The Complete Works of J. M. Barrie (With Illustrations). James Matthew Barrie

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      Act IV.

       The Home Under the Ground

       Table of Contents

      We see simultaneously the home under the ground, with the children in it and the wood above ground with the redskins on it. Below, the children are gobbling their evening meal; above, the redskins are squatting in their blankets near the little house guarding the children from the pirates. The only way of communicating between these two parties is by means of the hollow trees.

      The home has an earthen floor, which is handy for digging in if you want to go fishing; and owing to there being so many entrances there is not much wall space. The table at which the lost ones are sitting is a board on top of a live tree trunk, which has been cut flat but has such growing pains that the board rises as they eat, and they have sometimes to pause in their meals to cut a bit more off the trunk. Their seats are pumpkins or the large gay mushrooms of which we have seen an imitation one concealing the chimney. There is an enormous fireplace which is in almost any part of the room where you care to light it, and across this Wendy has stretched strings, made of fibre, from which she hangs her washing. There are also various tomfool things in the room of no use whatever.

      Michaels basket bed is nailed high up on the wall as if to protect him from the cat, but there is no indication at present of where the others sleep. At the back between two of the tree trunks is a grindstone, and near it is a lovely hole, the size of a band-box, with a gay curtain drawn across so that you cannot see what is inside. This is Tink's withdrawing-room and bed-chamber, and it is just as well that you cannot see inside, for it is so exquisite in its decoration and in the personal apparel spread out on the bed that you could scarcely resist making off with something. Tink is within at present, as one can guess from a glow showing through the chinks. It is her own glow, for though she has a chandelier for the look of the thing, of course she lights her residence herself. She is probably wasting valuable time just now wondering whether to put on the smoky blue or the apple-blossom.

      All the boys except Peter are here, and Wendy has the head of the table, smiling complacently at their captivating ways, but doing her best at the same time to see that they keep the rules about hands-off-the-table, no-two-to-speak-at-once, and so on. She is wearing romantic woodland garments, sewn by herself, with red berries in her hair which go charmingly with her complexion, as she knows; indeed she searched for red berries the morning after she reached the island. The boys are in picturesque attire of her contrivance, and if these don't always fit well the fault is not hers but the wearers, for they constantly put on each other's things when they put on anything at all. Michael is in his cradle on the wall. First Twin is apart on a high stool and wears a dunce's cap, another invention of Wendy's, but not wholly successful because everybody wants to be dunce.

      It is a pretend meal this evening, with nothing whatever on the table, not a mug, nor a crust, nor a spoon. They often have these suppers and like them on occasions as well as the other kind, which consist chiefly of bread-fruit, tappa rolls, yams, mammee apples and banana splash, washed down with calabashes of poe-poe. The pretend meals are not Wendy's idea; indeed she was rather startled to find, on arriving, that Peter knew of no other kind, and she is not absolutely certain even now that he does eat the other kind, though no one appears to do it more heartily. He insists that the pretend meals should be partaken of with gusto, and we see his band doing their best to obey orders.

      WENDY (her fingers to her ears, for their chatter and clatter are deafening). Silence! Is your mug empty, Slightly?

      SLIGHTLY (who would not say this if he had a mug). Not quite empty, thank you.

      NIBS. Mummy, he has not even begun to drink his poe-poe.

      SLIGHTLY (seizing his chance, for this is tale-bearing). I complain of Nibs!

      (JOHN holds up his hand.)

      WENDY. Well, John?

      JOHN. May I sit in Peter's chair as he is not here?

      WENDY. In your father's chair? Certainly not.

      JOHN. He is not really our father. He did not even know how to be a father till I showed him.

      (This is insurbordination.)

      SECOND TWIN. I complain of John!

      (The gentle TOOTLED raises his hand.)

      TOOTLES (who has the poorest opinion of himself). I don'tsuppose Michael would let me be baby?

      MICHAEL. No, I won't.

      TOOTLES. May I be dunce?

      FIRST TWIN (from his perch). No. It's awfully difficultto be dunce.

      TOOTLES. As I can't be anything important would any of you like to see me do a trick?

      OMNES. No.

      TOOTLES (subsiding). I hadn't really any hope.

      (The tale-telling breaks out again.)

      NIBS. Slightly is coughing on the table.

      CURLY. The twins began wiih tappa rolls.

      SLIGHTLY. I complain of Nibs!

      NIBS. I complain of Slightly!

      WENDY. Oh dear, I am sure I sometimes think that spinsters are to be envied.

      MICHAEL. Wendy, СКАЧАТЬ