Peter Pan Continued

(TESOL Worksheets--Reading)
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[This is a continuation from the Peter Pan reading lesson I've posted previously.  I've been continuing to use that lesson, and continuing to have very positive reactions from students, who laugh at all the right parts, and generally seem to enjoy the humor.  
I had one class in particular request to read more from Peter Pan, so I put together another excerpt from the book.  This comes from the Project Gutenberg text, but I've edited it slightly, in some cases to simplify it or otherwise make it more accessible for an ESL class, in other cases to make it stand more independently from the book it was excerpted from.  This is a direct follow up to my previous Peter Pan reading, and can only make sense as a continuation of the story that began in the previous excerpt. 
Instead of designing comprehension questions for this selection, we've just been reading it together in class purely for enjoyment, and then at the end I exploit the text for some vocabulary matching exercises.
This second excerpt worked reasonably well.  I didn't get the class laughing quite as hard as the previous excerpt, but they smiled a lot as we were reading it, and seemed to get the humor.]

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (1911)

     Mr. Darling(George)--the father

 Mrs. Darling--the mother

  Nana--the Nursemaid

 Wendy--the oldest child

 

 John--the middle child

  Michael--the youngest child

  

Liza--the servant

Vocabulary:

Kennel

 

 (a place for dogs to sleep)

Cab.  A cab is a form of public transportation .  People pay the cab to take them where they want to go.  Nowadays, cabs look like this.

But, back in 1911, cabs looks like this:

Selections from Peter Pan

From Chapter Two
[Summary of the story: After Mr. Darling ties Nana outside in the yard, he and Mrs. Darling go out to their office party, leaving the three children alone in the nursery.  While Mr. and Mrs. Darling were away, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell came in and visited the nursery.  The three children flew away to Never-Never Land to go and live with Peter Pan and have adventures with him.  But Mr. Darling and Mrs. Darling were devastated when they returned home and found that their beloved children were gone.]
            Mr. and Mrs. Darling never quite got over the loss of their children.  For weeks afterwards, they used to talk about that night, and all the things they did wrong.
            "I ought to have been specially careful on a Friday," Mrs. Darling used to say afterwards to her husband, while perhaps Nana was on the other side of her, holding Mrs. Darling's hand with her paw.
            "No, no," Mr. Darling always said, "I am responsible for it all. I, George Darling, did it. MEA CULPA, MEA CULPA." Mea culpa means "my fault" in the ancient Latin language.  Mr. Darling, being a well-respected man, had had a classical education.
            They sat in this same way night after night recalling that fatal Friday, till every detail of it was stamped on their brains and they could remember it backwards and forwards.
            "If only we  had not accepted that invitation to the dinner party," Mrs. Darling said.
            "If only I had not poured my medicine into Nana's bowl," said Mr. Darling.
            Nana was a dog.  She couldn't talk.  But she looked at Mr. and Mrs. Darling, and her eyes seemed to send a message.  "If only I had pretended to like the medicine," was what Nana's wet eyes said.
            "My liking for parties, George."
            "My fatal gift of humour, dearest."
            "My touchiness about trifles, dear master and mistress."
            Then one or more of them would break down into tears altogether. Nana would always cry when she thought, "It's true, it's true, they ought not to have had a dog for a nurse." And when Nana cried, many a time it was Mr. Darling who put the handkerchief to Nana's eyes.

From Chapter Sixteen

[Summary of the story: It has now been many weeks that the children have been gone.  They have had many adventures with Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, and fought many pirates in Never Never Land.  But their parents are still miserable at home.]

            The children had been away for many weeks, but the house was more or less exactly as they had left it all those nights ago.  The only change to be seen in the night-nursery is that between nine and six the kennel was no longer there. When the children had flown away, Mr. Darling had felt in his bones that all the blame was his for having chained Nana up, and that from first to last Nana had been wiser than he. Of course, as we have seen, he was quite a simple man, but he had also a noble sense of justice and a lion's courage to do what seemed right to him.  If the dog had been smarter than he was, then his punishment would be to trade places with the dog.  And having thought the matter out with anxious care, he went down on all fours and crawled into the kennel.

 

