Hook Has a Word to Say
 There
is a dread, awesome-looking Pirate Ship which, riding on the bosom of the lake,
holds all the enmity and viciousness which the great Jimmy Hook (Mr James Hook
to you, Sir) has for Peter. With his ‘Avast! Belay! Yo-ho! Heave ho! a
Pirating We’ll Go!’ he claims, as he always could and would, the
attention of those around him. He leaves on his ship one of the dread comrades
to attend to the bell, with his recurring ‘All’s well.’
There has been a wonderful procession – a trail of Red Indians with the
handsome Tiger Lily, the Lost Boys with their inattentive nursemaids, Peter,
Wendy, the Wolves, the Fairies, the Roseleaves and the rest of the little folk.
They have gone round and round at the same pace, never catching up until the
Pirates cause dismay and the frightened ones disappear. We must not imagine
that they are all afraid. No, the Red Indians are a brave lot, but they only
have their native weapons to pit against the guns of the Jolly Roger; but they
put up a good fight, anyway.
The wolves have a little innings, but the Lost Boys know how to make them run
away by walking backwards and peeping though their own legs, and soon the scene
is cleared of this anxiety.
Then comes a tragedy, or something which nearly approaches a tragedy, when
Tootles, mistaking something which Tinker Bell has said, shoots into the bushes
with his bow and arrow and wounds Wendy. It is a sad moment. They bring her in
as dead. But the wound is not fatal. She soon recovers, much to the joy of
Peter and her friends, although for a while they are anxious.
Mistress of all she surveys, Wendy sings her little song:
‘I wish I had a pretty house,
The littlest ever seen;
With funny little red walls,
And roof of mossy green.’
To hear her command is to obey, and Nibs and Tootles, Slightly and the Twins,
vie with each other how quickly they can build this littlest house.
The house grows rapidly, and even Tootles must give up the sole of his shoe for
a knocker.
There is no chimney. ‘We must have a chimney’, cries Peter. John
– being a perfect gentleman – is wearing a top hat. This is soon
turned into a chimney, the blackest chimney that you ever saw.
Now, with suitable decorum, all the young folk enter the house of Wendy to look
at the new decorations. Peter keeps guard at the door, and smoke slyly ascends
from the chimney.
As the night wears on Peter falls asleep, and the mischievous fairies, who can
be as mischievous as other people, come and pinch Peter’s nose and drag
him off into the wood.
Previous page Next
page
|
