For a week or two after Wendy came it was doubtful whether they would be able to keep her , as she was another mouth to feed . Mr. Darling was frightfully proud of her , but he was very honourable , and he sat on the edge of Mrs. Darling 's bed , holding her hand and calculating expenses , while she looked at him imploringly . She wanted to risk it , come what might , but that was not his way ; his way was with a pencil and a piece of paper , and if she confused him with suggestions he had to begin at the beginning again . ` Now do n't interrupt , ' he would beg of her . ' I have one pound seventeen here , and two and six at the office ; I can cut off my coffee at the office , say ten shillings , making two nine and six , with your eighteen and three makes three nine seven , with five naught naught in my cheque-book makes eight nine seven , -- who is that moving ? -- eight nine seven , dot and carry seven -- do n't speak , my own -- and the pound you lent to that man who came to the door -- quiet , child -- dot and carry child -- there , you 've done it ! -- did I say nine nine seven ? yes , I said nine nine seven ; the question is , can we try it for a year on nine nine seven ? ' ` Of course we can , George , ' she cried . But she was prejudiced in Wendy 's favour , and he was really the grander character of the two . ` Remember mumps , ' he warned her almost threateningly , and off he went again . ` Mumps one pound , that is what I have put down , but I daresay it will be more like thirty shillings -- do n't speak -- measles one five , German measles half a guinea , makes two fifteen six -- do n't waggle your finger -- whooping-cough , say fifteen shillings ' -- and so on it went , and it added up differently each time ; but at last Wendy just got through , with mumps reduced to twelve six , and the two kinds of measles treated as one . There was the same excitement over John , and Michael had even a narrower squeak ; but both were kept , and soon you might have seen the three of them going in a row to Miss Fulsom 's Kindergarten school , accompanied by their nurse . Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so , and Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbours ; so , of course , they had a nurse . As they were poor , owing to the amount of milk the children drank , this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog , called Nana , who had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her . She had always thought children important , however , and the Darlings had become acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens , where she spent most of her spare time peeping into perambulators , and was much hated by careless nursemaids , whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their mistresses . She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse . How thorough she was at bath-time ; and up at any moment of the night if one of her charges made the slightest cry . Of course her kennel was in the nursery . She had a genius for knowing when a cough is a thing to have no patience with and when it needs stocking round your throat .
She believed to her last day in old-fashioned remedies like rhubarb leaf , and XXXXX sounds of contempt over all this new-fangled talk about germs , and so on .
being belonged calculating kept made makes prejudiced proved reduced say