Mary Poppins looked on disapprovingly.
“Now, Michael, not another bite! You will have no room for your supper.”
“Enough’s as good as a feast, my lad!” Mr Mo grinned at Michael as he watched the food disappearing.
“Enough is too much!” said Mary Poppins. “Come along, both of you!”
“Oh, I cannot bear to leave it!” cried Jane. Her little Park seemed brighter than ever, as it shone in the setting sun.
“You never will!” Mr Mo declared. “As long as you remember it, you can always come and go. And I hope you’re not going to tell me that you can’t be in two places at once. A clever girl who makes parks and people surely knows how to do that!” He smiled his twinkling, teasing smile.
Mary Poppins stepped out from under the buttercup, with a homeward look in her eye.
“Say goodbye politely, Jane!” She sent the perambulator rolling along the pebbled path.
“Goodbye, Mr Mo!” said Jane softly, as she stood on tiptoe and held out her arms.
“Oh, luck! Oh, joy!” He patted his cheek. “This is no Park for Poor People! I’m rich – she’s given me a kiss! Share and share alike!” he cried, as he kissed Mrs Hickory right on a dimple.
“Remember, Sam!” warned Mary Poppins. “Look before you leap!”
“Oh, I shan’t do any leaping, Mary! A little dance and a hop or two – nothing more serious, I assure you!”
She gave a disbelieving sniff, but Mr Mo did not hear it. He was skipping beside Mrs Hickory and seizing her apron-strings.
“May I have the pleasure?” they heard him saying.
“Me too!” cried Eenie, Meenie and Mynie, as they flew to join their father.
And there they all were, prancing round the table, helping themselves to pie and wine and hanging the cherries behind their ears. Mrs Hickory’s dimples were twinkling gaily and her babies were bobbing about in her arms.
“It’s a poor heart that never rejoices!” cried Mr Mo, as he whirled her about. He seemed to have quite forgotten his guests in the gaiety of the moment.
“It’s love that makes the world go round!” yelled Eenie, Meenie and Mynie.
And, indeed, the world did seem to be spinning, turning for joy upon its axis, as the little Park spun round its buttercup tree. Round and round and round it went in a steady, stately movement.
The wedding-party was waltzing and singing, and the Ice Cream Man was singing too, as he pedalled back along the path. A cluster of Fruit Bars was in his hand and he tossed them on to the table.
“Three for luck and free for luck!” he cried, as he trundled by.
“Step up, if you please,” said Mary Poppins, hustling them along before her as a hen hustles her chicks. “And what are you doing, Jane and Michael, walking backwards like that?”
“I’b wadching the weddig-feast!” mumbled Michael, with his mouth full of his last cherry. He gave a long, lugubrious sigh as each creak of the perambulator drew him farther from that wonderful meal.
“Taking one more look at my Park, Mary Poppins,” said Jane, as she gazed at the happy scene.
“Well, you’re not a pair of crabs! Turn round – and walk in the right direction.”
The sunset dazzled their eyes as they turned. And the afternoon seemed to be turning with them, from two o’clock till five. Tick-tock! said every clock. Ding-dong! said the bells in the steeples.
Then the spinning world slowed down and was still, and they blinked as though coming out of a dream. Had it taken them seconds, minutes or hours to walk down that pebbly path? They looked about them curiously.
The blossoms of clover were now at their feet, instead of above their heads, and the grasses of the Wild Corner brushed against their knees. The bumble-bee went buzzing by, no larger, it seemed, than usual. And the fly on a nearby bluebell was about the size of a fly. As for the ant – it was hiding under a grass-seed and was therefore invisible.
The big Park spread serenely round them, just the same as ever. The Ice Cream Man, who had come to the last verse of his song –
“I’ll sing you twelve-o
Green grow the rushes-o,”
was wheeling away from the Wild Corner. And the Park Keeper, with the finished daisy-chain round his neck, was lumbering towards them.
They glanced down. Below them lay the little Park, hemmed in by its walls of weed. They blinked again and smiled at each other as they fell on their knees among the flowers.
