Bedtime Story: Peter Pan Pt. 9

Hello beautiful souls,

Please enjoy the ninth instalment of Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up, written by Sir James Matthew Barrie.

Let's continue our adventures with Peter, Wendy, and the gang.

You can find all parts of this wonderful story in my Peter Pan playlist on my profile.

I hope you have a wonderful sleep and wake up feeling relaxed and refreshed.

Transcript

Good evening beautiful souls and welcome to tonight's reading of Peter Pan,

Where we are almost at the end of our adventures.

So making yourself comfortable in your bed,

Preparing yourself for your bedtime story,

Feeling the mattress underneath you and the pillow supporting your head and the weight of the blanket or the duvet as you snuggle down and make yourself comfortable and slowly lengthening the breath,

The inhales and the exhales signaling to your nervous system that it is safe to rest,

It's time to relax,

To sleep blissfully and wake up rejuvenated and when you are ready we will continue with our adventures.

The return home,

By two bells that morning they were all stirring their stumps,

For there was a big sea running and Tootles the bow son was among them with a rope's end in his hand and chewing tobacco,

They all donned pirate clothes,

Cut off at the knee,

Shaved smartly and tumbled up with the true nautical roll and hitching their trousers,

It need not be said who was the captain,

Nibs and John were first and second mate and there was a woman aboard the rest were tars before the mast,

Peter had already lashed himself to the wheel but he piped all hands and delivered a short address to them,

Said that he hoped they would do their duty like gallant hearties but that he knew they were the scum of Rio and the Gold Coast and if they snapped at him he would tear them his bluff strident words struck the note sailors understand and they cheered him lustily,

Then a few sharp orders were given and they turned the ship around and nosed her for the mainland,

