A Look at Peter Pan

As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her.   She had always thought children important, however, and the Darlings had become acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent most of her spare time peeping into perambulators, and was much hated by careless nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their mistresses.   She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse. How thorough she was at bath-time, and up at any moment of the night if one of her charges made the slightest cry.   Of course her kennel was in the nursery.   She had a genius for knowing when a cough is a thing to have no patience with and when it needs stocking around your throat.   She believed to her last day in old-fashioned remedies like rhubarb leaf, and made sounds of contempt over all this new-fangled talk about germs, and so on.
The fairy tale nature of this story is established right away with the appearance of Nana, the dog that thinks and acts like a determined, fussy human nanny.   From then on, elements like the face at the window, the captured shadow and the ball of bouncing light all serve both as concrete indications of the kind of story being told and also as foreshadowing of the exciting, magical things to come.

On the trail of the pirates, stealing noiselessly down the war- path, which is not visible to inexperienced eyes, come the redskins, every one of them with his eyes peeled.   They carry tomahawks and knives, and their naked bodies gleam with paint and oil.   Strung around them are scalps, of boys as well as of pirates, for these are the Piccaninny tribe, and not to be confused with the softer-hearted Delawares or the Hurons.   In the van, on all fours, is Great Big Little Panther, a brave of so many scalps that in his present position they somewhat impede his progress.   Bringing up the rear, the place of... [continues]

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