PETER PIPER 



Nearby Island, calling, ^'Pete, Pete, Pete/^ in a different 

 tone, a sort of sundown voice? 



Was that the way to speak to three big, 'most-grown- 

 up sandpiper sons, who had Avandered about so free of 

 will the livelong day? 



Ah, but where were the 'most-grown-up sons? Gone 

 with the sun at sundown; and, instead, there were three 

 cosy little birds, with their heads still rumpled over with 

 down that was not yet pushed off the ends of their real 

 feathers, and a tassel of down still dangling from the tip 

 of each funny tail. 



And three dear, sweet, little voices answered, ^'Peep,'' 

 every time Mother Piper called, ''Pete"; and three lit- 

 tle sons tagged obediently after her as she called them 

 from place to place all round and all about Nearby 

 Island, teaching them, perhaps, to make sure there was 

 no Tabby and no Tommy on their camping-ground. 



So it was that, after twilight, when darkness was at 

 hand and the curfew sounded for human children to be 

 at home, Peter and Pan and Sandy settled down near 

 each other and near Mother Piper for the night. 



And where was Peter Piper, who had been abroad the 

 day long, paying little attention to his family? He, too, at 

 nightfall, had come flying low from Faraway Island; and 

 now, with his head tucked behind his wing, was asleep 

 not a rod away from Mother Piper and their three sons. 



37 