Captain Pan calculated after consulting the ship's chart that if this weather lasted they should strike their Azores about 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 ship 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 soundings the general feeling was that Peter was honest just now to lull Wendy's 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 Huck's wickedest garments it was afterwards whispered among them on that first night he wore this suit he sat long in the cabin with Huck's cigar holder in his mouth and one hand clenched all but the forefinger which he bent and held threateningly like a hook instead of watching the ship however we must now return to that desolate home from which three of our characters had taken heartless 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 if we had returned sooner to look with sorrowful sympathy at her she would probably have cried don't be silly what do I matter do 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 we are merely hurrying on in advance of them to see that their beds are properly aired and that mr and mrs darling do not go out for the evening we are no more than servants why on earth should their beds be properly aired seeing that they left them in such a thankless hurry would it not serve them jolly well right if they came back and found that their parents were spending the weekend in the country it would be the moral lesson they have been in need of ever since we met them but if we contrived things in this way mrs darling would never forgive us one thing i should like to do immensely and that is to tell her in the way authors have that the children are coming back that indeed they will be here on thursday week this would spoil so completely the surprise to which wendy and john and michael are looking forward they have been planning it out on the ship mother's rapture father's shout of joy nana's leap through the air to embrace them first when what they ought to be preparing for is a good hiding how delicious to spoil it all by breaking the news in advance so that when they enter grandly mrs darling may not even offer wendy her mouth and mr darling may exclaim pettishly dash it all here are those boys again however we should get no thanks even for this we are beginning to know mrs darling by this time and may be sure that she would upbraid us for depriving the children of their little pleasure but my dear madam it is 10 days till thursday week so that by telling you what's what we can save you 10 days of unhappiness yes but at what cost by depriving the children of 10 minutes of delight oh well if you look at it that way what other way is there in which to look at it you see the woman had no proper spirit i had meant to say extraordinarily nice things about her but i despise her and not one of them will i say now she does not really need to be told to have things ready for they are ready all the beds are aired and she never leaves the house and observe the window is open for all the use we are to her we might go back to the ship however as we are here we may as well stay and look on that is all we are lookers on nobody really wants us so let us watch and say jaggy things in the hope that some of them will hurt the only change to be seen in the night nursery is that between nine and six the kennel is no longer there when the children flew away mr darling felt in his bones that all the blame was his for having chained nana up and that from first to last she had been wiser than he of course as we have seen he was quite a simple man indeed he might have passed for a boy again if he had been able to take his boldness off but he had also a noble sense of justice and a lion courage to do what seemed right to him and having thought the matter out with anxious care after the flight of the children he went down on all fours and crawled into the kennel to all mrs darling's dear invitation to come out he replied sadly but firmly no my own one this is the place for me in the bitterness of his remorse he swore that he would never leave the 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 and there never was a more humble man than the once proud george darling as he sat in the kennel of an evening talking with his wife of their children and all their pretty ways very touching was his deference to nana he would not let her come into the kennel but on all other matters he followed her wishes implicitly 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 neighbors this man whose every movement now attracted surprised attention inwardly he must have suffered torture but he preserved a calm exterior even when the young criticized 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 better class of papers and society invited him to 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 a very sad eyed woman now that we look at her closely and remember the gaiety of her in the old days all gone now just because she has lost her babes i find i won't be able to say nasty things about her after all if she was too fond of her rubberish children she couldn't help it look at her in her chair where she has fallen asleep the corner of her mouth where one looks first is almost withered up her hand moves restlessly on her breast as if she had a pain there some like peter best and some like wendy best but i i like her best suppose to make her happy we whisper to her in her sleep that the brats are coming back they are really within two miles of the window now and flying strong but all we need whisper is that they are on their way let's it is a pity we did it for she has started up calling their names and there was no one in the room but nana oh nana i dreamt my dear ones had come back nana had filmy eyes but all she could do was to put her paw gently on her mistress's lap and they were sitting together thus when the kennel was brought back as mr darling puts his head out to kiss his wife we see that his face is more worn than of your but has a softer expression expression he gave his hat to lisa who took it scornfully for she had no imagination and was quite incapable of understanding the motives of such a man outside the crowd who had accompanied the cat home were still cheering and he was naturally not unmoved listen to them he said it is very gratifying lots of little boys sneered lisa there were several adults today he assured her with a faint flush but when she tossed her head he had not a word of reproof to her social success had not spoiled him it had made him sweeter for some time he sat half out of the kennel talking with mrs darling of his success and pressing her hand reassuringly when she said she hoped his head would not be turned by it but if i had been a weak man he said good heavens if i had been a weak man and george she said timidly you are as full of remorse as ever aren't you aren't you full of remorse as ever dearest see my punishment living in a kennel it is punishment isn't it george you are sure you are not enjoying it my love you may be sure she begged his pardon and then feeling drowsy he curled round in the kennel won't you play me to sleep he asked on the nursery piano and as she was crossing to the day nursery he added thoughtlessly and shut that window i feel a draft oh george never asked me to do that the window must always be left open for them always now it was his turn to beg her pardon and she went into the day nursery and played and soon he was asleep and while he slept wendy and john and michael flew into the room we have written it so because that was the charming arrangement planned by them before we left the ship but something must have happened since then for it is not they who have flown in it is peter and tinkerbell peter's first words tell all quick tink he whispered close the window bar it that's right now you and i must get away by the door and when wendy comes she will think her mother has barred her out and she will have to go back with me this trick had been in peter's head all this time instead of feeling that he was behaving badly he danced with glee then he peeped into the day nursery to see who was playing playing he whispered to tink it's wendy's mother she is a pretty lady but not so pretty as my mother her mouth is full of thimbles but not so full as my mother's was of course peter knew nothing whatever about his mother but he sometimes bragged about her he did not know the tune which was home sweet home but he knew it was saying come back wendy come back and he cried you will never see wendy again lady for the window is barred he peeped in again to see why the music had stopped and now he saw that mrs darling had laid her head on the box and that two tears were sitting on her eyes she wants me to unbar the window thought peter but i won't not i he peeped again and the tears were still there or another two had taken their place she's awfully fond of wendy he said to himself he was angry with her now for not seeing why she could not have wendy the reason was so simple i'm fond of her too we can't both have her lady lady but the lady would not make the best of it and he was unhappy he ceased to look at her but even then she would not let go of him he skipped about and made funny faces and when he stopped it was just as if she were inside him knocking oh all right he said at last and gulped then he unbarred the window come on tink he cried with a frightful sneer at the laws of nature we don't want any silly mothers and he flew away thus wendy and john and michael found the window open for them after all which of course was more than they deserved they alighted on the floor quite unashamed of themselves and the youngest one had already forgotten his home john he said looking around him doubtfully i think i have been here before of course you have you silly there is your old bed so it is michael said but not with much conviction i say cried john the kennel and he dashed across to look into it perhaps nana is inside inside wendy said but john whistled there's a man inside it it's father exclaimed wendy let me see father michael begged eagerly and he took a good look he's not so big as the pirate i killed he said with such frank disappointment that i am glad mr darling was asleep it would have been sad if those had been the first words he heard his little michael say wendy and john had been taken aback somewhat at finding their father in the kennel surely said john like one who had lost faith in his memory he used to not sleep in the kennel john wendy said falteringly perhaps we don't remember the old life as well as we thought we did as we thought we did a chill fell upon them and serves them right it is very careless of mother said that young scoundrel john not to be here when we come back it was then that mrs darling began playing a game its mother cried wendy peeping so it is said john then you are 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 that we came back let us creep in john suggested and put our hands over her eyes but wendy who saw that 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 had never been away and so when mrs darling went back into the ninth 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 it did not come she saw them but she did not believe that they were there you see she saw them in their beds so often in her dreams that she thought this was just the dream hanging around her still 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 still she was sure it was the dream mother that's john she said mother cried michael he knew her now that's michael she said and she stretched out her arms for the three little selfish children they would never envelope again yes they did they went round wendy and john and michael who had slipped out of bed and had 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 in at the window he had ecstasies innumerable that other children can never know but he was looking through the window at the one joy from which he must forever be barred

Reviews

I’m looking forward to hearing about the family reunion! 👨👩 👧🧒👦🐶