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CHAPTER CXXVII. THE DECK _The coffin laid upon two line-tubs, between the vice-bench and the open hatchway; the Carpenter calking its seams; the string of twisted oakum slowly unwinding from a large roll of it placed in the bosom of his frock.Ahab comes slowly from the cabin-gangway, and hears Pip following him._ Ba...
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CHAPTER CXXVIII. THE PEQUOD MEETS THE RACHEL Next day, a large ship, the Rachel, was descried, bearing directly down upon the Pequod, all her spars thickly clustering with men. At the time the Pequod was making good speed through the water; but as the broad-winged windward stranger shot nigh to her, the boastful sail...
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Now, as it shortly turned out, what made this incident of the Rachels the more melancholy, was the circumstance, that not only was one of the Captains sons among the number of the missing boats crew; but among the number of the other boats crews, at the same time, but on the other hand, separated from the ship during t...
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CHAPTER CXXIX. THE CABIN (_Ahab moving to go on deck; Pip catches him by the hand to follow._) Lad, lad, I tell thee thou must not follow Ahab now. The hour is coming when Ahab would not scare thee from him, yet would not have thee by him. There is that in thee, poor lad, which I feel too curing to my malady. Like c...
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CHAPTER CXXX. THE HAT And now that at the proper time and place, after so long and wide a preliminary cruise, Ahab,all other whaling waters sweptseemed to have chased his foe into an ocean-fold, to slay him the more securely there; now, that he found himself hard by the very latitude and longitude where his tormentin...
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And yet, somehow, did Ahabin his own proper self, as daily, hourly, and every instant, commandingly revealed to his subordinates,Ahab seemed an independent lord; the Parsee but his slave. Still again both seemed yoked together, and an unseen tyrant driving them; the lean shade siding the solid rib. For be this Parsee w...
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CHAPTER CXXXI. THE PEQUOD MEETS THE DELIGHT The intense Pequod sailed on; the rolling waves and days went by; the life-buoy-coffin still lightly swung; and another ship, most miserably misnamed the Delight, was descried. As she drew nigh, all eyes were fixed upon her broad beams, called shears, which, in some whaling...
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Oh, my Captain! my Captain! noble soul! grand old heart, after all! why should any one give chase to that hated fish! Away with me! let us fly these deadly waters! let us home! Wife and child, too, are Starbuckswife and child of his brotherly, sisterly, play-fellow youth; even as thine, sir, are the wife and child of t...
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At that preluding moment, ere the boat was yet snapped, Ahab, the first to perceive the whales intent, by the crafty upraising of his head, a movement that loosed his hold for the time; at that moment his hand had made one final effort to push the boat out of the bite. But only slipping further into the whales mouth, a...
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Aye, sir, for it was not darted; this is it, said Stubb, showing it. Lay it before me;any missing men? One, two, three, four, five;there were five oars, sir, and here are five men. Thats good.Help me, man; I wish to stand. So, so, I see him! there! there! going to leeward still; what a leaping spout! Hands off from ...
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CHAPTER CXXXIV. THE CHASESECOND DAY At day-break, the three mast-heads were punctually manned afresh. Dye see him? cried Ahab, after allowing a little space for the light to spread. See nothing, sir. Turn up all hands and make sail! he travels faster than I thought for;the top-gallant sails!aye, they should have b...
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They were one man, not thirty. For as the one ship that held them all; though it was put together of all contrasting thingsoak, and maple, and pine wood; iron, and pitch, and hempyet all these ran into each other in the one concrete hull, which shot on its way, both balanced and directed by the long central keel; even ...
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But at last in his untraceable evolutions, the White Whale so crossed and recrossed, and in a thousand ways entangled the slack of the three lines now fast to him, that they foreshortened, and, of themselves, warped the devoted boats towards the planted irons in him; though now for a moment the whale drew aside a littl...
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Aye! and all splintered to pieces, Stubb!dye see it.But even with a broken bone, old Ahab is untouched; and I account no living bone of mine one jot more me, than this dead one thats lost. Nor white whale, nor man, nor fiend, can so much as graze old Ahab in his own proper and inaccessible being. Can any lead touch yon...
