The Complete Works of J. M. Barrie (With Illustrations). James Matthew Barrie
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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.
(It is as if she had heard him.)
WENDY (without opening her eyes).
I wish I had a woodland house, The littlest ever seen, With funny little red walls And roof of mossy green.
(In the time she sings this and two other verses, such is the urgency of PETER'S silent orders that they have knocked down trees, laid a foundation and put up the walls and roof, so that she is now hidden from view. 'Windows' cries PETER, and CURLY rushes them in, 'Roses' and TOOTLES arrives breathless with a festoon for the door. Thus springs into existence the most delicious little house for beginners.)
FIRST TWIN. I think it is finished.
PETER. There is no knocker on the door. (TOOTLES hangs up the sole of his shoe.) There is no chimney, we must have a chimney. (They await his deliberations anxiously.)
JOHN (unwisely critical). It certainly does need a chimney.
(He is again wearing his hat, which PETER seizes, knocks the top off it and places on the roof. In the friendliestway smoke begins to come out of the hat.)
PETER (with his hand on the knocker). All look your best; the first impression is awfully important. (he knocks, and after a dreadful moment of suspense, in which they cannot help wondering if any one is inside, the door opens and who should come out but WENDY! She has evidently been tidying a little. She is quite surprised to find that she has nine children.)
WENDY (genteelly). Where am I?
SLIGHTLY. Wendy lady, for you we built this house.
NIBS and TOOTLES. Oh, say you are pleased.
WENDY (stroking the pretty thing). Lovely, darling house!
FIRST TWIN. And we are your children.
WENDY (affecting surprise). Oh?
OMNES (kneeling, with outstretched arms). Wendy lady, be our mother! (Now that they know it is pretend they acclaim her greedily.)
WENDY (not to make herself too cheap). Ought I? Of course it is frightfully fascinating; but you see I am only a little girl; I have no real experience.
OMNES. That doesn't matter. What we need is just a nice motherly person.
WENDY. Oh dear, I feel that is just exactly what I am.
OMNES. It is, it is, we saw it at once.
WENDY. Very well then, I will do my best. (In their glee they go dancing obstreperously round the little house, and she sees she must be firm with them as well as kind.) Come inside at once, you naughty children, I am sure your feet are damp. And before I put you to bed I have just time to finish the story of Cinderella.
(They all troop into the enchanting house, whose not least remarkable feature is that it holds them. A vision of LIZA passes, not perhaps because she