pture, father's shout
of joy, Nana's leap through the air to embrace them first, when what
they ought to be prepared 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 ten days till Thursday week; so that by
telling you what's what, we can save you ten days of unhappiness."

"Yes, but at what a cost! By depriving the children of ten minutes of
delight."

"Oh, if you look at it in 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 well 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 baldness off;
but he had also a noble sense of justice and a lion's 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 invitations to him 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 do