Chapter 14 - Page 2

ways and customs of
babies in the bird-stage are mostly reminiscences of David's,
recalled by pressing his hands to his temples and thinking hard.

Well, Peter Pan got out by the window, which had no bars.
Standing on the ledge he could see trees far away, which were
doubtless the Kensington Gardens, and the moment he saw them he
entirely forgot that he was now a little boy in a nightgown, and
away he flew, right over the houses to the Gardens. It is
wonderful that he could fly without wings, but the place itched
tremendously, and, perhaps we could all fly if we were as dead-
confident-sure of our capacity to do it as was bold Peter Pan
that evening.

He alighted gaily on the open sward, between the Baby's Palace
and the Serpentine, and the first thing he did was to lie on his
back and kick. He was quite unaware already that he had ever
been human, and thought he was a bird, even in appearance, just
the same as in his early days, and when he tried to catch a fly
he did not understand that the reason he missed it was because he
had attempted to seize it with his hand, which, of course, a bird
never does. He saw, however, that it must be past Lock-out Time,
for there were a good many fairies about, all too busy to notice
him; they were getting breakfast ready, milking their cows,
drawing water, and so on, and the sight of the water-pails made
him thirsty, so he flew over to the Round Pond to have a drink.
He stooped, and dipped his beak in the pond; he thought it was
his beak, but, of course, it was only his nose, and, therefore,
very little water came up, and that not so refreshing as usual,
so next he tried a puddle, and he fell flop into it. When a real
bird falls in flop, he spreads out his feathers and pecks them
dry, but Peter could not remember what was the thing to do, and
he decided, rather sulkily, to go to sleep on the weeping beech
in the Baby Walk.

At first he found some difficulty in balancing himself on a
branch, but presently he remembered the way, and fell asleep. He
awoke long before morning, shivering, and saying to himself, "I
never was out in such a cold night;" he had really been out in
colder nights when he was a bird, but, of course, as everybody
knows, what seems a warm night to a bird is a cold night to a boy
in a nightgown. Peter also felt strangely uncomfortable, as if
his head was stuffy, he heard loud noises that made him look
round sharply, though they were really himself sneezing. There
was something he wanted very much, but, though he knew he wanted
it, he could not think what it was. What he wanted so much was
his mother to blow his nose, but that never struck him, so he
decided to appeal to the fairies for enlightenment. They are