21 Peter Pan - Read By Stephanie Poppins
Peter Pan, written by J.M. Barrie, is a classic children's novel first published in the early 20th century. The story revolves around the beloved character Peter Pan and follows his adventures in the fantastical Neverland, along with a young girl named Wendy Darling and her brothers, John and Michael. This is the final chapter, where the children return home. This story is adapted for radio by Stephanie Poppins at Neworld Books. New Stoicism Feminism Sleep Bedtime story Folklore Relaxation Literature Historical context Emotional healing Grief Social dynamics Domestic life Nostalgia Reunion Emotional reunion Grief management Storytelling Imagination Fantasy Characters Classic literature Culture Adventures Moral lessons
Transcript
Welcome to Sleep Stories with Steph,
Your go-to podcast that offers you a calm and relaxing transition into a great night's sleep.
It is time to relax and fully let go.
There is nothing you need to be doing now and nowhere you need to go.
Close your eyes and feel yourself sink into the support beneath you and let all the worries of the day drift away.
This is your time and your space.
Take a deep breath in through your nose and let it out with a long sigh.
There is nothing you need to be doing now and nowhere you need to go.
Happy listening.
Chapter 16 The Return Home By two bells that morning they were all stirring their stumps,
For there was a big sea running,
And Tootles the bosun was among them,
With a rope's end in his hand,
And chewing tobacco.
Captain Pan calculated after consulting the ship's chart that if this weather lasted they should strike the shore before the 21st of June,
After which it would save time to fly.
Some of them wanted it to be an honest ship and others were in favour of keeping it a pirate,
But the captain treated them as dogs and they dared not express their wishes to him,
Even in a round robin.
Instant obedience was the only safe thing.
Slightly got a dozen for looking perplexed when told to take their soundings.
The general feeling was that Peter was honest just now to long windy suspicions,
But that there might be a change when the new suit was ready,
Which against her will she was making for him out of some of Hook's wickedest garments.
It was afterwards whispered among them that on the first night he wore this suit,
He sat long in the cabin with Hook's cigar holder in his mouth,
And one hand clenched,
All but the forefinger,
Which he bent and held threateningly aloft like a hook.
And now we must return to that desolate home from which three of our characters had taken heart this flight so long ago.
It seems a shame to have neglected number 14 all this time,
And yet we may be sure that Mrs Darling does not blame us.
Don't be silly,
She would say,
What do I matter?
Go back and keep an eye on the children.
So long as mothers are like this,
Their children will take advantage of them,
And they may lay to that.
Even now we venture into that familiar nursery only because its lawful occupants are on their way home.
Mr and Mrs Darling do not go out for the evening.
Why on earth should their beds be properly aired,
Seeing they left them in such a thankless hurry?
Would it not serve them well,
Right,
If they came back and found their parents were spending the weekend in the country?
It would be the moral lesson they've been in need of ever since we met them.
But if we contrived things in this way,
Mrs Darling would never forgive us.
When the children flew away,
Mr Darling felt in his bones all the blame was his for having chained Nana up,
And from first to last she had been wiser than he.
Of course we've seen he was quite a simple man.
He might have passed for a boy again if he'd been able to take his baldness off,
But he had also a noble sense of justice and a lion courage to do what seemed right.
And having thought the matter out,
He went down on all fours and crawled into the kennel.
This is the place for me,
He said.
He swore he would never leave that kennel until his children came back.
Of course this was a pity,
But whatever Mr Darling did he had to do in excess,
Otherwise he soon gave up doing it.
Every morning the kennel was carried with Mr Darling in it to a cab which conveyed him to his office,
And he returned home in the same way at six.
Something of the strength of character of the man will be seen if we remember how sensitive he was to the opinion of his neighbours,
This man whose every movement now attracted surprise attention.
Inwardly he must have suffered torture,
But he preserved a calm exterior even when the young criticised his little home,
And he always lifted his hat courteously to any lady who looked inside.
Soon the inward meaning of it leaked out and the great heart of the public was touched.
Crowds followed the cab,
Cheering it lustily.
Charming girls scaled it to get his autograph.
Interviews appeared in the best class of papers,
And society invited him into dinner and added do come in the kennel.
