (Their silence chafes him.) I am back; why do you not cheer? Great news, boys, I have brought at last a mother for us all.
SLIGHTLY (vaguely). Ay, ay.
PETER. She flew this way; have you not seen her?
SECOND TWIN (as PETER evidently thinks her important).Oh mournful day!
TOOTLES (making a break in the paling). Peter, I will show her to you.
THE OTHERS (closing the gap). No, no.
TOOTLES (majestically). Stand back all, and let Peter see.
(The paling dissolves, and PETER sees WENDY prone on the ground.)
PETER. Wendy, with an arrow in her heart! (He plucks it out.) Wendy is dead. (He is not so much pained as puzzled.)
CURLY. I thought it was only flowers that die.
PETER. Perhaps she is frightened at being dead? (Noneof them can say as to that.) Whose arrow? (Not one of them looks at TOOTLES.)
TOOTLES. Mine, Peter.
PETER (raising it as a dagger). Oh dastard hand!
TOOTLES (kneeling and baring his breast). Strike, Peter; strike true.
PETER (undergoing a singular experience). I cannot strike; there is something stays my hand.
(In fact WENDY'S arm has risen.)
NIBS. 'Tis she, the Wendy lady. See, her arm. (To help a friend) I think she said 'Poor Tootles.'
PETER (investigating). She lives!
SLIGHTLY (authoritatively). The Wendy lady lives.(The delightful feeling that they have been cleverer than they thought comes over them and they applaud themselves.)
PETER (holding up a button that is attached to her chain). See, the arrow struck against this. It is a kiss I gave her; it has saved her life.
SLIGHTLY. I remember kisses; let me see it. (He takes it in his hand.) Ay, that is a kiss.
PETER. Wendy, get better quickly and I'll take you to see the mermaids. She is awfully anxious to see a mermaid.
(TINKER BELL, who may have been off visiting her relations, returns to the wood and, under the impression thatWENDY has been got rid of, is whistling as gaily as a canary. She is not wholly heartless, but is so small that she has only room for one feeling at a time.)
CURLY. Listen to Tink rejoicing because she thinks theWendy is dead! (Regardless of spoiling another's pleasure) Tink, the Wendy lives.
(TINK gives expression to fury.)
SECOND TWIN (tell-tale). It was she who said that you wanted us to shoot the Wendy.
PETER. She said that? Then listen, Tink, I am your friend no more. (There is a note of acerbity in TINK'S reply; it may mean 'Who wants you?') Begone from me forever. (Now it is a very wet tinkle.)
CURLY. She is crying.
TOOTLES. She says she is your fairy.
PETER (who knows they are not worth worrying about). Oh well, not for ever, but for a whole week.
(TINK. goes off sulking, no doubt with the intention ofgiving all her friends an entirely false impression ofWENDY'S appearance.)
Now what shall we do with Wendy?
CURLY. Let us carry her down into the house.
SLIGHTLY. Ay, that is what one does with ladies.
PETER. No, you must not touch her; it wouldn't be sufficiently respectful.
SLIGHTLY. That is what I was thinking.
TOOTLES. But if she lies there she will die.
SLIGHTLY. Ay, she will die. It is a pity, but there is no way out.
PETER. Yes, there is. Let us build a house around her! (Cheers again, meaning that no difficulty baffles PETER.) Leave all to me. Bring the best of what we have. Gut our house. Be sharp. (They race down their trees.)
(While PETER is engrossed in measuring WENDY so that the house may fit her, JOHN and MICHAEL, who have probably landed on the island with a bump, wander forward, so draggled and tired that if you were to ask MICHAEL whether he is awake or asleep he would probably answer 'I haven't tried yet.')
MICHAEL (bewildered). John, John, wake up. Where is Nana, John?
JOHN (with the help of one eye but not always the same eye). It is true, we did fly! (Thankfully) And here is Peter. Peter, is this the place?
(PETER, alas, has already forgotten them, as soon maybe he will forget WENDY. The first thing she should do now that she is here is to sew a handkerchief for him, and knot it as a jog to his memory.)
PETER (curtly). Yes.
MICHAEL. Where is Wendy? (PETER points.)
JOHN (who still wears his hat). She is asleep.
MICHAEL. John, let us wake her and get her to make supper for us.
(Some of the boys emerge, and he pinches one.)
John, look at them!
PETER (still house-building). Curly, see that these boy shelp in the building of the house.
JOHN. Build a house?
CURLY. For the Wendy.
JOHN (feeling that there must be some mistake here). ForWendy? Why, she is only a girl.
CURLY. That is why we are her servants.
JOHN (dazed). Are you Wendy's servants?
PETER. Yes, and you also. Away with them. (In another moment they are woodsmen hacking at trees, with CURLY as overseer.) Slightly, fetch a doctor. (SLIGHTLY reels and goes. He returns professionally in JOHN'S hat.) Please, sir, are you a doctor?
SLIGHTLY (trembling in his desire to give satisfaction).Yes, my little man.
PETER. Please, sir, a lady lies very ill.
SLIGHTLY (taking care not to fall over her). Tut, tut, where does she lie?
PETER. In yonder glade. (It is a variation of a game they play.)
SLIGHTLY. I will put a glass thing in her mouth. (He inserts an imaginary thermometer in WENDY'S mouth and gives it a moment to record its verdict. He shakes it and then consults it.)
PETER (anxiously). How is she?
SLIGHTLY. Tut, tut, this has cured her.
PETER (leaping joyously). I am glad.
SLIGHTLY. I will call again in the evening. Give her beef tea out of a cup with a spout to it, tut, tut.
(The boys are running up with odd articles of furniture.)
PETER (with an already fading recollection of the Darling nursery). These are not good enough for Wendy. How Iwish I knew the kind of house she would prefer!
FIRST TWIN. Peter, she is moving in her sleep.
TOOTLES (opening WENDY'S mouth and gazing down into the depths). Lovely!
PETER. Oh, Wendy, if you could sing the kind of house you would like to have.