Mrs. Darling tried many times to convince him to come out, but in response to all Mrs. Darling's dear invitations to him to come out he replied sadly but firmly: "No, dear one, this is the place for me."
            In the bitterness of his remorse he swore that he would never leave the kennel until his children came back. Of course this was a pity; but whatever Mr. Darling did, he had to do in excess, otherwise he soon gave up doing it. And although Mr. Darling had once been very proud, now he was the most humble man ever as he sat in the kennel, and every evening talked with his wife about their children and all their children's pretty ways.
            Very touching was Mr. Darling's deference to Nana. He now obeyed Nana in everything, and always followed her wishes.  The one exception was the kennel.  Mr. Darling refused to allow Nana to come back into the kennel, which he said was now his own home.
            Every morning the kennel was carried, with Mr. Darling in it, to a cab, which brought him to his office, and he returned home in the same way at six. If we remember how sensitive Mr. Darling used to be to the opinion of his neighbours, we can see how much of a sacrifice this was for him, and marvel at his new strength of character.  In the past, Mr. Darling would have been horrified if he knew the neighbours were talking about him.  But now that he lived in a kennel, his every movement attracted surprised attention.  Inwardly he must have suffered torture; but he preserved a calm exterior even when the young criticised his little home, and he always lifted his hat courteously to any lady who looked inside the kennel
            It may have been misguided, but it was magnificent. At first everyone laughed at the man in the kennel, but then a strange thing happened.  The story of the Darling family became known to the public. People learned that he was living in the kennel because he was punishing himself for his children's disappearance.  And once the inward meaning of the kennel leaked out, the great heart of the public was touched.  Crowds began following Mr. Darling's cab, cheering it lustily.  Beautiful young girls climbed into Mr. Darling's cab to get his autograph.  Stories about Mr. Darling began appearing in the high class newspapers.  Everyone was eager for an interview with Mr. Darling, and he was at once a hero of high class society.  Mr. Darling soon began being invited to the finest society dinner parties, and the invitations added, "Do come in the kennel."
            One Thursday afternoon, Mrs. Darling was in the night-nursery awaiting George's return home.  She was now a very sad-eyed woman.  The gaiety of her old days was all gone now because she has lost her children.  There was no one else in the room but Nana.
            Nana and Mrs. Darling were sitting together, Nana's paw on Mrs. Darling's hand, when the kennel was brought back. Mr. Darling puts his head out of the kennel to kiss his wife.  His face is older than before, but it now has a softer expression.
            Mr.Darling gave his hat to Liza, who took it scornfully.  Liza was a woman with no imagination, and she was completely incapable of understanding the motives of Mr. Darling. Outside, the crowd, who had accompanied the cab home, were still cheering, and Mr. Darling was naturally not unmoved.
            "Listen to them," he said; "it is very gratifying."
            "It's a lot of little boys," sneered Liza.
            "That's not true.  There were several adults today," Mr. Darling assured her with a faint blush; but when Liza tossed her head in disgust he had not a word of reproof for her. Social success had not spoilt him; it had made him sweeter. For some time he sat with his head out of the kennel, talking with Mrs. Darling of the great crowds who had cheered him on.  She said he hoped his head would not be turned by all of this attention he was getting from society, and he pressed her hand reassuringly.
            "No of course not," he assured her.  "I'll never let it go to my head.  I'm much too strong for that.  Of course it would be different if I had been a weak man.  Good heavens, if I had been a weak man, just think what all of this attention could do to me!"
            "And, George," she said timidly, "you are as full of remorse as ever, aren't you?"
            "Full of remorse as ever, dearest! See my punishment: living in a kennel."
            "But it is punishment, isn't it, George? You are sure you are not enjoying it?"
            "My love!" he exclaimed.  "How could you say such a thing?"
            She begged his pardon at once; and then, feeling drowsy, he curled round in the kennel.
            "Won't you play me to sleep," he asked, "on the nursery piano?" and as she was crossing to the day-nursery he added thoughtlessly, "And shut that window. I feel a cold wind."
            "O George, never ask me to do that. The window must always be left open for them, always, always."
            Now it was his turn to beg her pardon; and she went into the day-nursery and played, and soon he was asleep; and while he slept, Wendy and John and Michael flew into the room, returning at last from all their adventures in Never-Never Land
            Wendy and John and Michael found the window open for them, which of course was more than they deserved. They landed on the floor. Perhaps they should have felt ashamed for all the worry they had caused their parents, but actually they were quite unashamed of themselves. They were, after all, only children, and were naturally careless and thoughtless as all children are.
            They had been away for so long that they had almost forgotten their home.  And in fact the youngest one, Michael, actually had already forgotten.
            "John," he said, looking around him doubtfully, "I think I have been here before."
            "Of course you have, you silly. There is your old bed."
            "So it is," Michael said, but not with much conviction.
            "I say," cried John, "the kennel!" and he dashed across to look into it.
            "Perhaps Nana is inside it," Wendy said.
            But John whistled. "Hullo," he said, "there's a man inside it."
            "It's father!" exclaimed Wendy.

 

            "Let me see father," Michael begged eagerly, and he took a good look. "He is not so big as the pirate I killed," he said with such frank disappointment that I am glad Mr. Darling was asleep; it would have been sad if those had been the first words he heard his little Michael say.
            Wendy and John had been taken aback somewhat at finding their father in the kennel.
            "Surely," said John, like one who had lost faith in his memory, "he didn't use to sleep in the kennel, did he??"
            "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 the piano again.
            "It's mother!" cried Wendy, peeping.
            "So it is!" said John.  "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."
            And so when Mrs. Darling went back to the night-nursery to see if her husband was asleep, all the beds were occupied. The children waited for her cry of joy, but it did not come. She saw them, but she did not believe they were there. You see, she saw them in their beds so often in her dreams that she thought this was just the dream hanging around her still.
            She sat down in the chair by the fire, where in the old days she had nursed them.
            They could not understand this, and a cold fear fell upon all the three of them.
            "Mother!" Wendy cried.
            "That's Wendy," she said, but still she was sure it was the dream.
            "Mother!"
            "That's John," she said.
            "Mother!" cried Michael. He remembered her now.
            "That's Michael," she said, and she stretched out her arms for the three little selfish children they would never hug again. Yes, they did, they went round Wendy and John and Michael, who had slipped out of bed and run to her.
            "George, George!" she cried when she could speak; and Mr. Darling woke to share her bliss, and Nana came rushing in. There could not have been a lovelier sight; but there was none to see it except a little boy who was staring in at the window. He had had ecstasies innumerable that other children can never know; but he was looking through the window at the one joy from which he must be forever barred.

