FIRST TWIN is the best dancer and performs mightily on the bed and in it and out of it and over it to an accompaniment of pillow fights by the less agile; and then there is a rush at WENDY.)
NIBS. Now the story you promised to tell us as soon as we were in bed!
WENDY (severely). As far as I can see you are not in bed yet.
(They scramble into the bed, and the effect is as of a boxful of sardines.)
WENDY (drawing up her stool). Well, there was once a gentleman———
CURLY. I wish he had been a lady.
NIBS. I wish he had been a white rat.
WENDY. Quiet! There was a lady also. The gentleman's name was Mr. Darling and the lady's name was Mrs. Darling———
JOHN. I knew them!
MICHAEL (who has been allowed to join the circle). I think I knew them.
WENDY. They were married, you know; and what do you think they had?
NIBS. White rats?
WENDY. No, they had three descendants. White rats are descendants also. Almost everything is a descendant. Now these three children had a faithful nurse called Nana.
MICHAEL (alas). What a funny name!
WENDY. But Mr. Darling—(faltering) or was it Mrs.Darling?—was angry with her and chained her up in the yard; so all the children flew away. They flew away to the Never Land, where the lost boys are.
CURLY. I just thought they did; I don't know how it is, but I just thought they did.
TOOTLES. Oh, Wendy, was one of the lost boys called Tootles.
WENDY. Yes, he was.
TOOTLES (dazzled). Am I in a story? Nibs, I am in a story!
PETER (who is by the fire making Pan's pipes with his knife, and is determined that WENDY shall have fair play, however beastly a story he may think it). A little less noise there.
WENDY (melting over the beauty of her present performance, but without any real qualms). Now I want you to consider the feelings of the unhappy parents with all their children flown away. Think, oh think, of the empty beds. (The heartless ones think of them with glee.)
FIRST TWIN (cheerfully). It's awfully sad.
WENDY. But our heroine knew that her mother would always leave the window open for her progeny to fly back by; so they stayed away for years and had a lovely time.
(PETER is interested at last.)
FIRST TWIN. Did they ever go back?
WENDY (comfortably). Let us now take a peep into the future. Years have rolled by, and who is this elegant lady of uncertain age alighting at London station?
(The tension is unbearable.)
NIBS. Oh, Wendy, who is she?
WENDY (swelling). Can it be—yes—no—yes, it is the fair Wendy!
TOOTLES. I am glad.
WENDY. Who are the two noble portly figures accompanying her? Can they be John and Michael? They are. (Pride of MICHAEL.) 'See, dear brothers,' says Wendy, pointing upward, 'there is the window standing open.' So up they flew to their loving parents, and pen cannot inscribe the happy scene over which we draw a veil. (Her triumph is spoilt by a groan from PETER and she hurries to him.) Peter, what is it? (Thinking he is ill, and looking lower than his chest.) Where is it?
PETER. It isn't that kind of pain. Wendy, you are wrong about mothers. I thought like you about the window, so I stayed away for moons and moons, and then I flew back, but the window was barred, for my mother had forgotten all about me and there was another little boy sleeping in my bed.
( This is a general damper.)
JOHN. Wendy, let us go back!
WENDY. Are you sure mothers are like that?
PETER. Yes.
WENDY. John, Michael! (She clasps them to her.)
FIRST TWIN (alarmed). You are not to leave us, Wendy?
WENDY. I must.
NIBS. Not to-night?
WENDY. At once. Perhaps mother is in half-mourning by this time! Peter, will you make the necessary arrangements?
(She asks it in the steely tones women adopt when they are prepared secretly for opposition.)
PETER (coolly). If you wish it.
(He ascends his tree to give the redskins their instructions. The lost boys gather threateningly round WENDY.)
CURLY. We won't let you go!
WENDY (with one of those inspirations women have, in an emergency, to make use of some male who need otherwise have no hope). Tootles, I appeal to you.
TOOTLES (leaping to his death if necessary). I am just Tootles and nobody minds me, but the first who does not behave to Wendy I will blood him severely. (PETER returns.)
PETER (with awful serenity). Wendy, I told the braves to guide you through the wood as flying tires you so. Then Tinker Bell will take you across the sea. (A shrill tinkle from the boudoir probably means 'and drop her into it.')
NIBS (fingering the curtain which he is not allowed to open). Tink, you are to get up and take Wendy on a journey. (Star-eyed) She says she won't!
PETER (taking a step toward that chamber). If you don'tget up, Tink, and dress at once—— She is getting up!
WENDY (quivering now that the time to depart has come). Dear ones, if you will all come with me I feel almost sure I can get my father and mother to adopt you.
(There is joy at this, not that they want parents, but novelty is their religion.)
NIBS. But won't they think us rather a handful?
WENDY (a swift reckoner). Oh no, it will only mean having a few beds in the drawing-room; they can be hidden behind screens on first Thursdays.
(Everything depends on PETER.)
OMNES. Peter, may we go?
PETER (carelessly through the pipes to which he is giving a finishing touch). All right.
(They scurry off to dress for the adventure.)
WENDY (insinuatingly). Get your clothes, Peter.
PETER (skipping about and playing fairy music on his pipes, the only music he knows). I am not going with you,Wendy.
WENDY. Yes, Peter!
PETER. No.
(The lost ones run back gaily, each carrying a stick witha bundle on the end of it.)
WENDY. Peter isn't coming!
(All the faces go blank.)
JOHN (even JOHN). Peter not coming!
TOOTLES (overthrown). Why, Peter?
PETER (his pipes more riotous than ever). I just want always to be a little boy and to have fun.
(There is a general fear that they are perhaps making the mistake of their lives.)
Now then, no fuss, no blubbering. (With dreadful cynicism) I hope you will like your mothers! Are you ready, Tink? Then lead the way.
(TINK darts up any tree, but she is the only one. Theair above is suddenly rent with shrieks and the clash of steel. Though they cannot see, the boys know that HOOKand his crew are upon the Indians. Mouths open andremain open, all in mute appeal to PETER. He is theonly boy on his feet now, a sword in his hand, the samehe slew Barbicue with; and in his eye is the lust of battle.
We can watch the carnage that