He was meek and timid , and carried his address inside his hat , and whatever part of London he was in search of he always went to Westminster Abbey first as a starting-point . Him we carried in triumph to our other friend , with the story of that Saturday to Monday , and never shall I forget the gloating joy with which Mr. Salford leapt at him . They have been cronies ever since , and I notice that Mr. Salford , who naturally does most of the talking , keeps tight grip of the other old man 's coat . -LSB- Illustration : Old Mr. Salford was a crab-apple of an old gentleman who wandered all day in the Gardens -RSB- -LSB- Illustration : Away he flew , right over the houses to the Gardens -RSB- The two last places before you come to our gate are the Dogs ' Cemetery and the chaffinch 's nest , but we pretend not to know what the Dogs ' Cemetery is , as Porthos is always with us . The nest is very sad . It is quite white , and the way we found it was wonderful . We were having another look among the bushes for David 's lost worsted ball , and instead of the ball we found a lovely nest made of the worsted , and containing four eggs , with scratches on them very like David 's handwriting , so we think they must have been the mother 's love-letters to the little ones inside . Every day we were in the Gardens we paid a call at the nest , taking care that no cruel boy should see us , and we dropped crumbs , and soon the bird knew us as friends , and sat in the nest looking at us kindly with her shoulders hunched up . But one day when we went there were only two eggs in the nest , and the next time there were none . The saddest part of it was that the poor little chaffinch fluttered about the bushes , looking so reproachfully at us that we knew she thought we had done it ; and though David tried to explain to her , it was so long since he had spoken the bird language that I fear she did not understand . He and I left the Gardens that day with our knuckles in our eyes . -LSB- Illustration : Tailpiece to ` The Grand Tour of the Gardens ' -RSB- -LSB- Illustration : Headpiece to ` Peter Pan ' -RSB- II PETER PAN If you ask your mother whether she knew about Peter Pan when she was a little girl , she will say , ` Why , of course I did , child ' ; and if you ask her whether he rode on a goat in those days , she will say , ` What a foolish question to ask ; certainly he did . ' Then if you ask your grandmother whether she knew about Peter Pan when she was a girl , she also says , ` Why , of course I did , child , ' but if you ask her whether he rode on a goat in those days , she says she never heard of his having a goat . Perhaps she has forgotten , just as she sometimes forgets your name and calls you Mildred , which is your mother 's name . Still , she could hardly forget such an important thing as the goat . Therefore there was no goat when your grandmother was a little girl . This shows that , in telling the story of Peter Pan , to begin with the goat -LRB- as most people do -RRB- is as silly as to put on your jacket before your vest . Of course , it also shows that Peter is ever so old , but he is really always the same age , so that does not matter in the least . His age is one week , and though he was born so long ago he has never had a birthday , nor is there the slightest chance of his ever having one . The reason is that he escaped from being a human when he was seven days old ; he escaped by the window and flew back to the Kensington Gardens .
If you think he was the only baby who ever wanted to escape , it shows how completely you have forgotten your own young XXXXX .
David Gardens Headpiece London Mildred Porthos Salford days love-letters starting-point