The little lawns were now in shadow. Long patterns of daisy and bluebell lay black across their paths. The tiny flowers in Jane’s garden were bending on their stems. By lake and swing the seats were deserted.
“They’ve eaten every bit of the feast. Look!” whispered Michael. “Empty plates!”
“And not a sign of anyone. I expect they’ve all gone home to bed.” Jane sighed. She would like to have seen Mr Mo again, and to measure herself against his elbow.
“They’re lucky, then, ’ooever they are! Let’s to bed, says Sleepy-’Ead – as they told me when I was a boy!” The Park Keeper stooped above them and surveyed Jane’s handiwork.
“No Parks allowed in the Park!” he observed. Then he eyed the two rapt faces. “Well, you seem very preh’occupied! What are you lookin’ for?”
Jane gave him an absent-minded glance.
“Mary Poppins’ cousin,” she murmured, as she searched through the little Park.
The Park Keeper’s face was a sight to see.
“Cousin! Down there – among the weeds? You’ll be tellin’ me next ’e’s a beetle!”
“I’ll be telling you something in a minute!” said a wrathful voice beside him. Mary Poppins regarded him frostily. “Did I or didn’t I hear you referring to me as an insect?”
“Well – not to you,” the Park Keeper faltered. “But if your cousin’s down in that grass, what can ’e be but a beetle?”
“Oh, indeed! And if he’s a beetle, what am I?”
He looked at her uneasily and wished that something would strike him dumb.
“Hum,” he said, fumbling for a word. “I may be as mad as a March Hatter—”
“May be!” she gave a disdainful sniff.
“But I don’t see ’ow you can ’ave a cousin sittin’ under a buttercup!”
“I can have a cousin anywhere – and no business of yours!”
“You can’t!” he cried. “T’isn’t natural. I suppose,” he added sarcastically, “you’re related to the Man in the Moon!”
“My uncle!” said Mary Poppins calmly, as she turned the perambulator into the path that led from the Wild Corner.
The Park Keeper opened his mouth in surprise and shut it again with a snap.
“Ha, ha! You will ’ave your little joke. ’Owsumever, I don’t believe it!”
“Nobody asked you to,” she replied. “Come, Jane! Come, Michael! Quick march, please!”
Night had now come to the little Park. The wildweed, thickly clustered about it, looked very like a forest. No light came through the trackless stems, it was dark as any jungle. With a last glance at the lonely lawns, they turned away regretfully and ran after the perambulator.
“Mary Poppins! They’ve all gone home,” cried Michael. “There’s nothing left on the plates.”
“East, West, home’s best. And who are ‘they’, I’d like to know?”
“I meant your funny little cousin – and all his family!”
She pulled up sharply and looked at him with a calm that was worse than anger.
“Did you say ‘funny’?” she enquired. “And what was so funny about him, pray?”
“Well – at first he wasn’t as big as a beetle and then he stretched out to the usual s-s-size!” He trembled as he looked at her.
“Beetles again! Why not grasshoppers? Or perhaps you’d prefer a grub! Stretching, indeed! Are you trying to tell me, Michael Banks, that my cousin is made of elastic?”
“Well – no, not elastic. Plasticine!” There! It was out. He had said it at last.
“Well!” she began, in a voice that told him clearly she had never been so shocked in her life. “If anyone had ever warned me—” But he interrupted wildly.
“Oh, don’t be angry, please, Mary Poppins – not in your tulip hat! I didn’t mean he was funny to laugh at, but funny in the nicest way. And I won’t say another word – I promise!”
“Humph!” She subsided. “Silence is golden.”
And as she stalked along beside him, with her heels going click-clack on the path, he wondered where he had heard that before.
He glanced at Jane carefully from the corner of his eye.
“But it happened, didn’t it?” he whispered. “We did go into the little Park and join them at the feast? I’m sure it was true, because I’m not hungry. All I want for supper is a hard-boiled egg and a piece of buttered toast. And rice pudding and two tomatoes and perhaps a cup of milk!”
“Oh, yes, it was true.” Jane sighed for joy as she gazed round the great familiar Park. Within it, she knew, lay another one. And perhaps. . .