On that eventful Thursday week Mrs Darling was in the night nursery awaiting George's return home.
Now that we look at her closely and remember the gaiety of her in the old days,
All gone just because she's lost her babes,
I find I won't be able to say nasty things about her after all.
Look at her in her chair where she's fallen asleep,
The corner of her mouth where one looks first is almost withered up.
Some like Peter best and some like Wendy best,
But I like Mrs Darling best.
Supposed to make her happy we whispered to her that the brats are coming back.
They're really within two miles of the window now and flying strong.
All we need whisper is,
They are on the way.
Oh Nana,
She cried,
I dreamt my dear ones had come back.
Nana had filmy eyes but all she could do was put her paw gently on her mistress's lap and they sat together thus when the kennel was brought back.
Feeling drowsy,
Mr Darling curled around in the kennel.
Won't you play me to sleep?
He asked his wife,
On the nursery piano.
And shut that window will you,
I feel a draught.
Oh George,
Never ask me to do that,
The window must always be left open for them.
Now it was his turn to beg her pardon and Mrs Darling went into the day nursery and played and soon he was fast asleep.
While he slept,
Wendy and John and Michael flew into the room.
John,
Said Michael doubtfully,
I think I've been here before.
Course you have silly,
That's your old bed.
So it is,
Then Wendy exclaimed,
It's father.
Let me see him,
Michael begged eagerly and he took a good look.
He's not as big as the pirate I killed,
He said.
With such frank disappointment,
I'm glad Mr Darling was asleep.
It would have been sad if those had been the first words he heard.
Wendy and John were taken aback somewhat at finding their father in the kennel.
Surely,
Said John,
Like one who'd lost faith,
He used not to sleep in the kennel,
Did he?
Perhaps we don't remember the old life as well as we thought we did,
Said Wendy.
It was then that Mrs Darling began playing again.
It's mother,
Cried Wendy peeping.
So it is,
Said John.
Then you're not really our mother,
Wendy,
Asked Michael,
Who was surely sleepy.
Oh dear,
Exclaimed Wendy,
With her first real twinge of remorse.
It was quite time we did come back.
Let us creep in,
John suggested,
And put our hands over her eyes.
But Wendy,
Who saw they must break the joyous news more gently,
Had a better plan.
Let us all slip into our beds and be there when she comes in,
Just as if we'd never been away.
And so when Mrs Darling went back to the night nursery to see if her husband was asleep,
All the beds were occupied.
The children waited for her cry of joy,
But it did not come.
She saw them,
But she did not quite believe they were there.
You see,
She had seen them so often in their beds in her dreams that she thought this was still the dream hanging around.
She sat down in the chair by the fire where in the old days she had nursed them.
They could not understand this,
And a cold fear fell upon all three of them.
Mother,
Wendy cried.
That's Wendy,
She said,
But she was still sure it was a dream.
Mother.
That's John,
She said.
Mother,
Cried Michael.
He knew her now.
That's Michael,
Said Mrs Darling,
And she stretched out her arms for the three little selfish children they would never envelope again.
And yet they did.
They went around Wendy,
John and Michael,
Who had slipped out of bed and run to her.
George,
George,
She cried when she could speak.
And Mr Darling woke to share her bliss,
And Nana came rushing in.
There could not have been a lovelier sight,
But there was none to see it except a strange boy who was staring at the window.
He had ecstasies innumerable that other children could never know.
But he was looking through the window at the one joy from which he must be forever barred.
I hope you will want to know what became of the other boys.
They were waiting below to give Wendy time to explain,
And when they counted five hundred they went up the stairs.
They stood in a row in front of Mrs Darling with their hats off,
And wishing they were not wearing their pirate clothes.
They ought to have looked at Mr Darling too,
But they forgot.
Of course Mrs Darling said at once she would have them,
But Mr Darling was curiously depressed and they saw he considered six a rather large number.
I must say,
He said to Wendy,
You don't do things by halves.
George,
Mrs Darling exclaimed,
Pained to see her dear one showing himself in such an unfavourable light.
Then he burst into tears and all the truth came out.
Mr Darling was as glad to have them back as she was.
But he thought they should have asked his consent as well as hers before they left.
As for Peter,
He saw Wendy once before he flew away.
