ing _creak_, followed by _creak, creak_, all
round the Gardens. It was the Opening of the Gates, and Peter jumped
nervously into his boat. He knew Maimie would not come with him now,
and he was trying bravely not to cry. But Maimie was sobbing painfully.

'If I should be too late,' she said in agony, 'O Peter, if she has got
another one already!'

Again he sprang ashore as if she had called him back. 'I shall come
and look for you to-night,' he said, squeezing close, 'but if you hurry
away I think you will be in time.'

Then he pressed a last thimble on her sweet little mouth, and covered
his face with his hands so that he might not see her go.

'Dear Peter!' she cried.

'Dear Maimie!' cried the tragic boy.

She leapt into his arms, so that it was a sort of fairy wedding, and
then she hurried away. Oh, how she hastened to the gates! Peter, you
may be sure, was back in the Gardens that night as soon as Lock-out
sounded, but he found no Maimie, and so he knew she had been in time.
For long he hoped that some night she would come back to him; often he
thought he saw her waiting for him by the shore of the Serpentine as
his bark drew to land, but Maimie never went back. She wanted to, but
she was afraid that if she saw her dear Betwixt-and-Between again she
would linger with him too long, and besides the ayah now kept a sharp
eye on her. But she often talked lovingly of Peter, and she knitted a
kettle-holder for him, and one day when she was wondering what Easter
present he would like, her mother made a suggestion.

[Illustration: If the bad ones among the fairies happen to be out
(missing from book)]

'Nothing,' she said thoughtfully, 'would be so useful to him as a goat.'

'He could ride on it,' cried Maimie, 'and play on his pipe at the same
time.'

'Then,' her mother asked, 'won't you give him your goat, the one you
frighten Tony with at night?'

'But it isn't a real goat,' Maimie said.

'It seems very real to Tony,' replied her mother.

'It seems frightfully real to me too,' Maimie admitted, 'but how could
I give it to Peter?'

Her mother knew a way, and next day, accompanied by Tony (who was
really quite a nice boy, though of course he could not compare), they
went to the Gardens, and Maimie stood alone within a fairy ring, and
then her mother, who was a rather gifted lady, said--

_'My daughter, tell me, if you can,
What have you got for Peter Pan?'_

To which Maimie replied--

_'