“Do you think, Mary Poppins. . .” She hesitated. “Do you think that everything in the world is inside something else? My little Park inside a big one and the big one inside a larger one? Again and again? Away and away?” She waved her arm to take in the sky. “And to someone very far out there – do you think we would look like ants?”
“Ants and beetles! Grasshoppers! Grubs! What next, I’d like to know! I can’t answer for you, Jane, but I’m not an ant to anyone, thank you!”
Mary Poppins gave a disgusted sniff.
“Of course you’re not!” said a cheerful voice, as Mr Banks – coming back from the City – caught up with the little group.
“You’re more like a glow-worm, Mary Poppins, shining to show us the right way home!” He waited for the self-satisfied smile to spread across her face. “Here,” he said, “take the evening paper and I’ll wheel the perambulator. The exercise will do me good. I think I’m getting a cold.”
The Twins and Annabel crowed with delight as Mr Banks sent them skimming along.
“Dear me,” he remarked. “What a fine new handle! That cousin of yours is a good workman. You must let me know what you paid for it.”
“I know!” cried Michael eagerly. “She gave Mrs Mo to the Indian!”
“Atishoo! I didn’t quite hear what you said, Michael. She gave Mr Rowe two shillings?” Mr Banks blew his nose with a flourish.
“No, no! She gave Mrs Mo! I mean—” He never finished the sentence. For Mary Poppins’ eye was on him and he thought it best to drop the subject.
“There will be no charge, sir!” she said politely. “My cousin was pleased to do it.”
“That’s uncommonly kind of him, Mary Poppins. Hey!” he broke off. “Do look where you’re going! Observe the Rules of the Park, Smith! You nearly upset the perambulator.”
For the Park Keeper, bounding after them, had knocked into the little group and scattered it in all directions.
“Beg pardon all, I’m sure!” he panted. “Sorry, Mr Banks, sir, but if you’ll excuse me, it’s ’er I’m after.”
He flung out a hand at Mary Poppins. The daisy-chain dangled from his wrist.
“Why, Mary Poppins, what have you done? Broken a Bye-law or what?”
The Park Keeper gave a lonely groan.
“Bye-law? She’s broken all the laws! Oh, it isn’t natural – but it’s true!” He turned to Mary Poppins.
“You said you could ’ave one anywhere! Well, ’e’s down here under a dandelion. I ’eard ’im with me own ears – laughin’ and singin’ – just like a party. ’Ere, take it!” he cried in a broken voice, as he flung the daisy-chain over her head. “I meant it for me poor old mother – but I feel I owe you somethin’.”
“You do,” said Mary Poppins calmly, as she straightened the daisy-chain.
The Park Keeper stared at her for a moment. Then he turned away with a sigh.
“I shall never h’understand,” he muttered, knocking over a Litter-basket as he tottered off down the path.
Mr Banks gazed after him with a look of shocked surprise.
“Somebody under a dandelion? Having a party? What can he mean? Really, I sometimes wonder if Smith is right in the head. Under a dandelion – laughing and singing! Did you ever hear such a thing?”
“Never!” said Mary Poppins demurely, with a dainty shake of her head.
And as she shook it a buttercup petal fell from the brim of her hat.
The children watched it fluttering down and turned and smiled at each other.
“There’s one on your head too, Michael!”
“Is there?” he said, with a happy sigh. “Bend down and let me look at yours.”
And, sure enough, Jane had a petal too.
“I told you so!” She nodded wisely. And she held her head very high and still so as not to disturb it.
Crowned with the gold of the buttercup tree, she walked home under the maple boughs. All was quiet. The sun had set. The shadows of the Long “Walk were falling all about her. And at the same time the brightness of the little Park folded her closely round. The dark of one, the light of the other – she felt them both together.
“I am in two places at once,” she whispered, “just as he said I would be!”
And she thought again of the little clearing among the thronging weeds. The daisies would grow again, she knew. Clover would hide the little lawns. Cardboard table and swings would crumble. The forest would cover it all.
