1. Nana hurls herself across the nursery as the barefoot boy crouches on the sill

    Nana springs, Peter leaps

    Mrs. Darling screamed, and, as if in answer to a bell, the door opened, and Nana entered, returned from her evening out. She growled and sprang at the boy, who leapt lightly through the window. Again Mrs. Darling screamed, this time in distress for him, for she thought he was killed, and she ran down into the street to look for his little body, but it was not there; and she looked up, and in the black night she could see nothing but what she thought was a shooting star.

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  2. Nana proudly holds the boy's torn-off shadow in her jaws as Mrs. Darling stares

    The shadow in Nana's mouth

    She returned to the nursery, and found Nana with something in her mouth, which proved to be the boy’s shadow. As he leapt at the window Nana had closed it quickly, too late to catch him, but his shadow had not had time to get out; slam went the window and snapped it off.

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  3. A week after the shadow, the night-nursery stands emptied of children, its beds tidy and untouched.

    Friday, a week later

    “I ought to have been specially careful on a Friday,” she used to say afterwards to her husband, while perhaps Nana was on the other side of her, holding her hand.

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  4. Mrs. Darling calmly ties her husband's tie as Wendy, John and Michael watch

    Cool hands on the tie

    Even then Mrs. Darling was placid. “Let me try, dear,” she said, and indeed that was what he had come to ask her to do, and with her nice cool hands she tied his tie for him, while the children stood around to see their fate decided. Some men would have resented her being able to do it so easily, but Mr. Darling had far too fine a nature for that; he thanked her carelessly, at once forgot his rage, and in another moment was dancing round the room with Michael on his back.

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  5. Clutching his medicine, a teary father protests it isn't fair as his daughter looks up

    It isn't fair

    “That is not the point,” he retorted. “The point is, that there is more in my glass than in Michael’s spoon.” His proud heart was nearly bursting. “And it isn’t fair: I would say it though it were with my last breath; it isn’t fair.”

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  6. Michael gulps his medicine, eyes shut, as his father slides his own glass behind his hip

    The glass behind his back

    Wendy gave the words, one, two, three, and Michael took his medicine, but Mr. Darling slipped his behind his back.

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  7. In close-up, Nana, the Darlings' Newfoundland nurse, looks up at Mr. Darling

    The great red tear

    Nana wagged her tail, ran to the medicine, and began lapping it. Then she gave Mr. Darling such a look, not an angry look: she showed him the great red tear that makes us so sorry for noble dogs, and crept into her kennel.

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  8. Puffed up with false courage, Mr. Darling waves Nana away as the children weep behind

    In vain, in vain

    The children wept, and Nana ran to him beseechingly, but he waved her back. He felt he was a strong man again. “In vain, in vain,” he cried; “the proper place for you is the yard, and there you go to be tied up this instant.”

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  9. Nana, tied to a post in the back-yard, watches Mr. Darling walk away in shame

    Tied in the back-yard

    Alas, he would not listen. He was determined to show who was master in that house, and when commands would not draw Nana from the kennel, he lured her out of it with honeyed words, and seizing her roughly, dragged her from the nursery. He was ashamed of himself, and yet he did it. It was all owing to his too affectionate nature, which craved for admiration. When he had tied her up in the back-yard, the wretched father went and sat in the passage, with his knuckles to his eyes.

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  10. In the dim night-nursery, Michael hugs his mother and tells her he is glad of her

    I'm glad of you

    She went from bed to bed singing enchantments over them, and little Michael flung his arms round her. “Mother,” he cried, “I’m glad of you.” They were the last words she was to hear from him for a long time.

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  11. Above the sleeping Darling house, the smallest star flares brighter than all the rest

    Now, Peter!

    “Now, Peter!”

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  12. Chapter 2

    The shadow and the fatal Friday

    Next chapter: Peter takes the children away Read this chapter