Page:Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1912, Hodder & Stoughton).djvu/300

 it on his finger, though there can be scarcely any one who needs a thimble so little. You see, though still a tiny child, it was really years and years since he had seen his mother, and I dare say the baby who had supplanted him was now a man with whiskers.

But you must not think that Peter Pan was a boy to pity rather than to admire; if Maimie began by thinking this, she soon found she was very much mistaken. Her eyes glistened with admiration when he told her of his adventures, especially of how he went to and fro between the island and the Gardens in the Thrush’s Nest.

‘How romantic!’ Maimie exclaimed, but this was another unknown word, and he hung his head thinking she was despising him.

‘I suppose Tony would not have done that?’ he said very humbly.

‘Never, never!’ she answered with conviction, ‘he would have been afraid.’

‘What is afraid?’ asked Peter longingly. He thought it must be some splendid thing. ‘I do wish you would teach me how to be afraid, Maimie,’ he said.

‘I believe no one could teach that to you,’ she