, he could not ask for it without returning to
the fairies. Also, if he put off asking for his wish too long it might
go bad. He asked himself if he had not been hard-hearted to fly away
without saying good-bye to Solomon. "I should like awfully to sail in my
boat just once more," he said wistfully to his sleeping mother. He quite
argued with her as if she could hear him. "It would be so splendid to
tell the birds of this adventure," he said coaxingly. "I promise to come
back," he said solemnly and meant it, too.

And in the end, you know, he flew away. Twice he came back from the
window, wanting to kiss his mother, but he feared the delight of it
might waken her, so at last he played her a lovely kiss on his pipe, and
then he flew back to the Gardens.

Many nights and even months passed before he asked the fairies for his
second wish; and I am not sure that I quite know why he delayed so long.
One reason was that he had so many good-byes to say, not only to his
particular friends, but to a hundred favourite spots. Then he had his
last sail, and his very last sail, and his last sail of all, and so on.
Again, a number of farewell feasts were given in his honour; and another
comfortable reason was that, after all, there was no hurry, for his
mother would never weary of waiting for him. This last reason displeased
old Solomon, for it was an encouragement to the birds to procrastinate.
Solomon had several excellent mottoes for keeping them at their work,
such as "Never put off laying to-day, because you can lay to-morrow,"
and "In this world there are no second chances," and yet here was Peter
gaily putting off and none the worse for it. The birds pointed this out
to each other, and fell into lazy habits.

But, mind you, though Peter was so slow in going back to his mother,
he was quite decided to go back. The best proof of this was his caution
with the fairies. They were most anxious that he should remain in the
Gardens to play to them, and to bring this to pass they tried to trick
him into making such a remark as "I wish the grass was not so wet," and
some of them danced out of time in the hope that he might cry, "I do
wish you would keep time!" Then they would have said that this was his
second wish. But he smoked their design, and though on occasions he
began, "I wish--" he always stopped in time. So when at last he said
to them bravely, "I wish now to go back to mother for ever and always,"
they had to tickle his sho