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CHAPTER CXXXV. THE CHASETHIRD DAY The morning of the third day dawned fair and fresh, and once more the solitary night-man at the fore-mast-head was relieved by crowds of the daylight look-outs, who dotted every mast and almost every spar. Dye see him? cried Ahab; but the whale was not yet in sight. In his infallib...
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The boats had not gone very far, when by a signal from the mast-headsa downward pointed arm, Ahab knew that the whale had sounded; but intending to be near him at the next rising, he held on his way a little sideways from the vessel; the becharmed crew maintaining the profoundest silence, as the head-beat waves hammere...
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Whether fagged by the three days running chase, and the resistance to his swimming in the knotted hamper he bore; or whether it was some latent deceitfulness and malice in him: whichever was true, the White Whales way now began to abate, as it seemed, from the boat so rapidly nearing him once more; though indeed the wh...
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Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of course, they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until the ...
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Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. Johns, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingoes flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it. John lived in a boat turned upside down on the sands, Michael in a wigwam, Wendy in a house of leaves def...
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My child, the mother cried, why did you not tell me of this before? I forgot, said Wendy lightly. She was in a hurry to get her breakfast. Oh, surely she must have been dreaming. But, on the other hand, there were the leaves. Mrs. Darling examined them very carefully; they were skeleton leaves, but she was sure they...
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Chapter II. THE SHADOW Mrs. Darling screamed, and, as if in answer to a bell, the door opened, and Nana entered, returned from her evening out. She growled and sprang at the boy, who leapt lightly through the window. Again Mrs. Darling screamed, this time in distress for him, for she thought he was killed, and she ra...
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I am happy to inform you, Mrs. Darling, that you are now a mother, in just such a tone as Mr. Darling himself may have used on the real occasion. Wendy had danced with joy, just as the real Mrs. Darling must have done. Then John was born, with the extra pomp that he conceived due to the birth of a male, and Michael c...
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Strong man though he was, there is no doubt that he had behaved rather foolishly over the medicine. If he had a weakness, it was for thinking that all his life he had taken medicine boldly, and so now, when Michael dodged the spoon in Nanas mouth, he had said reprovingly, Be a man, Michael. Wont; wont! Michael cried n...
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And still Wendy hugged Nana. Thats right, he shouted. Coddle her! Nobody coddles me. Oh dear no! I am only the breadwinner, why should I be coddledwhy, why, why! George, Mrs. Darling entreated him, not so loud; the servants will hear you. Somehow they had got into the way of calling Liza the servants. Let them! he an...
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Chapter III. COME AWAY, COME AWAY! For a moment after Mr. and Mrs. Darling left the house the night-lights by the beds of the three children continued to burn clearly. They were awfully nice little night-lights, and one cannot help wishing that they could have kept awake to see Peter; but Wendys light blinked and gav...
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It has come off? Yes. Then Wendy saw the shadow on the floor, looking so draggled, and she was frightfully sorry for Peter. How awful! she said, but she could not help smiling when she saw that he had been trying to stick it on with soap. How exactly like a boy! Fortunately she knew at once what to do. It must be se...
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She gave him a look of the most intense admiration, and he thought it was because he had run away, but it was really because he knew fairies. Wendy had lived such a home life that to know fairies struck her as quite delightful. She poured out questions about them, to his surprise, for they were rather a nuisance to him...
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For the moment she had forgotten his ignorance about kisses. I thought you would want it back, he said a little bitterly, and offered to return her the thimble. Oh dear, said the nice Wendy, I dont mean a kiss, I mean a thimble. Whats that? Its like this. She kissed him. Funny! said Peter gravely. Now shall I give ...
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Liza was in a bad temper, for she was mixing the Christmas puddings in the kitchen, and had been drawn from them, with a raisin still on her cheek, by Nanas absurd suspicions. She thought the best way of getting a little quiet was to take Nana to the nursery for a moment, but in custody of course. There, you suspiciou...
