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 . 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 daresay we should see him hoisting his night-gown and sailing or paddling toward 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 were all more or less in hiding until dusk , and so know nothing , and though the buds 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 Peter had to find out many things for himself . He often played ships at the Round Pond , but his ship was only a hoop which he had found on the grass . Of course , he had never seen a hoop , and he wondered what you play at with them , and decided that you play at pretending they are boats . This hoop always sank at once , but he waded in for it , and sometimes he dragged it gleefully round the rim of the pond , and he was quite proud to think that he had discovered what boys do with hoops . Another time , when he found a child 's pail , he thought it was for sitting in , and he sat so hard in it that he could scarcely get out of it . Also he found a balloon . It was bobbing about on the Hump , quite as if it was having a game by itself , and he caught it after an exciting chase . But he thought it was a ball , and Jenny Wren had told him that boys kick balls , so he kicked it ; and after that he could not find it anywhere . Perhaps the most surprising thing he found was a perambulator .
It was under a lime-tree , near the entrance to the Fairy Queen 's Winter Palace -LRB- which is within the circle of the seven Spanish chestnuts -RRB- , and XXXXX approached it warily , for the birds had never mentioned such things to him .
Gardens Peter Pond Time Wren hours men-fairies night perambulator to-night