"Surely,"

said John, like one who had lost faith in his memory,
"he used not to sleep in the kennel?"

"John," Wendy said falteringly, "perhaps we don't remember the
old life as well as we thought we did."

A chill fell upon them; and serve them right.

"It is very careless of mother," said that young scoundrel
John, "not to be here when we come back."

It was then that Mrs. Darling began playing again.

"It's mother!" cried Wendy, peeping.

"So it is!" said John.

"Then are you not really our mother, Wendy?" asked Michael, who
was surely sleepy.

"Oh dear!" exclaimed Wendy, with her first real twinge of
remorse [for having gone], "it was quite time we came back,"

"Let us creep in," John suggested, "and put our hands over her
eyes."

But Wendy, who saw that they must break the joyous news more
gently, had a better plan.

"Let us all slip into our beds, and be there when she comes in,
just as if we had never been away.""Surely,"