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Chapter IV. THE FLIGHT Second to the right, and straight on till morning. That, Peter had told Wendy, was the way to the Neverland; but even birds, carrying maps and consulting them at windy corners, could not have sighted it with these instructions. Peter, you see, just said anything that came into his head. At fi...
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Peter was not with them for the moment, and they felt rather lonely up there by themselves. He could go so much faster than they that he would suddenly shoot out of sight, to have some adventure in which they had no share. He would come down laughing over something fearfully funny he had been saying to a star, but he h...
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They dont want us to land, he explained. Who are they? Wendy whispered, shuddering. But he could not or would not say. Tinker Bell had been asleep on his shoulder, but now he wakened her and sent her on in front. Sometimes he poised himself in the air, listening intently, with his hand to his ear, and again he would...
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In the black topper the light was completely hidden, and they flew on in silence. It was the stillest silence they had ever known, broken once by a distant lapping, which Peter explained was the wild beasts drinking at the ford, and again by a rasping sound that might have been the branches of trees rubbing together, b...
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In the midst of them, the blackest and largest in that dark setting, reclined James Hook, or as he wrote himself, Jas. Hook, of whom it is said he was the only man that the Sea-Cook feared. He lay at his ease in a rough chariot drawn and propelled by his men, and instead of a right hand he had the iron hook with which ...
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All are keeping a sharp look-out in front, but none suspects that the danger may be creeping up from behind. This shows how real the island was. The first to fall out of the moving circle was the boys. They flung themselves down on the sward, close to their underground home. I do wish Peter would come back, every one...
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Peter flung my arm, he said, wincing, to a crocodile that happened to be passing by. I have often, said Smee, noticed your strange dread of crocodiles. Not of crocodiles, Hook corrected him, but of that one crocodile. He lowered his voice. It liked my arm so much, Smee, that it has followed me ever since, from sea to...
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Chapter VI. THE LITTLE HOUSE Foolish Tootles was standing like a conqueror over Wendys body when the other boys sprang, armed, from their trees. You are too late, he cried proudly, I have shot the Wendy. Peter will be so pleased with me. Overhead Tinker Bell shouted Silly ass! and darted into hiding. The others did...
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Listen to Tink, said Curly, she is crying because the Wendy lives. Then they had to tell Peter of Tinks crime, and almost never had they seen him look so stern. Listen, Tinker Bell, he cried, I am your friend no more. Begone from me for ever. She flew on to his shoulder and pleaded, but he brushed her off. Not until...
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In the meantime the wood had been alive with the sound of axes; almost everything needed for a cosy dwelling already lay at Wendys feet. If only we knew, said one, the kind of house she likes best. Peter, shouted another, she is moving in her sleep. Her mouth opens, cried a third, looking respectfully into it. Oh, l...
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Chapter VII. THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND One of the first things Peter did next day was to measure Wendy and John and Michael for hollow trees. Hook, you remember, had sneered at the boys for thinking they needed a tree apiece, but this was ignorance, for unless your tree fitted you it was difficult to go up and down, ...
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Wendys favourite time for sewing and darning was after they had all gone to bed. Then, as she expressed it, she had a breathing time for herself; and she occupied it in making new things for them, and putting double pieces on the knees, for they were all most frightfully hard on their knees. When she sat down to a bas...
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He often went out alone, and when he came back you were never absolutely certain whether he had had an adventure or not. He might have forgotten it so completely that he said nothing about it; and then when you went out you found the body; and, on the other hand, he might say a great deal about it, and yet you could no...
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Chapter VIII. THE MERMAIDS LAGOON If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one, you may see at times a shapeless pool of lovely pale colours suspended in the darkness; then if you squeeze your eyes tighter, the pool begins to take shape, and the colours become so vivid that with another squeeze they must go on fire. But...
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There crowded upon her all the stories she had been told of Marooners Rock, so called because evil captains put sailors on it and leave them there to drown. They drown when the tide rises, for then it is submerged. Of course she should have roused the children at once; not merely because of the unknown that was stalki...
