The way they gave him power to fly was this : They all tickled him on the shoulder , and soon he felt a funny itching in that part and then up he rose higher and higher and flew away out of the Gardens and over the house-tops . It was so delicious that instead of flying straight to his old home he skimmed away over St. Paul 's to the Crystal Palace and back by the river and Regent 's Park , and by the time he reached his mother 's window he had quite made up his mind that his second wish should be to become a bird . The window was wide open , just as he knew it would be , and in he fluttered , and there was his mother lying asleep . Peter alighted softly on the wooden rail at the foot of the bed and had a good look at her . She lay with her head on her hand , and the hollow in the pillow was like a nest lined with her brown wavy hair . He remembered , though he had long forgotten it , that she always gave her hair a holiday at night . How sweet the frills of her night-gown were . He was very glad she was such a pretty mother . But she looked sad , and he knew why she looked sad . One of her arms moved as if it wanted to go round something , and he knew what it wanted to go round . `` Oh , mother , '' said Peter to himself , `` if you just knew who is sitting on the rail at the foot of the bed . '' Very gently he patted the little mound that her feet made , and he could see by her face that she liked it . He knew he had but to say `` Mother '' ever so softly , and she would wake up . They always wake up at once if it is you that says their name . Then she would give such a joyous cry and squeeze him tight . How nice that would be to him , but oh , how exquisitely delicious it would be to her . That I am afraid is how Peter regarded it . In returning to his mother he never doubted that he was giving her the greatest treat a woman can have . Nothing can be more splendid , he thought , than to have a little boy of your own . How proud of him they are ; and very right and proper , too .
But why does XXXXX sit so long on the rail , why does he not tell his mother that he has come back ?
Gardens Mother Palace Paul Peter Regent house-tops night right second