Peter Pan by J.M Barrie

Title: Peter Pan by J.M Barrie

Heading: Peter Breaks Through

Introduction: All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this.

Every first sentence:

• Of course they lived at 14, and until Wendy came her mother was the chief one.

• The way Mrs. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who had been boys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her and they all ran to her house to propose to her except Mr. Darling, who took a cab and nipped in first, and so he got her.

• Mr. Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only loved him but respected him.

• Mrs. Darling was married in white, and at first she kept the books perfectly, almost gleefully, as if it were a game, not so much as a Brussels was missing; but by and by whole cauliflowers dropped out, and instead of them there were pictures of babies without faces.

• Wendy came first, then John, then Michael.

• For a week or two after Wendy came it was doubtful whether they should be able to keep her, as she was another mouth to feed.

• Now don’t interrupt, “he would beg of her”

• I have one pound seventeen here, and two and six at the office.

• “Of course we can, George” she cried.

• Remember mumps, he warned her almost threateningly and off he went again.

• There was the same excitement over John, and Michael had even a narrower squeak.

• Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so and Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbors; so, of course, they had a nurse.

• No nursery could possibly have been conducted more correctly.

• He had his position in the city to consider.

• Nana also troubled him in another way.

• Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her children’s minds.

• I don’t know whether you have ever seen a map of a person’s mind.

• Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal.

• Of all delectable islands the Neverland is the snuggest and most compact, not large and sprawl, you know, with tedious distances between one adventure and another, but nicely crammed.

• Occasionally in her travels through her children’s minds Mrs. Darling found things she could not understand, and of these quite the most perplexing was the word Peter.

• Yes, he is rather cocky.

• But who is he, my pet?

• He is Peter Pan, you know, mother.

• At first Mrs. Darling did not know, but after thinking back into her childhood she just remembered a Peter Pan who was said to live with the fairies.

• Besides, she said to Wendy, he would be grown up by this time.

• Oh no, he isn’t grown up, Wendy assured her confidently and he is just my size.

• Mrs. Darling consulted Mr. Darling, but he smiled.

• But it would not blow over and soon the troublesome boy gave Mrs. Darling quite a shock.

• Children have the strangest adventures without being troubled by them.

• I do believe it is that Peter again.

• Whatever do you mean, Wendy?

• It is naughty of him no to wipe his feet, Wendy said, sighting.

• She explained in quite a matter of fact way that she though Peter sometimes came to the nursery in the night and sat on the foot of her bed and played on his pipes to her.

• What nonsense you talk, precious.

• I think he come in by window, she said.

• My love, it three floors up.

• Were not the leaves at the foot of the window, mother?

• It was quite true; the leaves had been found very near the window.

• Mrs. Darling did not know what to think, for it all seemed so natural to Wendy that you could not dismiss it by saying she had been dreaming.

• My child, the mother cried, why did you not tell me of this before?

• I forgot, said Wendy lightly.

• Oh, surely she must have been dreaming.

• But, on the hand, there were leaves.

• Certainly, Wendy had been dreaming.

• But Wendy had not been dreaming, as the very nest night showed.

• On the night we speak of all children were once more in bed.

• All were looking so safe and cozy that she smiled at her fears now and sat down tranquilly by the fire to sew.

• It was something for Michael, who on his birthday was getting into shirts.

• The dream by itself would have been a trifle, but while she was dreaming the window of the nursery blew open, and a boy did drop on the floor.

• She started up with a cry, and saw the boy, and somehow she knew at once that he was Peter Pan.

Vocabulary:

Mocking- To treat with ridicule or contempt

Puzzling- To baffle or confuse mentally by presenting or being a difficult problem or matter.

Brussels- The capital and largest city of Belgium.

Sprout- Young plant growth, such as a bud or shoot.

Edge- A thin, sharpened side, as of the blade of a cutting instrument.

Mumps- An acute, inflammatory, contagious disease.

Measles- An acute, contagious viral disease.

Shillings- A coin used in the United Kingdom.

Prim- Precise or proper to the point of affectation.

Perambulators- A baby carriage.

End of Chapter Question:

1. What does Peter lose in the Darling's nursery?

His shadow

2. Who was the first of the Darling children to discover Peter?

Wendy

3. What does Peter try to reattach his shadow with?

With a needle.

...