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Of course Wendy was very elated over Peters cleverness; but she knew that he would be elated also and very likely crow and thus betray himself, so at once her hand went out to cover his mouth. But it was stayed even in the act, for Boat ahoy! rang over the lagoon in Hooks voice, and this time it was not Peter who had s...
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Spirit that haunts this dark lagoon to-night, he cried, dost hear me? Of course Peter should have kept quiet, but of course he did not. He immediately answered in Hooks voice: Odds, bobs, hammer and tongs, I hear you. In that supreme moment Hook did not blanch, even at the gills, but Smee and Starkey clung to each o...
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It was then that Hook bit him. Not the pain of this but its unfairness was what dazed Peter. It made him quite helpless. He could only stare, horrified. Every child is affected thus the first time he is treated unfairly. All he thinks he has a right to when he comes to you to be yours is fairness. After you have been ...
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Chapter IX. THE NEVER BIRD The last sound Peter heard before he was quite alone were the mermaids retiring one by one to their bedchambers under the sea. He was too far away to hear their doors shut; but every door in the coral caves where they live rings a tiny bell when it opens or closes (as in all the nicest hous...
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Chapter X. THE HAPPY HOME One important result of the brush on the lagoon was that it made the redskins their friends. Peter had saved Tiger Lily from a dreadful fate, and now there was nothing she and her braves would not do for him. All night they sat above, keeping watch over the home under the ground and awaiting...
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No, indeed, replied the twins; its awfully difficult to be a twin. As I cant be anything important, said Tootles, would any of you like to see me do a trick? No, they all replied. Then at last he stopped. I hadnt really any hope, he said. The hateful telling broke out again. Slightly is coughing on the table. The...
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No, indeed, it is not, Wendy replied with frightful emphasis. Now we know why she was prejudiced against the redskins. Then what is it? It isnt for a lady to tell. Oh, very well, Peter said, a little nettled. Perhaps Tinker Bell will tell me. Oh yes, Tinker Bell will tell you, Wendy retorted scornfully. She is an a...
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Chapter XI. WENDYS STORY Listen, then, said Wendy, settling down to her story, with Michael at her feet and seven boys in the bed. There was once a gentleman I had rather he had been a lady, Curly said. I wish he had been a white rat, said Nibs. Quiet, their mother admonished them. There was a lady also, and Oh, ...
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What is it, Peter? she cried, running to him, thinking he was ill. She felt him solicitously, lower down than his chest. Where is it, Peter? It isnt 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 agitati...
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This made her leap to the floor. Who said I wasnt getting up? she cried. In the meantime the boys were gazing very forlornly at Wendy, now equipped with John and Michael for the journey. By this time they were dejected, not merely because they were about to lose her, but also because they felt that she was going off t...
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Chapter XII. THE CHILDREN ARE CARRIED OFF The pirate attack had been a complete surprise: a sure proof that the unscrupulous Hook had conducted it improperly, for to surprise redskins fairly is beyond the wit of the white man. By all the unwritten laws of savage warfare it is always the redskin who attacks, and with...
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It is no part of ours to describe what was a massacre rather than a fight. Thus perished many of the flower of the Piccaninny tribe. Not all unavenged did they die, for with Lean Wolf fell Alf Mason, to disturb the Spanish Main no more, and among others who bit the dust were Geo. Scourie, Chas. Turley, and the Alsatian...
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Chapter XIII. DO YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES? The more quickly this horror is disposed of the better. The first to emerge from his tree was Curly. He rose out of it into the arms of Cecco, who flung him to Smee, who flung him to Starkey, who flung him to Bill Jukes, who flung him to Noodler, and so he was tossed from one ...
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There was no way of knowing, save by going down. Hook let his cloak slip softly to the ground, and then biting his lips till a lewd blood stood on them, he stepped into the tree. He was a brave man, but for a moment he had to stop there and wipe his brow, which was dripping like a candle. Then, silently, he let himself...
