He had made it up himself out of the way she said ` Peter , ' and he never stopped playing until she looked happy . He thought this so clever of him that he could scarcely resist wakening her to hear her say , ' O Peter , how exquisitely you play ! ' However , as she now seemed comfortable , he again cast looks at the window . You must not think that he meditated flying away and never coming back . He had quite decided to be his mother 's boy , but hesitated about beginning to-night . It was the second wish which troubled him . He no longer meant to make it a wish to be a bird , but not to ask for a second wish seemed wasteful , and , of course , he could not ask for it without returning to the fairies . Also , if he put off asking for his wish too long it might go bad . He asked himself if he had not been hard-hearted to fly away without saying good-bye to Solomon . ' I should like awfully to sail in my boat just once more , ' he said wistfully to his sleeping mother . He quite argued with her as if she could hear him . ` It would be so splendid to tell the birds of this adventure , ' he said coaxingly . ' I promise to come back , ' he said solemnly , and meant it , too . -LSB- Illustration : Butter is got from the roots of old trees -LRB- missing from book -RRB- -RSB- And in the end , you know , he flew away . Twice he came back from the window , wanting to kiss his mother , but he feared the delight of it might waken her , so at last he played her a lovely kiss on his pipe , and then he flew back to the Gardens . Many nights , and even months , passed before he asked the fairies for his second wish ; and I am not sure that I quite know why he delayed so long . One reason was that he had so many good-byes to say , not only to his particular friends , but to a hundred favourite spots . Then he had his last sail , and his very last sail , and his last sail of all , and so on . Again , a number of farewell feasts were given in his honour ; and another comfortable reason was that , after all , there was no hurry , for his mother would never weary of waiting for him . This last reason displeased old Solomon , for it was an encouragement to the birds to procrastinate .
Solomon had several excellent mottoes for keeping them at their work , such as ` Never put off laying to-day because you can lay to-morrow , ' and ` In this world there are no XXXXX chances , ' and yet here was Peter gaily putting off and none the worse for it .
Gardens Peter Solomon good-byes months nights sail say second to-night