or other delicacies with their tongues. When
the Queen sees them doing this she signs to the servants to wash up and
put away, and then everybody adjourns to the dance, the Queen walking in
front while the Lord Chamberlain walks behind her, carrying two little
pots, one of which contains the juice of wall-flower and the other the
juice of Solomon's Seals. Wall-flower juice is good for reviving dancers
who fall to the ground in a fit, and Solomon's Seals juice is for
bruises. They bruise very easily and when Peter plays faster and faster
they foot it till they fall down in fits. For, as you know without my
telling you, Peter Pan is the fairies' orchestra. He sits in the middle
of the ring, and they would never dream of having a smart dance nowadays
without him. "P. P." is written on the corner of the invitation-cards
sent out by all really good families. They are grateful little people,
too, and at the princess's coming-of-age ball (they come of age on their
second birthday and have a birthday every month) they gave him the wish
of his heart.

The way it was done was this. The Queen ordered him to kneel, and then
said that for playing so beautifully she would give him the wish of his
heart. Then they all gathered round Peter to hear what was the wish of
his heart, but for a long time he hesitated, not being certain what it
was himself.

"If I chose to go back to mother," he asked at last, "could you give me
that wish?"

Now this question vexed them, for were he to return to his mother they
should lose his music, so the Queen tilted her nose contemptuously and
said, "Pooh, ask for a much bigger wish than that."

"Is that quite a little wish?" he inquired.

"As little as this," the Queen answered, putting her hands near each
other.

"What size is a big wish?" he asked.

She measured it off on her skirt and it was a very handsome length.

Then Peter reflected and said, "Well, then, I think I shall have two
little wishes instead of one big one."

Of course, the fairies had to agree, though his cleverness rather
shocked them, and he said that his first wish was to go to his
mother, but with the right to return to the Gardens if he found her
disappointing. His second wish he would hold in reserve.

They tried to dissuade him, and even put obstacles in the way.

"I can give you the power to fly to her house," the Queen said, "but I
can't open the door for you.

"The window I flew out at will be open," Peter said