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Five drops of this he now added to Peters cup. His hand shook, but it was in exultation rather than in shame. As he did it he avoided glancing at the sleeper, but not lest pity should unnerve him; merely to avoid spilling. Then one long gloating look he cast upon his victim, and turning, wormed his way with difficulty ...
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Do you believe? he cried. Tink sat up in bed almost briskly to listen to her fate. She fancied she heard answers in the affirmative, and then again she wasnt sure. What do you think? she asked Peter. If you believe, he shouted to them, clap your hands; dont let Tink die. Many clapped. Some didnt. A few beasts hi...
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Chapter XIV. THE PIRATE SHIP One green light squinting over Kidds Creek, which is near the mouth of the pirate river, marked where the brig, the _Jolly Roger_, lay, low in the water; a rakish-looking craft foul to the hull, every beam in her detestable, like ground strewn with mangled feathers. She was the cannibal o...
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Feared him! Feared Smee! There was not a child on board the brig that night who did not already love him. He had said horrid things to them and hit them with the palm of his hand, because he could not hit with his fist, but they had only clung to him the more. Michael had tried on his spectacles. To tell poor Smee tha...
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No words of mine can tell you how Wendy despised those pirates. To the boys there was at least some glamour in the pirate calling; but all that she saw was that the ship had not been tidied for years. There was not a porthole on the grimy glass of which you might not have written with your finger Dirty pig; and she had...
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Chapter XV. HOOK OR ME THIS TIME Odd things happen to all of us on our way through life without our noticing for a time that they have happened. Thus, to take an instance, we suddenly discover that we have been deaf in one ear for we dont know how long, but, say, half an hour. Now such an experience had come that nig...
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The cabin! Peter was in the cabin! The children gazed at each other. Ay, ay, said Jukes blithely, and he strode into the cabin. They followed him with their eyes; they scarce knew that Hook had resumed his song, his dogs joining in with him: Yo ho, yo ho, the scratching cat, Its tails are nine, you know, And when...
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She had not long to wait. In the cabin he had found the thing for which he had gone in search: the key that would free the children of their manacles, and now they all stole forth, armed with such weapons as they could find. First signing them to hide, Peter cut Wendys bonds, and then nothing could have been easier tha...
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Now! cried all the boys, but with a magnificent gesture Peter invited his opponent to pick up his sword. Hook did so instantly, but with a tragic feeling that Peter was showing good form. Hitherto he had thought it was some fiend fighting him, but darker suspicions assailed him now. Pan, who and what art thou? he cri...
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Chapter XVI. THE RETURN HOME By three bells that morning they were all stirring their stumps; for there was a big sea running; and Tootles, the bosun, was among them, with a ropes end in his hand and chewing tobacco. They all donned pirate clothes cut off at the knee, shaved smartly, and tumbled up, with the true nau...
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But, my dear madam, it is ten days till Thursday week; so that by telling you whats what, we can save you ten days of unhappiness. Yes, but at what a cost! By depriving the children of ten minutes of delight. Oh, if you look at it in that way! What other way is there in which to look at it? You see, the woman had n...
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It is a pity we did it, for she has started up, calling their names; and there is no one in the room but Nana. O Nana, I dreamt my dear ones had come back. Nana had filmy eyes, but all she could do was put her paw gently on her mistresss lap; and they were sitting together thus when the kennel was brought back. As Mr...
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Oh, all right, he said at last, and gulped. Then he unbarred the window. Come on, Tink, he cried, with a frightful sneer at the laws of nature; we dont want any silly mothers; and he flew away. Thus Wendy and John and Michael found the window open for them after all, which of course was more than they deserved. They a...
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Chapter XVII. WHEN WENDY GREW UP I hope you want to know what became of the other boys. They were waiting below to give Wendy time to explain about them; and when they had counted five hundred they went up. They went up by the stair, because they thought this would make a better impression. They stood in a row in fro...