But somehow, somewhere, in spite of that, she knew she would find it again – as neat and gay and as happy as it had been today. She had only to remember it and there she would be once more. Time upon time she would return – hadn’t Mr Mo said so? – and stand at the edge of that patch of brightness and never see it fade. . .
Chapter Six
HALLOWE’EN
“MARY POPPINS!” called Michael. “Wait for us!”
“W-a-a-a-i-t!” the wind echoed, whining round him.
It was a dusky, gusty autumn evening. The clouds blew in and out of the sky. And in all the houses of Cherry Tree Lane the curtains blew in and out of the windows. Swish-swish. Flap-flap.
The Park was tossing like a ship in a storm. Leaves and Litter-paper turned head-over-heels in the air. The trees groaned and waved their arms, the spray of the fountain was blown and scattered. Benches shivered. Swings were creaking. The Lake water leapt into foamy waves. Nothing was still in the whole Park as it bowed and shuddered under the wind.
And through it all stalked Mary Poppins, with not a hair out of place. Her neat blue coat with its silver buttons was neither creased nor ruffled, and the tulip sat on her hat so firmly that it might have been made of marble.
Far behind her the children ran, splashing through drifts of leaves. They had been to Mr Folly’s stall for nuts and toffee-apples. And now they were trying to catch her up.
“Wait for us, Mary Poppins!”
In front of her, on the Long Walk, the perambulator trundled. The wind whistled through the wheels, and the Twins and Annabel clung together for fear of being blown overboard. Their tasselled caps were tossing wildly and the rug was flapping loose, like a flag.
“O-o-o-h!” they squeaked, like excited mice, as a sudden gust tore it free and carried it away.
Someone was coming down the path, bowling along like a tattered newspaper.
“Help!” shrilled a high, familiar voice. “Something has blown right over my hat! I can’t see where I’m going.”
It was Miss Lark, out for her evening walk. Her two dogs bounded on ahead and behind her the Professor straggled, with his hair standing on end.
“Is that you, Mary Poppins?” she cried, as she plucked the rug away from her face and flung it upon the perambulator. “What a dreadful night! Such a wild wind! I wonder you’re not blown away!”
Mary Poppins raised
her eyebrows and gave a superior sniff. If the wind blew anyone away, it would not be herself, she thought.
“What do you mean – a dreadful night?” Admiral Boom strode up behind them. His dachshund, Pompey, was at his heels, wearing a little sailor’s jacket to keep him from catching cold.
“It’s a perfect night, my dear lady, for a life on the ocean wave!
‘Sixteen men on a dead man’s chest –
Yo, ho, ho! And a bottle of rum.’
You must sail the Seven Seas, Lucinda!”
“Oh – I couldn’t sit on a dead man’s chest!” Miss Lark seemed quite upset at the thought. “Nor drink rum, either, Admiral. Do keep up, Professor, please. There – my scarf has blown away! Oh, goodness, now the dogs have gone!”
“Perhaps they’ve blown away too!” The Professor glanced up into a tree, looking for Andrew and Willoughby. Then he peered short-sightedly down the Walk.
“Ah, here they come!” he murmured vaguely. “How strange they look with only two legs!”
“Two legs!” said Miss Lark reproachfully. How absent-minded you are, Professor. Those aren’t my darling precious dogs – they’re only Jane and Michael.”
The Admiral whipped out his telescope and clapped it to his eye.
“Ahoy, there, shipmates!” he roared to the children.
“Look!” shouted Michael, running up. “I put out my hand to hold my cap and the wind blew a leaf right into it!”
“And one into mine the same minute!” Jane panted behind him.
They stood there, laughing and glowing, with their packages held against their chests and the star-shaped maple leaves in their hands.
“Thank you,” said Mary Poppins firmly, as she plucked the leaves from between their fingers, gave them a scrutinising glance and popped them into her pocket.
“Catch a leaf, a message brief!” Miss Lark’s voice shrieked above the wind. “But, of course, it’s only an old wives’ tale. Ah, there you are, dear dogs – at last! Take my hand, Professor, please. We must hurry home to safety.”
And she shooed them all along before her, with her skirts blowing out in every direction.
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