peter's good bye

excerpt from Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie:

"I shall have such fun," said Peter, with eye on Wendy.

"It will be rather lonely in the evening," she said, "sitting by the fire."

"I shall have Tink."

"Tink can't go a twentieth part of the way round [the world]," she reminded him a little tartly.

"Sneaky tell-tale!" Tink called out from somewhere round the corner.

"It doesn't matter," Peter said.

"O Peter, you know it matters."

"Well, then, come with me to the little house."

"May I, mummy?"

"Certainly not. I have got you home again, and I mean to keep you."

"But he does so need a mother."

"So do you, my love."

"Oh, all right," Peter said, as if he had asked her from politeness merely;
but Mrs. Darling saw his mouth twitch, and she made this handsome offer:
to let Wendy go to him for a week every year to do his spring cleaning.
Wendy would have preferred a more permanent arrangement;
and it seemed to her that spring would be long in coming;
but this promise sent Peter away quite gay again.
He had no sense of time, and was so full of adventures
that all I have told you about him is only a halfpenny-worth of them.
I suppose it was because Wendy knew this
that her last words to him were these rather plaintive ones:

"You won't forget me, Peter, will you, before spring cleaning time comes?"

Of course Peter promised; and then he flew away.
He took Mrs. Darling's kiss with him.
The kiss that had been for no one else,
Peter took quite easily. Funny. But she seemed satisfied.




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drawing by Mary Blair
text from http://www.enotes.com/peter-pan-text/chapter-17---when-wendy-grew-up