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I shall have such fun, said Peter, with eye on Wendy. It will be rather lonely in the evening, she said, sitting by the fire. I shall have Tink. Tink cant go a twentieth part of the way round, she reminded him a little tartly. Sneaky tell-tale! Tink called out from somewhere round the corner. It doesnt matter, Pet...
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Peter came next spring cleaning; and the strange thing was that he never knew he had missed a year. That was the last time the girl Wendy ever saw him. For a little longer she tried for his sake not to have growing pains; and she felt she was untrue to him when she got a prize for general knowledge. But the years came...
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I sat up in bed and I said, Boy, why are you crying? Yes, that was it, says Jane, with a big breath. And then he flew us all away to the Neverland and the fairies and the pirates and the redskins and the mermaids lagoon, and the home under the ground, and the little house. Yes! which did you like best of all? I thi...
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One January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away. A mist of fine snowflakes was curling and eddying about the cluster of low drab buildings huddled on the gray prairie, under a gray sky. The dwelling-houses were set about haphazard on...
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My kitten, sister, my kitten! A man put her out, and a dog chased her up there. His forefinger, projecting from the sleeve of his coat, pointed up to the wretched little creature on the pole. Oh, Emil! Didnt I tell you shed get us into trouble of some kind, if you brought her? What made you tease me so? But there, I o...
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When she looked for Emil, she found him sitting on a step of the staircase that led up to the clothing and carpet department. He was playing with a little Bohemian girl, Marie Tovesky, who was tying her handkerchief over the kittens head for a bonnet. Marie was a stranger in the country, having come from Omaha with her...
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The wagon jolted along over the frozen road. The two friends had less to say to each other than usual, as if the cold had somehow penetrated to their hearts. Did Lou and Oscar go to the Blue to cut wood to-day? Carl asked. Yes. Im almost sorry I let them go, its turned so cold. But mother frets if the wood gets low. ...
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In eleven long years John Bergson had made but little impression upon the wild land he had come to tame. It was still a wild thing that had its ugly moods; and no one knew when they were likely to come, or why. Mischance hung over it. Its Genius was unfriendly to man. The sick man was feeling this as he lay looking out...
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The winter twilight was fading. The sick man heard his wife strike a match in the kitchen, and the light of a lamp glimmered through the cracks of the door. It seemed like a light shining far away. He turned painfully in his bed and looked at his white hands, with all the work gone out of them. He was ready to give up,...
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John Bergson had married beneath him, but he had married a good housewife. Mrs. Bergson was a fair-skinned, corpulent woman, heavy and placid like her son, Oscar, but there was something comfortable about her; perhaps it was her own love of comfort. For eleven years she had worthily striven to maintain some semblance o...
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But suppose there wasnt any badger-hole, Lou persisted. Would you run? No, Id be too scared to run, Emil admitted mournfully, twisting his fingers. I guess Id sit right down on the ground and say my prayers. The big boys laughed, and Oscar brandished his whip over the broad backs of the horses. He wouldnt hurt you, ...
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When the Bergsons drove over the hill, Ivar was sitting in the doorway of his house, reading the Norwegian Bible. He was a queerly shaped old man, with a thick, powerful body set on short bow-legs. His shaggy white hair, falling in a thick mane about his ruddy cheeks, made him look older than he was. He was barefoot, b...
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Lou and Oscar grinned, and Ivar shook his bushy head. Yes, I know boys are thoughtless. But these wild things are Gods birds. He watches over them and counts them, as we do our cattle; Christ says so in the New Testament. Now, Ivar, Lou asked, may we water our horses at your pond and give them some feed? Its a bad roa...
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The boys outside the door had been listening. Lou nudged his brother. Come, the horses are done eating. Lets hitch up and get out of here. Hell fill her full of notions. Shell be for having the pigs sleep with us, next. Oscar grunted and got up. Carl, who could not understand what Ivar said, saw that the two boys were...
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Alexandra, he said as he approached her, I want to talk to you. Lets sit down by the gooseberry bushes. He picked up her sack of potatoes and they crossed the garden. Boys gone to town? he asked as he sank down on the warm, sun-baked earth. Well, we have made up our minds at last, Alexandra. We are really going away. ...
