took place a long time ago. But
Peter never grows any older, and if we could be watching for him under
the bridge to-night (but, of course, we can't), I dare say we should
see him hoisting his nightgown and sailing or paddling towards us in
the Thrush's Nest. When he sails, he sits down, but he stands up to
paddle. I shall tell you presently how he got his paddle.

Long before the time for the opening of the gates comes he steals back
to the island, for people must not see him (he is not so human as all
that), but this gives him hours for play, and he plays exactly as real
children play. At least he thinks so, and it is one of the pathetic
things about him that he often plays quite wrongly.

You see, he had no one to tell him how children really play, for the
fairies are all more or less in hiding until dusk, and so know nothing,
and though the birds pretended that they could tell him a great deal,
when the time for telling came, it was wonderful how little they really
knew. They told him the truth about hide-and-seek, and he often plays
it by himself, but even the ducks on the Round Pond could not explain
to him what it is that makes the pond so fascinating to boys. Every
night the ducks have forgotten all the events of the day, except the
number of pieces of cake thrown to them. They are gloomy creatures,
and say that cake is not what it was in their young days.

So Peter had to find out many things for himself. He often played
ships at the Round Pond, but his ship was only a hoop which he had
found on the grass. Of course, he had never seen a hoop, and he
wondered what you play at with them, and decided that you play at
pretending they are boats. This hoop always sank at once, but he waded
in for it, and sometimes he dragged it gleefully round the rim of the
pond, and he was quite proud to think that he had discovered what boys
do with hoops.

[Illustration: There now arose a mighty storm, and he was tossed this
way and that (missing from book)]

Another time, when he found a child's pail, he thought it was for
sitting in, and he sat so hard in it that he could scarcely get out of
it. Also he found a balloon. It was bobbing about on the Hump, quite
as if it was having a game by itself, and he caught it after an
exciting chase. But he thought it was a ball, and Jenny Wren had told
him that boys kick balls, so he kicked it; and after that he could not
find it anywhere.

Perhaps the most surprising t