Wendy was awakened by Peter's crying.
She wasn't very frightened to see the strange boy sitting on the nursery floor.
Instead she was curious about him.
She had almost expected him to be there.
"Boy," she asked softly, "what is your name and why are you crying?"
Forgetting his own troubles for the moment, Peter got up from the floor and bowed graciously.
He knew how to act properly when he wanted to.
"Let me introduce myself," he said. "I'm Peter Pan. What's your name?"
"I'm Wendy Darling," replied Wendy. "Where do you come from?"
"I live at the second star to the right, and then straight on till morning," Peter said.
"What a funny address. Is that where you get mail?"
"I don't get any mail."
"But your mother must get mail."
"I don't have a mother," said Peter.
"I'm so sorry you don't have a mother," Wendy said sympathetically.
"That's not why I'm upset," said Peter.
"I'm upset because I can't get my shadow to stick back on me."
"I can fix that," Wendy answered helpfully.
She went to get the sewing kit and sewed the shadow onto Peter's feet.
When she was done, his shadow was as good as new.
Peter gave a howl of delight. "How clever I am!" he crowed, jumping about.
He had already forgotten that it was Wendy who had solved his problem.
Wendy reminded him of her part in his good fortune.
So he replied, "Wendy, one girl is more useful than twenty boys."
He didn't want to offend her.
Touched by his sweet words, Wendy offered to give him a kiss.
But Peter didn't understand what a kiss was.
Suddenly becoming shy, Wendy handed him a thimble instead.
"Now I will give you a kiss too," Peter said.
Thinking a kiss was a present, he dropped a button in the shape of an acorn into her hand.
Wendy put the button on a chain around her neck.
"I promise to wear this forever," she said.
Wendy asked Peter how old he was.
"I'm still very young," said Peter.
"I didn't want to ever grow up, so I ran away when I was born.
I went to live with the fairies."
Wendy wanted to know everything about fairies and asked many questions.
Peter explained that when the first baby ever born laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces.
The pieces all went skipping around, and that was the beginning of fairies.
He also said there should be one fairy for every boy and girl, but children grow old too soon.
"And they stop believing in fairies," said Peter.
"Each time a child says 'I don't believe in fairies,' a fairy dies."
While he was speaking of fairies, Peter suddenly remembered Tinker Bell, who had been quiet all this time.
When he called her name, a tinkling sound came from the chest of drawers.
"What's that? It sounds like bells," said Wendy.
"That's Tinker Bell, my fairy friend.
I think I accidentally shut her in the drawer," Peter laughed.
When he opened the drawer, Tinker Bell darted from place to place.
She screamed angry words that only Peter could understand.
"You shouldn't say such naughty things!" he responded.
Wendy was totally delighted that there was a fairy in her nursery.
When Tinker Bell finally stood still on the cuckoo clock, Wendy cried, "Oh she's so lovely!"
Tinker Bell replied something in fairy language.
Then she disappeared into the bathroom.
"What is she saying, Peter?" Wendy asked.
"Tink says you are an ugly girl," he replied, a bit too honestly.
"You see, she is a common fairy and isn't very polite."
Wendy continued to question Peter about himself.
"If you don't live with your mother, who do you live with?"
Peter told her that he lived with the Lost Boys.
They were children who had fallen out of their strollers as infants.
These boys had been taken to Neverland, where Peter was their captain.
He continued, "Sadly, we are all boys, with no girls around.
And sometimes we get very lonely.
For instance, there is no one to tell us stories.
That's why I sometimes come to your nursery and listen to your stories.
The other night your mother was telling such a lovely story about the lady with the glass slippers."
"Peter, that was Cinderella.
And her prince found her and they lived happily ever after," Wendy explained.
Peter was so excited that he rose and hurried to the window.
"Where are you going?" Wendy cried.
"To tell the other boys the end of that story."
"Don't go, Peter," she pleaded. "I know so many other stories.
Oh, the stories I could tell you and the Lost Boys!"
When he heard this, Peter hurried back to her with a greedy look in his eyes.