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I wont tell the boys yet, if youd rather not. Oh, Ill tell them myself, to-night, when they come home. Theyll be talking wild, anyway, and no good comes of keeping bad news. Its all harder on them than it is on me. Lou wants to get married, poor boy, and he cant until times are better. See, there goes the sun, Carl. I...
985
PG24
13
At this Lou plunged in. You see, Alexandra, everybody who can crawl out is going away. Theres no use of us trying to stick it out, just to be stubborn. Theres something in knowing when to quit. Where do you want to go, Lou? Any place where things will grow, said Oscar grimly. Lou reached for a potato. Chris Arnson h...
1,116
PG24
14
All afternoon the sitting-room was full of quiet and sunlight. Emil was making rabbit traps in the kitchen shed. The hens were clucking and scratching brown holes in the flower beds, and the wind was teasing the princes feather by the door. That evening Carl came in with the boys to supper. Emil, said Alexandra, when...
1,076
PG24
15
Mortgage the homestead again? Lou cried. He sprang up and began to wind the clock furiously. I wont slave to pay off another mortgage. Ill never do it. Youd just as soon kill us all, Alexandra, to carry out some scheme! Oscar rubbed his high, pale forehead. How do you propose to pay off your mortgages? Alexandra look...
1,004
PG24
16
Nobody knows about that as well as I do, Oscar. Thats why I want to try an easier way. I dont want you to have to grub for every dollar. Yes, I know what you mean. Maybe itll come out right. But signing papers is signing papers. There aint no maybe about that. He took his pail and trudged up the path to the house. Al...
1,080
PG24
17
When the grass required his close attention, or when he had to stoop to cut about a head-stone, he paused in his lively air,the Jewel song,taking it up where he had left it when his scythe swung free again. He was not thinking about the tired pioneers over whom his blade glittered. The old wild country, the struggle in...
1,244
PG24
19
Alexandra herself has changed very little. Her figure is fuller, and she has more color. She seems sunnier and more vigorous than she did as a young girl. But she still has the same calmness and deliberation of manner, the same clear eyes, and she still wears her hair in two braids wound round her head. It is so curly ...
1,038
PG24
20
Alexandra frowned. Ivar, I wonder at you, that you should come bothering me with such nonsense. I am still running my own house, and other people have nothing to do with either you or me. So long as I am suited with you, there is nothing to be said. Ivar pulled a red handkerchief out of the breast of his blouse and wi...
971
PG24
21
Alexandra shook with laughter. Poor old Mrs. Lee! They wont let her wear nightcaps, either. Never mind; when she comes to visit me, she can do all the old things in the old way, and have as much beer as she wants. Well start an asylum for old-time people, Ivar. Ivar folded his big handkerchief carefully and thrust it ...
1,025
PG24
22
Little Signa, who was waiting on the table, giggled and fled to the kitchen. Alexandras eyes twinkled. That was too much for Signa, Lou. We all know that Ivars perfectly harmless. The girls would as soon expect me to chase them with an axe. Lou flushed and signaled to his wife. All the same, the neighbors will be havi...
1,035
PG24
23
After dinner Lou and Oscar went to the orchard to pick cherriesthey had neither of them had the patience to grow an orchard of their ownand Annie went down to gossip with Alexandras kitchen girls while they washed the dishes. She could always find out more about Alexandras domestic economy from the prattling maids than...
992
PG24
24
Alexandra beckoned to them. They think I am trying to fool them. Come, boys, its Carl Linstrum, our old Carl! Lou gave the visitor a quick, sidelong glance and thrust out his hand. Glad to see you. Oscar followed with How d do. Carl could not tell whether their offishness came from unfriendliness or from embarrassmen...
1,044
PG24
25
He was so much in earnest that Carl scarcely knew how to answer him. That would be a waste of powder. The same business would go on in another street. The street doesnt matter. But what have you fellows out here got to kick about? You have the only safe place there is. Morgan himself couldnt touch you. One only has to ...
1,055