That is how Peter leaps them . -LSB- Illustration : Fairies are all more or less in hiding until dusk -RSB- And think of the music of his pipe . Gentlemen who walk home at night write to the papers to say they heard a nightingale in the Gardens , but it is really Peter 's pipe they hear . Of course , he had no mother -- at least , what use was she to him ? You can be sorry for him for that , but do n't be too sorry , for the next thing I mean to tell you is how he revisited her . It was the fairies who gave him the chance . -LSB- Illustration : Tailpiece to ` The Thrush 's Nest ' -RSB- -LSB- Illustration : Headpiece to ` Lock-out Time ' -RSB- IV LOCK-OUT TIME It is frightfully difficult to know much about the fairies , and almost the only thing known for certain is that there are fairies wherever there are children . Long ago children were forbidden the Gardens , and at that time there was not a fairy in the place ; then the children were admitted , and the fairies came trooping in that very evening . They ca n't resist following the children , but you seldom see them , partly because they live in the daytime behind the railings , where you are not allowed to go , and also partly because they are so cunning . They are not a bit cunning after Lock-out , but until Lock-out , my word ! -LSB- Illustration : They are so cunning -RSB- -LSB- Illustration : When they think you are not looking they skip along pretty lively -LRB- missing from book -RRB- -RSB- When you were a bird you knew the fairies pretty well , and you remember a good deal about them in your babyhood , which it is a great pity you ca n't write down , for gradually you forget , and I have heard of children who declared that they had never once seen a fairy . Very likely if they said this in the Kensington Gardens , they were standing looking at a fairy all the time . The reason they were cheated was that she pretended to be something else . This is one of their best tricks . They usually pretend to be flowers , because the court sits in the Fairies ' Basin , and there are so many flowers there , and all along the Baby Walk , that a flower is the thing least likely to attract attention . They dress exactly like flowers , and change with the seasons , putting on white when lilies are in and blue for bluebells , and so on . They like crocus and hyacinth time best of all , as they are partial to a bit of colour , but tulips -LRB- except white ones , which are the fairy cradles -RRB- they consider garish , and they sometimes put off dressing like tulips for days , so that the beginning of the tulip weeks is almost the best time to catch them . When they think you are not looking they skip along pretty lively , but if you look , and they fear there is no time to hide , they stand quite still pretending to be flowers . Then , after you have passed without knowing that they were fairies , they rush home and tell their mothers they have had such an adventure . The Fairy Basin , you remember , is all covered with ground-ivy -LRB- from which they make their castor-oil -RRB- , with flowers growing in it here and there .
Most of them really are XXXXX , but some of them are fairies .
Illustration Thrush Time beginning children deal flowers home lilies reason