run away from home to see the Great World, and in the course of his
wanderings he came to the Smiling Pool. Never before had he seen so much
water. The most water he had ever seen before was a little puddle in the
Lone Little Path. So when Peter, who was only half grown then, hopped
out on the bank of the Smiling Pool and saw it dimpling and smiling in
the sunshine, he thought it the most wonderful thing he ever had seen.
The truth is that in those days Peter was in the habit of thinking
everything he saw for the first time the most wonderful thing yet, and
as he was continually seeing new things, and as his eyes always nearly
popped out of his head whenever he saw something new, it is a wonder
that he didn't become pop-eyed.

Peter stared and stared at the Smiling Pool, and little by little he
began to see other things. First he noticed the bulrushes growing with
their feet in the water. They looked to him like giant grass, and he
began to be a little fearful lest this should prove to be a sort of
magic place--a place of giants. Then he noticed the lily-pads, and he
stared very hard at these. They looked like growing things, and yet they
seemed to be floating right on top of the water. It wasn't until a Merry
Little Breeze came along and turned the edge of one up so that Peter saw
the long stem running down in the water out of sight, that he was able
to understand how those lily-pads could be growing there. He was still
staring at those lily-pads when a great deep voice said:

"Chug-a-rum! Chug-a-rum! Don't you know it isn't polite to stare at
people?"

That voice was so unexpected and so deep that Peter was startled. He
jumped, started to run, then stopped. He wanted to run, but curiosity
wouldn't let him. He simply couldn't run away until he had found out