It is because Peter wearies for summer and plays that it has come , and the chestnut being so near , hears him and is cheated . But as Peter sat by the shore tootling divinely on his pipe he sometimes fell into sad thoughts and then the music became sad also , and the reason of all this sadness was that he could not reach the Gardens , though he could see them through the arch of the bridge . He knew he could never be a real human again , and scarcely wanted to be one , but oh , how he longed to play as other children play , and of course there is no such lovely place to play in as the Gardens . The birds brought him news of how boys and girls play , and wistful tears started in Peter 's eyes . Perhaps you wonder why he did not swim across . The reason was that he could not swim . He wanted to know how to swim , but no one on the island knew the way except the ducks , and they are so stupid . They were quite willing to teach him , but all they could say about it was , `` You sit down on the top of the water in this way , and then you kick out like that . '' Peter tried it often , but always before he could kick out he sank . What he really needed to know was how you sit on the water without sinking , and they said it was quite impossible to explain such an easy thing as that . Occasionally swans touched on the island , and he would give them all his day 's food and then ask them how they sat on the water , but as soon as he had no more to give them the hateful things hissed at him and sailed away . Once he really thought he had discovered a way of reaching the Gardens . A wonderful white thing , like a runaway newspaper , floated high over the island and then tumbled , rolling over and over after the manner of a bird that has broken its wing . Peter was so frightened that he hid , but the birds told him it was only a kite , and what a kite is , and that it must have tugged its string out of a boy 's hand , and soared away . After that they laughed at Peter for being so fond of the kite , he loved it so much that he even slept with one hand on it , and I think this was pathetic and pretty , for the reason he loved it was because it had belonged to a real boy . To the birds this was a very poor reason , but the older ones felt grateful to him at this time because he had nursed a number of fledglings through the German measles , and they offered to show him how birds fly a kite . So six of them took the end of the string in their beaks and flew away with it ; and to his amazement it flew after them and went even higher than they . Peter screamed out , `` Do it again ! '' and with great good nature they did it several times , and always instead of thanking them he cried , `` Do it again ! '' which shows that even now he had not quite forgotten what it was to be a boy .
At last , with a grand design burning within his brave heart , he begged them to do it once more with him clinging to the tail , and now a hundred flew off with the string , and Peter clung to the tail , meaning to drop off when he was over the XXXXX .
Gardens German Peter beaks children course day one summer wearies