Page:Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1912, Hodder & Stoughton).djvu/241

 child!’ Maimie cried indignantly, for she knew what it was to have a dripping umbrella about your ears.

Fortunately the mischievous fellow was out of earshot, but a chrysanthemum heard her, and said so pointedly, ‘Hoity-toity, what is this?’ that she had to come out and show herself. Then the whole vegetable kingdom was rather puzzled what to do.

‘Of course it is no affair of ours,’ a spindle-tree said after they had whispered together, ‘but you know quite well you ought not to be here, and perhaps our duty is to report you to the fairies; what do you think yourself?’

‘I think you should not,’ Maimie replied, which so perplexed them that they said petulantly there was no arguing with her. ‘I wouldn’t ask it of you,’ she assured them, ‘if I thought it was wrong,’ and of course after this they could not well carry tales. They then said, ‘Well-a-day,’ and ‘Such is life,’ for they can be frightfully sarcastic; but she felt sorry for those of them who had no crutches, and she said good-naturedly, ’Before I go to the fairies’ ball, I should like to take you for a walk one at a time; you can lean on me, you know.’