4
Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying
up her children's minds. It is the nightly custom of
every good mother after her children are asleep to
rummage in their minds and put things straight for
next morning.
If you could keep awake (but of course you can't) you
would see your own mother doing this, and you would
find it very interesting to watch her, lingering
humorously over some of your contents, wondering
where on earth you had picked this thing up, making
discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her
cheek as if it were as nice as a kitten, and hurriedly
stowing that out of sight.
When you wake in the morning, the naughtiness and
evil passions with which you went to bed have been
folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind
and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your
prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on.
I don't know whether you have ever seen a map of a
person's mind. Doctors sometimes draw maps of other
parts of you, and your own map can become intensely
interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a
child's mind, which is not only confused, but keeps
going round all the time.
