s
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.

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 had 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!"

Chapter 3 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 Wendy's light blinked and gave
such a yawn that the other two yawned also, and before they could close
their mouths all the three went out.

There was another light in the r