`` Michael 's kite , '' Peter said without interest , but next moment he had seized the tail , and was pulling the kite toward him . `` It lifted Michael off the ground , '' he cried ; `` why should it not carry you ? '' `` Both of us ! '' `` It ca n't lift two ; Michael and Curly tried . '' `` Let us draw lots , '' Wendy said bravely . `` And you a lady ; never . '' Already he had tied the tail round her . She clung to him ; she refused to go without him ; but with a `` Good-bye , Wendy , '' he pushed her from the rock ; and in a few minutes she was borne out of his sight . Peter was alone on the lagoon . The rock was very small now ; soon it would be submerged . Pale rays of light tiptoed across the waters ; and by and by there was to be heard a sound at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the world : the mermaids calling to the moon . Peter was not quite like other boys ; but he was afraid at last . A tremour ran through him , like a shudder passing over the sea ; but on the sea one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them , and Peter felt just the one . Next moment he was standing erect on the rock again , with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him . It was saying , `` To die will be an awfully big adventure . '' Chapter 9 THE NEVER BIRD The last sound Peter heard before he was quite alone were the mermaids retiring one by one to their bedchambers under the sea . He was too far away to hear their doors shut ; but every door in the coral caves where they live rings a tiny bell when it opens or closes -LRB- as in all the nicest houses on the mainland -RRB- , and he heard the bells . Steadily the waters rose till they were nibbling at his feet ; and to pass the time until they made their final gulp , he watched the only thing on the lagoon . He thought it was a piece of floating paper , perhaps part of the kite , and wondered idly how long it would take to drift ashore . Presently he noticed as an odd thing that it was undoubtedly out upon the lagoon with some definite purpose , for it was fighting the tide , and sometimes winning ; and when it won , Peter , always sympathetic to the weaker side , could not help clapping ; it was such a gallant piece of paper .
It was not really a piece of paper ; it was the Never bird , making desperate efforts to reach XXXXX on the nest .
Curly Michael Peter Wendy bedchambers ground lots mermaids minutes tremour