Chapter 3
Come Away, Come Away![20]
The night-lights by the beds of the three children continued to burn clearly. But there was another light in the room now, a thousand times brighter than the night-lights. It was not really a light; it was a fairy, no longer than your hand. It was a girl called Tinker Bell[21]. The window was blown open[22], and Peter dropped in. “Tinker Bell,” he called softly, “Tink, where are you?” She was in a jug.
“Oh, come out of that jug, and tell me, do you know where they put my shadow?”
Tink said that the shadow was in the big box. In a moment Peter recovered his shadow, and in his delight he forgot that he shut Tinker Bell up in the drawer.
Peter found his shadow certainly, but the next trouble was to put it on again.
A happy thought came to him; it is necessary to use the soap from the bathroom! He soaped his shadow, but the shadow and his body did not stick together. He was trying and trying to stick the shadow, but no luck. Poor little boy sat on the floor, and began to cry.
His sobs woke Wendy, and she sat up in bed. She saw a stranger crying on the nursery floor; she was interested.
“Boy,” she said courteously, “why are you crying?”
Peter could be polite also, and he rose and bowed to her beautifully. She was much pleased, and bowed beautifully to him from the bed.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Wendy Moira Angela Darling[23],” she replied. “What is your name?”
“Peter Pan.”
“Is that all?”
“Yes,” he said rather sharply. He felt for the first time that it was a very short name.
“I’m so sorry,” said Wendy Moira Angela.
“It doesn’t matter,” Peter gulped.
“Where do you live?”
“Second turning to the right, and straight on till morning[24].”
This seemed to Wendy a very funny address, but she was all sympathy when she heard that Peter had no mother. No wonder he was crying!
“Why were you crying?”
“I was crying because I can’t get my shadow to stick on[25]