Vocabulary: Match the underlined words with the definitions on the next page.

1.  Mr. and Mrs. Darling never quite got over the loss of their children
2.  They sat in this same way night after night recalling that fatal Friday, till every detail of it was stamped on their brains and they could remember it backwards and forwards.
3.  "My fatal gift of humour, dearest."
4,  "My touchiness about trifles, dear master and mistress."
5.  Mr. Darling had felt in his bones that all the blame was his for having chained
6.  In the bitterness of his remorse he swore that he would never leave the kennel until his children came back.
7.  Of course this was a pity; but whatever Mr. Darling did, he had to do in excess, otherwise he soon gave up doing it
8.  And although Mr. Darling had once been very proud, now he was the most humble man ever as he sat in the kennel
9.  Very touching was Mr. Darling's deference to Nana.
10.  The one exception was the kennel
11.  If we remember how sensitive Mr. Darling used to be to the opinion of his neighbours, we can see how much of a sacrifice this was for him
12.  his every movement attracted surprised attention
13.  Inwardly he must have suffered torture; but he preserved a calm exterior
14.  he always lifted his hat  courteously to any lady who looked inside the kennel
15.  It may have been misguided, but it was magnificent.
16.  And once the inward meaning of the kennel leaked out, the great heart of the public was touched.
17.  The gaiety of her old days was all gone now because she has lost her children
18.  Mr.Darling gave his hat to Liza, who took it scornfully. 
19.  she was completely incapable of understanding the motives of Mr. Darling.
20. Outside, the crowd, who had accompanied the cab home, were still cheering

Definitions:

______________________to get better after an illness, or feel better after something or someone has made you unhappy

______________________To know something extremely well

______________________respect and politeness

______________________In a manner that shows a very strong feeling of no respect for someone

______________________something is disappointing or not satisfactory

______________________easily upset by the things people say or do, or causing people to be upset, embarrassed or angry

______________________a reason for doing something

______________________to pull or draw someone or something towards them, by the qualities they have, especially good ones

______________________unreasonable or unsuitable because of being based on bad judgment or on wrong information or beliefs

______________________to allow secret information to become generally known

______________________to go with someone

______________________to believe something strongly although you cannot explain why

______________________when you feel very guilty and sad about something you have done

______________________not proud or not believing that you are important

______________________to keep something as it is, especially in order to prevent it from decaying or being damaged or destroyed

______________________In a polite or respectful manner

______________________the outside part of something or someone

______________________When a man holds onto the top part of his hat, and lifts it off his head slightly.  In old times, this was something gentleman did as a sign of respect for people.

______________________easily offended or upset

______________________to give up something that is valuable to you in order to help another person

______________________happiness and excitement

______________________very serious and having an important bad effect in the future

______________________a matter or object of little value or importance

______________________a feeling of anger and unhappiness

______________________an amount which is more than acceptable, expected or reasonable

______________________When something is permanently engraved into your brain.

______________________making you feel sadness, sympathy, etc.

______________________someone or something that is not included in a rule, group or list or that does not behave in the expected way

Definitions Answers

get over  to get better after an illness, or feel better after something or someone has made you unhappy

backwards and forwards To know something extremely well

deference  respect and politeness

scornfully  In a manner that shows a very strong feeling of no respect for someone

pity  something is disappointing or not satisfactory

sensitive  easily upset by the things people say or do, or causing people to be upset, embarrassed or angry

motive  a reason for doing something

attract  to pull or draw someone or something towards them, by the qualities they have, especially good ones

misguided  unreasonable or unsuitable because of being based on bad judgment or on wrong information or beliefs

leak out  to allow secret information to become generally known

accompany  to go with someone

feel in your bones  to believe something strongly although you cannot explain why

remorse  when you feel very guilty and sad about something you have done

humble  not proud or not believing that you are important

preserve  to keep something as it is, especially in order to prevent it from decaying or being damaged or destroyed

courteously  In a polite or respectful manner

exterior  the outside part of something or someone

lift his hat  When a man holds onto the top part of his hat, and lifts it off his head slightly.  In old times, this was something gentleman did as a sign of respect for people.

touchiness  easily offended or upset

sacrifice  to give up something that is valuable to you in order to help another person

gaiety  happiness and excitement

fatal  very serious and having an important bad effect in the future

trifle  a matter or object of little value or importance

bitterness  a feeling of anger and unhappiness

excess  an amount which is more than acceptable, expected or reasonable

stamped on their brains When something is permanently engraved into your brain.

touching  making you feel sadness, sympathy, etc.

exception  someone or something that is not included in a rule, group or list or that does not behave in the expected way