Ah , Peter , we who have made the great mistake , how differently we should all act at the second chance . But Solomon was right ; there is no second chance , not for most of us . When we reach the window it is Lock-out Time . CHAPTER I PETER BREAKS THROUGH All children , except one , grow up . They soon know that they will grow up , and the way Wendy knew was this . One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden , and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother . I suppose she must have looked rather delightful , for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried , ` Oh , why ca n't you remain like this for ever ! ' This was all that passed between them on the subject , but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up . You always know after you are two . Two is the beginning of the end . Of course they lived at 14 , and until Wendy came her mother was the chief one . She was a lovely lady , with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth . Her romantic mind was like the tiny boxes , one within the other , that come from the puzzling East , however many you discover there is always one more ; and her sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get , though there it was , perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner . The way Mr. Darling won her was this : the many gentlemen who had been boys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her , and they all ran to her house to propose to her except Mr. Darling , who took a cab and nipped in first , and so he got her . He got all of her , except the innermost box and the kiss . He never knew about the box , and in time he gave up trying for the kiss . Wendy thought Napoleon could have got it , but I can picture him trying , and then going off in a passion , slamming the door . Mr. Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only loved him but respected him . He was one of those deep ones who know about stocks and shares . Of course no one really knows , but he quite seemed to know , and he often said stocks were up and shares were down in a way that would have made any woman respect him .
Mrs. XXXXX was married in white , and at first she kept the books perfectly , almost gleefully , as if it were a game , not so much as a brussels sprout was missing ; but by and by whole cauliflowers dropped out , and instead of them there were pictures of babies without faces .
Darling East Napoleon Peter Solomon day first old right second