~Arthur Rackham

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At last, with a grand design burning within his
heart, he begged them to do it once more with him
clinging to the tail, and now a hundred flew off
with the string, and Peter clung to the tail, meaning
to drop off when he was over the Gardens.
But the kite broke to pieces in the air, and he would
have been drowned in the Serpentine had he
not caught hold of two indignant swans and
made them carry him to the island.
After this the birds said that they would help him
no more in his mad enterprise.”
.

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“Tony could always outdistance her easily,
but never had she known him speed away so
quickly as now, and she was sure he hurried
that he might have more time to hide.
“Brave, brave!” her doting eyes were crying
when she got a dreadful shock; instead of hiding,
her hero had run out at the gate!
At this bitter sight Maimie stopped blankly, as if all
her lapful of darling treasures were suddenly spilled,
and then for very disdain she could not sob; in a
swell of protest against all puling cowards she ran
to St. Govnor’s Well and hid in Tony’s stead.”
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Illustration by Arthur Rackham
for Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

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Written by J.M. Barrie