What he really needed to know was how you sit on the water without sinking , and they said it was quite impossible to explain such an easy thing as that . Occasionally swans touched on the island , and he would give them all his day 's food and then ask them how they sat on the water , but as soon as he had no more to give them the hateful things hissed at him and sailed away . Once he really thought he had discovered a way of reaching the Gardens . A wonderful white thing , like a runaway newspaper , floated high over the island and then tumbled , rolling over and over after the manner of a bird that has broken its wing . Peter was so frightened that he hid , but the birds told him it was only a kite , and what a kite is , and that it must have tugged its string out of a boy 's hand , and soared away . After that they laughed at Peter for being so fond of the kite ; he loved it so much that he even slept with one hand on it , and I think this was pathetic and pretty , for the reason he loved it was because it had belonged to a real boy . -LSB- Illustration : After this the birds said that they would help him no more in his mad enterprise -RSB- To the birds this was a very poor reason , but the older ones felt grateful to him at this time because he had nursed a number of fledglings through the German measles , and they offered to show him how birds fly a kite . So six of them took the end of the string in their beaks and flew away with it ; and to his amazement it flew after them and went even higher than they . Peter screamed out , ` Do it again ! ' and with great good-nature they did it several times , and always instead of thanking them he cried , ` Do it again ! ' which shows that even now he had not quite forgotten what it was to be a boy . At last , with a grand design burning within his brave heart , he begged them to do it once more with him clinging to the tail , and now a hundred flew off with the string , and Peter clung to the tail , meaning to drop off when he was over the Gardens . But the kite broke to pieces in the air , and he would have been drowned in the Serpentine had he not caught hold of two indignant swans and made them carry him to the island . After this the birds said that they would help him no more in his mad enterprise . Nevertheless , Peter did reach the Gardens at last by the help of Shelley 's boat , as I am now to tell you . -LSB- Illustration : Tailpiece to ` Peter Pan ' -RSB- -LSB- Illustration : Headpiece to ` The Thrush 's Nest ' -RSB- III THE THRUSH 'S NEST Shelley was a young gentleman and as grown-up as he need ever expect to be . He was a poet ; and they are never exactly grown-up . They are people who despise money except what you need for to-day , and he had all that and five pounds over . So , when he was walking in the Kensington Gardens , he made a paper boat of his bank-note , and sent it sailing on the Serpentine . It reached the island at night ; and the look-out brought it to Solomon Caw , who thought at first that it was the usual thing , a message from a lady , saying she would be obliged if he could let her have a good one .
They always XXXXX for the best one he has , and if he likes the letter he sends one from Class A , but if it ruffles him he sends very funny ones indeed .
ask begged brave brought carry caught cried reaching told tugged