Of a Jolly Thickness

Sometimes I think of this line/event... and laugh:

...and Hook fell over it in the dark.

Here’s the rest of the passage:

Or we could tell of that cake the pirates cooked so that the boys might eat it and perish; and how they placed it in one cunning spot after another; but always Wendy snatched it from the hands of her children, so that in time it lost its succulence, and became as hard as a stone, and was used as a missile, and Hook fell over it in the dark.

All of it is funny, in fact. It’s a shame that the cake (not counting the musical) is often left out of adaptations or retellings. And even in the case of the musical, the full impact of Barrie’s wit in this passage isn’t given justice. If I’m ever involved with a filmed Peter and Wendy, you can be sure the cake will be a running gag and we shall see the launch and Hook stumbling with a shout of “Odds, bobs, hammer and tongs!”