Chapter 15 - Page 2

his life. He looked forward to retiring
by-and-by, and devoting his green old age to a life of pleasure
on a certain yew-stump in the Figs which had taken his fancy, and
for years he had been quietly filling his stocking. It was a
stocking belonging to some bathing person which had been cast
upon the island, and at the time I speak of it contained a
hundred and eighty crumbs, thirty-four nuts, sixteen crusts, a
pen-wiper and a boot-lace. When his stocking was full, Solomon
calculated that he would be able to retire on a competency.
Peter now gave him a pound. He cut it off his bank-note with a
sharp stick.

This made Solomon his friend for ever, and after the two had
consulted together they called a meeting of the thrushes. You
will see presently why thrushes only were invited.

The scheme to be put before them was really Peter's, but Solomon
did most of the talking, because he soon became irritable if
other people talked. He began by saying that he had been much
impressed by the superior ingenuity shown by the thrushes in
nest-building, and this put them into good-humour at once, as it
was meant to do; for all the quarrels between birds are about the
best way of building nests. Other birds, said Solomon, omitted
to line their nests with mud, and as a result they did not hold
water. Here he cocked his head as if he had used an unanswerable
argument; but, unfortunately, a Mrs. Finch had come to the
meeting uninvited, and she squeaked out, "We don't build nests to
hold water, but to hold eggs," and then the thrushes stopped
cheering, and Solomon was so perplexed that he took several sips
of water.

"Consider," he said at last, "how warm the mud makes the nest."

"Consider," cried Mrs. Finch, "that when water gets into the nest
it remains there and your little ones are drowned."

The thrushes begged Solomon with a look to say something crushing
in reply to this, but again he was perplexed.

"Try another drink," suggested Mrs. Finch pertly. Kate was her
name, and all Kates are saucy.

Solomon did try another drink, and it inspired him. "If," said
he, "a finch's nest is placed on the Serpentine it fills and
breaks to pieces, but a thrush's nest is still as dry as the cup
of a swan's back."

How the thrushes applauded! Now they knew why they lined their
nests with mud, and when Mrs. Finch called out, "We don't place
our nests on the Serpentine," they did what they should have done
at first: chased her from the meeting. After this it was most
orderly. What they had been brought together to hear, said
Solomon, was this: their young friend, Peter Pan, as they well
knew,