for
admiration. When he had tied her up in the back-yard, the wretched
father went and sat in the passage, with his knuckles to his eyes.

In the meantime Mrs. Darling had put the children to bed in unwonted
silence and lit their night-lights. They could hear Nana barking, and
John whimpered, 'It is because he is chaining her up in the yard,' but
Wendy was wiser.

'That is not Nana's unhappy bark,' she said, little guessing what was
about to happen; 'that is her bark when she smells danger.'

Danger!

'Are you sure, Wendy?'

'Oh yes.'

Mrs. Darling quivered and went to the window. It was securely fastened.
She looked out, and the night was peppered with stars. They were
crowding round the house, as if curious to see what was to take place
there, but she did not notice this, nor that one or two of the smaller
ones winked at her. Yet a nameless fear clutched at her heart and made
her cry, 'Oh, how I wish that I wasn't going to a party to-night!'

Even Michael, already half asleep, knew that she was perturbed, and he
asked, 'Can anything harm us, mother, after the night-lights are lit?'

'Nothing, precious,' she said; 'they are the eyes a mother leaves behind
her to guard her children.'

She went from bed to bed singing enchantments over them, and little
Michael flung his arms round her. 'Mother,' he cried, 'I'm glad of you.'
They were the last words she was to hear from him for a long time.

[Illustration: PETER FLEW IN]

No. 27 was only a few yards distant, but there had been a slight fall of
snow, and Father and Mother Darling picked their way over it deftly not
to soil their shoes. They were already the only persons in the street,
and all the stars were watching them. Stars are beautiful, but they may
not take an active part in anything, they must just look on for ever. It
is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no
star now knows what it was. So the older ones have become glassy-eyed
and seldom speak (winking is the star language), but the little ones
still wonder. They are not really friendly to Peter, who has a
mischievous way of stealing up behind them and trying to blow them out;
but they are so fond of fun that they were on his side to-night, and
anxious to get the grown-ups out of the way. So as soon as the door of
27 closed on Mr. and Mrs. Darling there was a commotion in the
firmament, and the smallest of all the stars in the Milky Way screamed
out:

'Now, Peter!'