Then he had his last sail , and his very last sail , and his last sail of all , and so on . Again , a number of farewell feasts were given in his honour ; and another comfortable reason was that , after all , there was no hurry , for his mother would never weary of waiting for him . This last reason displeased old Solomon , for it was an encouragement to the birds to procrastinate . Solomon had several excellent mottoes for keeping them at their work , such as `` Never put off laying to-day , because you can lay to-morrow , '' and `` In this world there are no second chances , '' and yet here was Peter gaily putting off and none the worse for it . The birds pointed this out to each other , and fell into lazy habits . But , mind you , though Peter was so slow in going back to his mother , he was quite decided to go back . The best proof of this was his caution with the fairies . They were most anxious that he should remain in the Gardens to play to them , and to bring this to pass they tried to trick him into making such a remark as `` I wish the grass was not so wet , '' and some of them danced out of time in the hope that he might cry , `` I do wish you would keep time ! '' Then they would have said that this was his second wish . But he smoked their design , and though on occasions he began , `` I wish -- '' he always stopped in time . So when at last he said to them bravely , `` I wish now to go back to mother for ever and always , '' they had to tickle his shoulder and let him go . He went in a hurry in the end because he had dreamt that his mother was crying , and he knew what was the great thing she cried for , and that a hug from her splendid Peter would quickly make her to smile . Oh , he felt sure of it , and so eager was he to be nestling in her arms that this time he flew straight to the window , which was always to be open for him . But the window was closed , and there were iron bars on it , and peering inside he saw his mother sleeping peacefully with her arm round another little boy . Peter called , `` Mother ! mother ! '' but she heard him not ; in vain he beat his little limbs against the iron bars . He had to fly back , sobbing , to the Gardens , and he never saw his dear again . What a glorious boy he had meant to be to her . Ah , Peter , we who have made the great mistake , how differently we should all act at the second chance .
But Solomon was right ; there is no XXXXX chance , not for most of us .
Gardens Mother Peter Solomon birds chances mother mottoes second to-morrow