But what to do with Wendy in her present delicate state of health?

‘Let us carry her down into the house,’ Curly suggested.

‘Aye,’ said Slightly, ‘that is what one does with ladies.’

‘No, no,’ Peter said, ‘you must not touch her. It would not be sufficiently respectful.’

‘That,’ said Slightly, ‘is what I was thinking.’

‘But if she lies there,’ Tootles said, ‘she will die.’

‘Aye, she will die,’ Slightly admitted, ‘but there is no way out.’

‘Yes, there is,’ cried Peter. ‘Let us build a little house round her.’

They were all delighted. ‘Quick,’ he ordered them, ‘bring me each of you the best of what we have. Gut our house. Be sharp.’

In a moment they were as busy as tailors the night before a wedding. They skurried this way and that, down for bedding, up for firewood, and while they were at it, who should appear but John and Michael. As they dragged along the ground they fell asleep standing, stopped, woke up, moved another step, and slept again.

‘John, John,’ Michael would cry, ‘wake up. Where is Nana, John, and mother?’

And then John would rub his eyes and mutter, ‘It is true, we did fly.’

You may be sure they were very relieved to find Peter.

‘Hullo, Peter,’ they said.

‘Hullo,’ replied Peter amicably, though he had quite forgotten them. He was very busy at the moment measuring Wendy with his feet to see how large a house she would need. Of course he meant to leave room for chairs and a table. John and Michael watched him.

‘Is Wendy asleep?’ they asked.

‘Yes.’

‘John,’ Michael proposed, ‘let us wake her and get her to make supper for us’; but as he said it some of the other boys rushed on carrying branches for the building of the house. ‘Look at them!’ he cried.

‘Curly,’ said Peter in his most captainy voice, ‘see that these boys help in the building of the house.’

‘Aye, aye, sir.’

‘Build a house?’ exclaimed John.

‘For the Wendy,’ said Curly.

‘For Wendy?’ John said, aghast. ‘Why, she is only a girl.’

‘That’, explained Curly, ‘is why we are her servants.’

‘You? Wendy’s servants!’