Mrs Darling was at the window then,
And she told Peter she'd adopted all the other boys and would like to adopt him too.
Would you send me to a school?
He inquired craftily.
Yes.
And then to an office?
I suppose so.
So I would be a man.
Very soon.
I don't want to go to school and learn solemn things,
He told her passionately.
I don't want to be a man.
If I was to wake up and feel there was a beard,
I should love you in a beard,
Said Wendy.
Keep back,
Lady,
Said Peter to Mrs Darling.
No one's going to catch me and make me a man.
But where will you live?
I will live with Tinkerbell in the house we built for Wendy,
He said.
How lovely,
Cried Wendy.
And I shall have such fun,
Said Peter,
With one eye on Wendy.
It will be rather lonely in the evening,
She said.
I shall have Tink.
Tink can't go a twentieth part of the way round.
Sneaky tell-tale,
Tink called from somewhere round the corner.
It doesn't matter,
Said Peter.
No,
It matters,
Said Wendy.
Well then,
Come with me to the little house.
May I,
Mummy?
Certainly not,
Said Mrs Darling.
I've got you home again and I mean to keep you.
But Peter does so need a mother.
And so do you,
My love.
So she made a handsome offer.
Wendy could go to Peter for a week every year to do his spring cleaning.
Wendy would have preferred a more permanent arrangement.
But this promise sent Peter away quite gay again.
He had no sense of time and was so full of adventures that he cared not.
You won't forget me,
Peter,
Will you,
Before spring cleaning comes?
Of course,
Peter Pan promised.
Then he flew away and took Mrs Darling's kiss with him.
Peter was exactly as fascinating as ever.
And they had a lovely spring cleaning in the little house.
The next year.
But the year after that he did not come for her.
Wendy waited in a new frock because the old one would not fit.
But he never came.
And that was the last time Wendy ever saw him.
For a little longer she tried for his sake not to have growing pains.
And she felt she was untrue to him when she got a prize for general knowledge.
But one by one the years came and went without bringing the careless boy.
And when they met again,
Wendy was a married woman.
And Peter was no more to her than a little dust in the box in which she had kept her toys.
All the boys were grown up now.
So it's scarcely worthwhile saying anything more about them.
You may see the twins and Nibs and Curly any day going into an office.
Each carrying a little bag and an umbrella.
Michael is an engine driver.
Slightly married a lady of title so he became a lord.
And you see that judge in a wig coming out of the iron door.
That used to be two laws.
And as for the bearded man who doesn't know any story to tell his children.
That was once John.
Wendy was married in white with a pink sash.
Years rolled on and she had a daughter.
She was called Jane and she always had an odd inquiring look.
As if from the moment she arrived on the mainland she wanted to ask questions.
When she was old enough she loved to hear of Peter.
And Wendy told her she could remember everything in the nursery from which the famous flight had taken place.
But this was Jane's nursery now.
And then one night came the tragedy.
The window blew open of old and Peter dropped on the floor.
I am old Peter now said Wendy.
I'm ever so much older than 20.
I grew up a long time ago.
But you promised not to said Peter.
I couldn't help it.
I'm a married woman Peter.
No you're not.
Yes and that little girl in the bed is my baby.
Peter took a step towards the sleeping child.
Then he sat down on the floor and sobbed.
Wendy did not know how to comfort him.
She was only a woman now.
So she ran out of the room to try to think.
This woke up Jane.
Hello he said.
Hello said Jane.
My name's Peter Pan.
I came back for my mother to take her to the Neverland.
Yes I know said Jane.
I've been waiting for you.
And when Wendy returned she found Peter sitting on the bedpost crowing gloriously.
While Jane in her nightie was flying around the room in solemn ecstasy.
Of course in the end Wendy let them fly away together.
Our last glimpse of her shows her at the window.
Watching them receding into the sky until they were as small as stars.
As you look at Wendy you may see her hair becoming white.
And her figure little again.
For all this happened long ago.
Jane is now a common grown up with a daughter called Margaret.
And every spring cleaning time except when he forgets.
Peter comes from Margaret and takes her to the Neverland.
When Margaret grows up she will have a daughter.
Who is to be Peter's mother in turn.
And thus it will go on.
As long as children are gay and innocent and heartless.
The End
