Which , having avoided , he passed under the bridge and came , to his great rejoicing , within full sight of the delectable Gardens . But having tried to cast anchor , which was a stone at the end of a piece of the kite-string , he found no bottom , and was fain to hold off , seeking for moorage ; and , feeling his way , he buffeted against a sunken reef that cast him overboard by the greatness of the shock , and he was near to being drowned , but clambered back into the vessel . There now arose a mighty storm , accompanied by roaring of waters , such as he had never heard the like , and he was tossed this way and that , and his hands so numbed with the cold that he could not close them . Having escaped the danger of which , he was mercifully carried into a small bay , where his boat rode at peace . Nevertheless , he was not yet in safety ; for , on pretending to disembark , he found a multitude of small people drawn up on the shore to contest his landing , and shouting shrilly to him to be off , for it was long past Lock-out Time . This , with much brandishing of their holly-leaves ; and also a company of them carried an arrow which some boy had left in the Gardens , and this they were prepared to use as a battering-ram . Then Peter , who knew them for the fairies , called out that he was not an ordinary human and had no desire to do them displeasure , but to be their friend ; nevertheless , having found a jolly harbour , he was in no temper to draw off therefrom , and he warned them if they sought to mischief him to stand to their harms . So saying , he boldly leapt ashore , and they gathered around him with intent to slay him , but there then arose a great cry among the women , and it was because they had now observed that his sail was a baby 's nightgown . Whereupon , they straightway loved him , and grieved that their laps were too small , the which I can not explain , except by saying that such is the way of women . The men-fairies now sheathed their weapons on observing the behaviour of their women , on whose intelligence they set great store , and they led him civilly to their queen , who conferred upon him the courtesy of the Gardens after Lock-out Time , and henceforth Peter could go whither he chose , and the fairies had orders to put him in comfort . -LSB- Illustration : He passed under the bridge and came within full sight of the delectable Gardens -RSB- Such was his first voyage to the Gardens , and you may gather from the antiquity of the language that it took place a long time ago . But Peter never grows any older , and if we could be watching for him under the bridge to-night -LRB- but , of course , we ca n't -RRB- , I dare say we should see him hoisting his nightgown and sailing or paddling towards us in the Thrush 's Nest . When he sails , he sits down , but he stands up to paddle . I shall tell you presently how he got his paddle . Long before the time for the opening of the gates comes he steals back to the island , for people must not see him -LRB- he is not so human as all that -RRB- , but this gives him hours for play , and he plays exactly as real children play . At least he thinks so , and it is one of the pathetic things about him that he often plays quite wrongly . You see , he had no one to tell him how children really play , for the fairies are all more or less in hiding until dusk , and so know nothing , and though the birds pretended that they could tell him a great deal , when the time for telling came , it was wonderful how little they really knew . They told him the truth about hide-and-seek , and he often plays it by himself , but even the ducks on the Round Pond could not explain to him what it is that makes the pond so fascinating to boys . Every night the ducks have forgotten all the events of the day , except the number of pieces of cake thrown to them . They are gloomy creatures , and say that cake is not what it was in their young days .
So XXXXX had to find out many things for himself .
Gardens Peter Time first harbour hide-and-seek kite-string left men-fairies moorage