` It is n't that kind of pain , ' Peter replied darkly . ` Then what kind is it ? ' ` Wendy , you are wrong about mothers . ' They all gathered round him in affright , so alarming was his agitation ; and with a fine candour he told them what he had hitherto concealed . ` Long ago , ' he said , ' I thought like you that my mother would always keep the window open for me ; so I stayed away for moons and moons and moons , and then flew back ; but the window was barred , for mother had forgotten all about me , and there was another little boy sleeping in my bed . ' I am not sure that this was true , but Peter thought it was true ; and it scared them . ` Are you sure mothers are like that ? ' ` Yes . ' So this was the truth about mothers . The toads ! Still it is best to be careful ; and no one knows so quickly as a child when he should give in . ` Wendy , let us go home , ' cried John and Michael together . ` Yes , ' she said , clutching them . ` Not to-night ? ' asked the lost boys bewildered . They knew in what they called their hearts that one can get on quite well without a mother , and that it is only the mothers who think you ca n't . ` At once , ' Wendy replied resolutely , for the horrible thought had come to her : ` Perhaps mother is in half mourning by this time . ' This dread made her forgetful of what must be Peter 's feelings , and she said to him rather sharply , ` Peter , will you make the necessary arrangements ? ' ` If you wish it , ' , he replied , as coolly as if she had asked him to pass the nuts . -LSB- Illustration : WENDY 'S STORY -RSB- Not so much as a sorry-to-lose-you between them !
If she did not mind the parting , he was going to show her , was XXXXX , that neither did he .
John Michael Peter Wendy affright boy forgetful kind sorry-to-lose-you toads