she cried , running to him , thinking he was ill . She felt him solicitously , lower down than his chest . `` Where is it , Peter ? '' `` It is n't that kind of pain , '' Peter replied darkly . `` Then what kind is it ? '' `` Wendy , you are wrong about mothers . '' They all gathered round him in affright , so alarming was his agitation ; and with a fine candour he told them what he had hitherto concealed . `` Long ago , '' he said , `` I thought like you that my mother would always keep the window open for me , so I stayed away for moons and moons and moons , and then flew back ; but the window was barred , for mother had forgotten all about me , and there was another little boy sleeping in my bed . '' I am not sure that this was true , but Peter thought it was true ; and it scared them . `` Are you sure mothers are like that ? '' `` Yes . '' So this was the truth about mothers . The toads ! Still it is best to be careful ; and no one knows so quickly as a child when he should give in . `` Wendy , let us -LSB- let 's -RSB- go home , '' cried John and Michael together . `` Yes , '' she said , clutching them . `` Not to-night ? '' asked the lost boys bewildered . They knew in what they called their hearts that one can get on quite well without a mother , and that it is only the mothers who think you ca n't . `` At once , '' Wendy replied resolutely , for the horrible thought had come to her : `` Perhaps mother is in half mourning by this time . ''
This dread made her forgetful of what must be Peter 's feelings , and she said to him rather sharply , `` XXXXX , will you make the necessary arrangements ? ''
John Long Michael Peter Wendy affright child kind mothers toads