I can neither fly nor swim . ' ` Do you mean we shall both be drowned ? ' ` Look how the water is rising . ' They put their hands over their eyes to shut out the sight . They thought they would soon be no more . As they sat thus something brushed against Peter as light as a kiss , and stayed there , as if saying timidly , ` Can I be of any use ? ' It was the tail of a kite , which Michael had made some days before . It had torn itself out of his hand and floated away . ` Michael 's kite , ' Peter said without interest , but next moment he had seized the tail , and was pulling the kite toward him . ` It lifted Michael off the ground , ' he cried ; ` why should it not carry you ? ' ` Both of us ! ' ` It ca n't lift two ; Michael and Curly tried . ' ` Let us draw lots , ' Wendy said bravely . ` And you a lady ; never . ' Already he had tied the tail round her . She clung to him ; she refused to go without him ; but with a ` Good-bye , Wendy , ' he pushed her from the rock ; and in a few minutes she was borne out of his sight . Peter was alone on the lagoon . The rock was very small now ; soon it would be submerged . Pale rays of light tiptoed across the waters ; and by and by there was to be heard a sound at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the world : the mermaids calling to the moon . Peter was not quite like other boys ; but he was afraid at last .
A tremor ran through him , like a shudder passing over the sea ; but on the sea one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them , and XXXXX felt just the one .
Michael Peter Wendy days drowned lots mermaids minutes rock sight