She wanted to, but she was afraid that if she saw her dear Betwixt-and-Between again she would linger with him too long, and besides the ayah now kept a sharp eye on her.
Afraid to go back to Peter Pan because she doesn't think she'll be able to return home again
He does this at once because he thinks it is what real boys would do,
I think it's interesting to think about the actions that his assumptions about the real world turn into, they seem sweet and innocent
Her eyes glistened with admiration when he told her of his adventures, especially of how he went to and fro between the island and the Gardens in the Thrush’s Nest:
This reminds me of the end of Alice in Wonderland when Alice is telling her sister and her dreams/adventures in wonderland
To her surprise they seemed to be returning from the ball, and she had just time to hide from them by bending her knees and holding out her arms and pretending to be a garden chair.
It's funny to compare this description of Maimie disguising herself from the fairies as a garden chair with the earlier descriptions of the fairies disguising themselves as various flowers and plants in order to hide
was
This description of Maimie sort of reminds me of Alice from Alice in Wonderland
Immediately the last clang had died away Maimie distinctly heard a voice say, ‘So that’s all right.’ It had a wooden sound and seemed to come from above, and she looked up in time to see an elm-tree stretching out its arms and yawning.
This part with the trees reminds me of the Wizard of Oz
She had shut her eyes tight and glued them with passionate tears. When she opened them something very cold ran up her legs and up her arms and dropped into her heart. It was the stillness of the Gardens.
I think the characteristics of the 'stillness of the gardens' are described in a really interesting way here
only
This kind of 'confusing logic' reminds me of Alice in Wonderland
Peter feels badly about the fact that his mother misses him but not enough to return at that moment. He is still conflicted over what he wants
two minds
Peter's conflict about what he wants; wishes he could have both
You have probably observed that your baby-sister wants to do all sorts of things that your mother and her nurse want her not to do to stand up at sitting-down time, and to sit down at stand-up time, for instance, or to wake up when she should fall asleep, or to crawl on the floor when she is wearing her best frock, and so on, and perhaps you put this down to naughtiness. But it is not; it simply means that she is doing as she has seen the fairies do ; she begins by following their ways, and it takes about two years to get her into the human ways.
I think the parallels drawn between children and fairies is really interesting here as well as the use of magical/supernatural forces to explain some of the behavior exhibited by children