PETER PIPER 



Were they saying good-night to their babies? Were 

 their sons to be left on the bank by themselves, now that 

 they had shaken the last fringe of down from their tails 

 and lost the fluff from their heads? Did they need no 

 older company, now that they looked like grown-up 

 sandpipers except that their vests had no big polka dots 

 splashed over them? 



Ah, no! At Mother Piper's ^'Pete-weet/' Peter an- 

 swered, ^^Peep,'' lifted his wings, and flew right past 

 Nearby Island and landed on a rock on Faraway Island. 

 And, '^Peep,'' called Sandy, fluttering after. And, 

 ^^Peep,'^ said Pan, stopping himself in the midst of 

 his teetering, and flying over Nearby Island on his way 

 to the new camp-ground. 



That is how it happened that they had their last 

 luncheon on the shore of Faraway Island before snug- 

 gling down to sleep that night. 



One of the haunts of Peter and Pan and Sandy was 

 Cardinal-Flower Path. This lovely place was along the 

 marshy shore not far from Nearby Island. It was al- 

 most white with the fine blooms of water-parsnip, an in- 

 teresting plant from the top of its blossom head to the 

 lowest of its queer under-water leaves. And here and 

 there, among the lacy white, a stalk of a different sort 

 grew, with red blossoms of a shade so rich that it is called 

 the cardinal flower. Every now and then a ruby- 



39 



