He also became very learned in bird-lore , and knew an east-wind from a west-wind by its smell , and he could see the grass growing and hear the insects walking about inside the tree-trunks . But the best thing Solomon had done was to teach him to have a glad heart . All birds have glad hearts unless you rob their nests , and so as they were the only kind of heart Solomon knew about , it was easy to him to teach Peter how to have one . Peter 's heart was so glad that he felt he must sing all day long , just as the birds sing for joy , but , being partly human , he needed in instrument , so he made a pipe of reeds , and he used to sit by the shore of the island of an evening , practising the sough of the wind and the ripple of the water , and catching handfuls of the shine of the moon , and he put them all in his pipe and played them so beautifully that even the birds were deceived , and they would say to each other , `` Was that a fish leaping in the water or was it Peter playing leaping fish on his pipe ? '' and sometimes he played the birth of birds , and then the mothers would turn round in their nests to see whether they had laid an egg . If you are a child of the Gardens you must know the chestnut-tree near the bridge , which comes out in flower first of all the chestnuts , but perhaps you have not heard why this tree leads the way . 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 XXXXX 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 .
Gardens Peter Solomon chestnut-tree day evening first reeds tree-trunks wearies