fident-sure of our capacity to do it as
was bold Peter Pan that evening.

He alighted gaily on the open sward, between the Baby's Palace and the
Serpentine, and the first thing he did was to lie on his back and kick.
He was quite unaware already that he had ever been human, and thought
he was a bird, even in appearance, just the same as in his early days,
and when he tried to catch a fly he did not understand that the reason
he missed it was because he had attempted to seize it with his hand,
which, of course, a bird never does. He saw, however, that it must be
past Lock-out Time, for there were a good many fairies about, all too
busy to notice him; they were getting breakfast ready, milking their
cows, drawing water, and so on, and the sight of the water-pails made
him thirsty, so he flew over to the Round Pond to have a drink. He
stooped and dipped his beak in the pond; he thought it was his beak,
but, of course, it was only his nose, and therefore, very little water
came up, and that not so refreshing as usual, so next he tried a puddle
and he fell flop into it. When a real bird falls in flop, he spreads
out his feathers and pecks them dry, but Peter could not remember what
was the thing to do, and he decided rather sulkily to go to sleep on
the weeping-beech in the Baby Walk.

At first he found some difficulty in balancing himself on a branch, but
presently he remembered the way, and fell asleep. He awoke long before
morning, shivering, and saying to himself, 'I never was out on such a
cold night'; he had really been out on colder nights when he was a
bird, but, of course, as everybody knows, what seems a warm night to a
bird is a cold night to a boy in a nightgown. Peter also felt
strangely uncomfortable, as if his head was stuffy; he heard loud
noises that made him look round sharply, though they were really
himself sneezing. There was something he wanted very much, but, though
he knew he wanted it, he could not think what it was. What he wanted
so much was his mother to blow his nose, but that never struck him, so
he decided to appeal to the fairies for enlightenment. They are
reputed to know a good deal.

[Illustration: When he heard Peter's voice he popped in alarm behind a
tulip]

There were two of them strolling along the Baby Walk, with their arms
round each other's waists, and he hopped down to address them. The
fairies have their tiffs with the birds, but they usually give a civil
answer to a