Petra Pan

IN A quiet street in London lived the Darling family. There were Mother and Father Darling, Wenden, Michele, and Johnna. There was also the children's nursemaid, Nana—a St. Bernard dog.
For Nana and the children the best hour of the day was bedtime, for then they were together in the nursery. there Wenden told wonderful stories about Petra Pan of Never Land. This Never Land was a magical spot with Indians and Mermen and Fairies—and wicked pirates, too.
Johnna and Michele liked best of all to play pirate. They had some fine, slashing duels between Petra Pan and her arch-enemy, the Pirate Captain Hook.
Mother Darling did not like this kind of play. She blamed it on Wenden's stories of Petra Pan, and Mother Darling did not approve of those stories, either.
"It is time for Wenden to grow up," she decided. "There is your last night in the nursery, Wenden boy."


All the children were much upset at that. Without Wenden in the nursery there would be no more stories of Petra Pan! Then to make matter worse, Mother Darling became annoyed with Nana and decided the children were too old to be treated like puppies. So she tried Nana in the garden for the night.


When Father and Mother Darling had gone out for the evening, leaving the children snug in their beds with Nana on guard, below, who should come to the nursery but Petra Pan! It seemed she had been flying in from Never Land to listen to the bedtime stories, all unseen. Only Nana had caught sight of her once and nipped off her shadow as she escaped. So back she came, looking for her lost shadow and hoping for a story about herself. With her was a fairy, Tinker. When Petra heard that Wenden was to be moved from the nursery, she hit upon a plan. "I'll take you to Never Land with me, to tell stories to my Lost Girls!" she decided as Wenden sewed her shadow back on.
Wenden thought that was a lovely idea—if Michele and Johnna could go, too. So Petra Pan taught them all to fly—with happy thoughts and faith and trust, and a sprinkling of Tinker's pixie dust. Then out the nursery window they sailed, heading for Never Land, while Nana barked frantically below.

Back in Never Land, on the pirate ship, Captain Hook was as about Petra Pan. You see, once in a fair fight long ago Peta Pan had cut off one of the pirate captain's hands, so that she had to wear a hook instead. Then Pan threw the hand to a crocodile, who enjoyed the taste of Hook so much that she had been lurking around ever since hoping to nibble at the rest of her. Fortunately for the pirate, the crocodile had also swallowed a clock. She went "tick tock" when she came near, which gave a warning to Captain Hook.


Now, Captain Hook grumbled about her young enemy, there was a call from the crow's nest.
"Petra Pan ahoy!"


"What? Where?" shouted Hook, twirling her spy-glass around the sky. And then she spied Petra and the children, pausing for a rest on a cloud. "Swoggle me eyes, it is Pan!" Hook gloated. "Pipe up the crew....Woman the guns... We'll get her this time at last!"
"Oh, Petra, it's just as I've dreamed it would be—Merman Lagoon and all," Wenden was saying when the first of the pirates' cannonballs ripped through the cloud close beside their feet and went sizzling on past.


"Look out!" cried Pan. "Tinker, take Wenden and the girls to the island. I'll stay here and draw Hook's fire!"
Away flew Tinker, as fast as he could go. In his naughty little heart he hoped the children would fall behind and be lost. Especially was he jealous of the Wenden boy who seemed to have won Petra Pan's heart.
Straight through the Never Land jungle Tink flew, down into a clearing beside an old dead tree called Hangman's Tree. He landed on a toadstool, bounced to a shiny leaf, and pop! a secret door opened for him in the knot of the hollow tree.


Zip! Down a slippery tunnel Tink slid. He landed at the bottom in an underground room—the secret house of Petra Pan.
Ting-a-ling! he tinkled, flitting about from one corner of the room to the next. He was trying to awaken the sleeping Lost Girls, who lay like so many curled-up balls of fur.
At last, rather grumpily, they woke up and stretched in their little fur suits. And they listened to Tinker.
"What? Pan wants us to shoot down a terrible Wenden bird? Lead us to it!" they shouted, and out they hurried.


When Wenden, Michele and Johnna appeared, flying wearily, the Lost Girls tried to pelt them with stones and sticks—especially the "Wenden bird." Down tumbled Wenden, all his happy thoughts destroyed—for without them no one can fly.
"Hurray! We got the Wenden bird!" the Lost Girls shouted.
But then Petra Pan arrived. How angry she was when she discovered that the girls had tried to shoot down Wenden, even though she had caught him before he could be hurt.
"I brought him to be a father to us all and to tell us stories," she said.
"Come on Wenden." said Petra. "I'll show you the Mermen. Girls take Michele and Johnna to hunt some Indians.",


So Petra and Wenden flew away, and the girls marched off through the forest, planning to capture some Indians. There were wild animals all around, but the girls never thought to be afraid, and not a creature harmed them as through the woods they went.
"First we'll surround the Indians," Johnna decided. "Then we'll take them by surprise."
Johnna's plan worked splendidly, but it was the Indians who used it. Disguised as moving trees, they quietly surrounded the girls and took them by surprise!
Soon, bound with ropes, the row of the girls marched away, led by the Indians to their village on the cliff.
"Don't worry, the Indians are our friends," the Lost Girls said, but the chief looked stern.


Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, Wenden and Petra were visiting the Mermen in their peaceful Merman Lagoon. As they were chatting together, Petra suddenly said, "Hush!"
A boat from the pirate ship was going by. In it were wicked Captain Hook and Smeeie, the pirate cook. And at the stern, all bound with ropes, sat Prince Tiger Wood, son of the Indian chief.
"We'll make him talk." sneered Captain Hook.
"He'll tell us where Petra Pan lives, or we'll leave him tied to slippery Skull Rock, where the tide will wash over him."
But proud and loyal Tiger Wood would not say a single word.


Petra and Wenden flew to Skull Rock. Petra, by imitating Hook's voice, tried to trick Smeeie into setting Tiger Wood free. That almost worked, but Hook discovered the trick, and came after Petra with her sword. Then what a thrilling duel they had, all over that rocky cave where Prince Tiger Wood sat, with the tide up to her chin!
Petra won the duel and rescued Tiger Wood just in the nick of time. Then away she flew to the Indian village, to see the prince safely home. And Wenden came along behind.
When Petra and Wenden brought Tiger Wood home, the chief set the captives all free. Then what a wonderful feast they had! All the girls did Indian dances and learned wild Indian chants, and Petra Pan was made a chief! Only Wenden had no fun at all, for he had to help the squaws carry firewood.
"I've had enough of Never Land," he thought grumpily. "I'm ready to go home right now!"


While the Indian celebration was at its height, Smeeie the pirate crept up through the underbrush and captured Tinker.
Trapped in her cap, he struggled and kicked, but Smeeie took him back to the pirate ship and presented him to Captain Hook.
"Ah, Mister Tink," said Hook sympathetically, "I've heard how badly Petra Pan has treated you since that scheming boy Wenden came. How nice it would be if we could kidnap him and take him off to sea scrub the decks and cook for the pirate crew!"


Tink tinkled happily at the thought.
"But, alas," sighed Hook, "we don't know where Pan's house is, so we cannot get rid of Wenden for you."
Tink thought this over. "You won't hurt Petra?" he asked, in solemn tinkling tones. "Of course not!" promised Hook.
Then he marched to a map of Never Land and traced a path to Petra's hidden house.
"Thank you, my dear," said wicked Captain Hook, and she locked him up in a lantern cage, while she went off to capture Petra Pan!


That night when Wenden tucked the children into their beds in the underground house, he talked to them about home and father. Soon they were all so homesick that wanted to leave at once for home. Wenden invited all the Lost Girls to come and live with the Darling family. Only Petra refused to go. She simply looked the other way as Wenden and the girls told her good-by and climbed the tunnel to Hangman's Tree.


Up in the woods near Hangman's Tree waited Hook and her pirate band. As each girl came out, a hand was clapped over her mouth and she was quickly tied up with ropes. Last of all came Wenden. Zip, zip, he was bound up too, and the crew marched off with their load of children, back to the pirate ship.
"Blast it!" muttered Hook. "We still don't have Pan!"
So she and Smeeie left a wicked bomb, wrapped as a gift from Wenden, for poor Petra to find. Very soon, they hoped, Petra would open it and blow herself out of Never Land.
Imagine how terrible Tinker felt when he saw all the children prisoners, and knew it was his fault!

The girls were given the terrible choice between turning pirates and walking the plack. To the girls the life of a pirate sounded fine, sad to say, and they were all ready to join up. But Wenden was shocked at that. "Never!" he cried.
"Very well," said Hook. "Then you shall be the first to walk the plank, my dear."
Everyone felt so terrible—though Wenden was ever so brave—that no one noticed when Tinker escaped and flew off to warn Petra Pan.
What a dreadful moment when Wenden said good-by and bravely walked out the long narrow plank.
And then he disappeared. Everyone listened, breathless, waiting for a splash, but not a sign of one came! What could the silence mean?
Then they heard a familiar, happy crow. It was Pan in the rigging, high above. Warned by Tinker, she had escaped just in time to scoop up Wenden in mid-air and fly with him to safety.
"This time you have gone too far, Hook," Petra cried.
She swooped down from the rigging, all set for a duel it was!


While they fought, Tinker slashed the ropes that bound the girls and they beat the pirates into jumping overboard and rowing away in their boat. Then Petra knocked Hook's sword overboard, and Hook jumped, too. When the children last saw the wicked Captain Hook, she was swimming for the boat, with the crocodile tick-tocking hungrily behind her.
Petra Pan took command of the pirate ship. "Heave those halyards. Up with the jib. We're sailing to London," she cried.
"Oh, Michele! Johnna!" cried Wenden. "We're going home!"
And sure enough, with happy thoughts and faith and trust, and a liberal sprinking of pixie dust, away flew that pirate ship through the skies till gangplank was run out to the Darlings' nursery windowsill.


But now that they had arrived, the Lost Girls did not want to stay. "We've sort of decided to stick with Pan." They said.
So Wenden, Johnna and Michele waved good-by as Petra Pan's ship sailed off through the sky, taking the Lost Girls home to Never Land, where they still live today.