"Aren't you well, Mary Poppins?" he asked uneasily, as she came hurrying back.
"Never better in my life!" she replied, tossing her head. "And I'll thank you, if you please, not to stand there, peeking and prying at me as if I were a Waxwork! Go and get ready!"
Her look was so stern, and her eyes so fiercely blue, and she spoke so like her usual self that their anxiety vanished away and they ran, shouting, to get their hats.
Presently the quietness of the house was broken by the noise of slamming doors, screaming voices and stamping feet.
"Dear me! Dear me! What a relief! I was getting quite anxious!" said the house to itself, listening to Jane and Michael and the Twins plunging and tumbling downstairs.
Mary Poppins paused for a moment to glance at her reflection in the hall mirror.
"Oh, do come on, Mary Poppins! You look all right," said Michael impatiently.
She wheeled about. Her expression was angry, outraged and astonished all at once.
All right, indeed! That was hardly the word. All right, in her blue jacket with the silver buttons! All right with her gold locket round her neck! All right with the parrot-headed umbrella under her arm!
Mary Poppins sniffed.
"That will be enough from you — and more!" she said shortly. Though what she meant was that it wasn't nearly sufficient.
But Michael was too excited to care.
"Come on, Jane!" he cried, dancing wildly. "I simply can't wait! Come on!"
They ran on ahead while Mary Poppins strapped the Twins into the perambulator. And presently the garden gate clicked behind them and they were on the way to the Merry-go-round.
Faint sounds of music came floating across from the Park, humming and drumming like a humming-top.
"Good-afternoon! And how are we to-day?" Miss Lark's high voice greeted them as she hurried down the Lane with her dogs.
But before they had time to reply she went on, "Off to the Merry-go-round, I suppose! Andrew and Willoughby and I have just been. A very superior Entertainment. So nice and clean. And such a polite Attendant!" She fluttered past with the two dogs prancing beside her. "Good-bye! Good-bye!" she called back over her shoulder as she disappeared round the corner.
"All hands to the pump! Heave ho, my hearties!"
A well-known voice came roaring from the direction of the Park. And through the gates came Admiral Boom, looking very red in the face and dancing a Sailor's Hornpipe.
"Yo, ho, ho! And a bottle of Rum! The Admiral's been on the Merry-go-round. Bail her out! Cockles and Shrimps! It's as good as a long sea-voyage!" he roared, as he greeted the children.
"We're going, too!" said Michael excitedly.
"What? You're going?" The Admiral seemed quite astonished.
"Yes, of course!" said Jane.
"But — not all the way, surely?" The Admiral looked curiously at Mary Poppins.
"They're having one ride each, Sir!" she explained primly.
"Ah, well! Farewell!" he said in a voice that for him was almost gentle.
Then to the children's astonishment, he drew himself up, put his hand to his forehead, and smartly saluted Mary Poppins.
"Ur-rrrrrrumph!" he trumpeted into his handkerchief. "Hoist your sail! And up with your Anchor! And away, Love, away!"
And he waved his hand and went off rolling from side to side of the pavement and singing,
"Every nice Girl loves a Sailor!"
in a loud, rumbling voice.
"Why did he say Farewell and call you Love?" said Michael, staring after the Admiral as he walked on beside Mary Poppins.
"Because he thinks I'm a Thoroughly Respectable Person!" she snapped. But there was a soft dreamy look in her eyes.
Again Jane felt the strange sad feeling and her heart tightened inside her.
"What can be going to happen?" she asked herself anxiously. She put her hand on Mary Poppins' hand as it lay on the handle of the perambulator. It felt warm and safe and comforting.
"How silly I am!" she said softly. "There can't be anything wrong!"
And she hurried beside the perambulator as it trundled towards the Park.
"Just a moment! Just a moment!" A panting voice sounded behind them.
"Why," said Michael, turning. "It's Miss Tartlet!"
"Indeed, it is not," said Miss Tartlet breathlessly. "It's Mrs. Turvy!"
She turned, blushing to Mr. Turvy. He stood beside her smiling a little sheepishly.
"Is this one of your Second Mondays?" Jane enquired. He was right-side up, so she did not think it could be.
"Oh, no! Thank goodness, no!" he said hastily. "We — er — were just coming to say — oh, Good-Afternoon, Mary!"
"Well, Cousin Arthur?" They all shook hands.
"I wondered if you were going on the Merry-go-round?" he enquired.
"Yes I am. We all are!"
"All!" Mr. Turvy's eye-brows shot up to the top of his head. He seemed very surprised.
"They're going for one ride each!" said Mary Poppins, nodding at the children. "Sit still, please!" she snapped at the Twins, who had bobbed up excitedly. "You're not Performing Mice!"
"Oh, I see. And then — they're getting off? Well — Good-bye, Mary, and Bon Voyage!" Mr. Turvy raised his hat high above his head, very ceremoniously.
"Good-bye — and thank you for coming!" said Mary Poppins, bowing graciously to Mr. and Mrs. Turvy.
"What does Bon Voyage mean?" said Michael, looking over his shoulder at their retreating figures — Mrs. Turvy very fat and curly, Mr. Turvy very straight and thin.
"Good journey! Which is something you won't have unless you walk up!" snapped Mary Poppins. He hurried after her.
The music was louder now, beating and drumming on the air, drawing them all towards it.
Mary Poppins, almost running, turned the perambulator in at the Park Gates. But there a row of pavement pictures caught her eye and she pulled up suddenly.
"What is she stopping for now?" said Michael in an angry whisper to Jane. "We'll never get there at this rate!"
The Pavement Artist had just completed a set of fruit in coloured chalks — an Apple, a Pear, a Plum, and a Banana. Underneath them he was busy chalking the words—
TAKE ONE
"Ahem!" said Mary Poppins, with a lady-like cough.
The Pavement Artist leapt to his feet, and Jane and Michael saw that it was Mary Poppins' great friend, the Match Man.
"Mary! At last! I've been waiting all day!"
The Match Man seized her by both hands and gazed admiringly into her eyes.
Mary Poppins looked very shy and rather pleased.
"Well, Bert, we're off to the Merry-go-round," she said, blushing.
He nodded. "I thought you would be. They going with you?" he added, jerking his thumb at the children.
Mary Poppins shook her head mysteriously.
"Just for a ride," she said quickly.
"Oh—" He pursed up his mouth. "I see."
Michael stared. What else could they do on a Merry-go-round except go for a ride? He wondered.
"A nice set of pictures you've got!" Mary Poppins was saying admiringly, gazing down at the fruit.
"Help yourself!" said the Match Man airily.
And with that Mary Poppins, before their astonished eyes, bent down and picked the painted Plum from the pavement and took a bite out of it.
"Won't you take one?" said the Match Man, turning to Jane.
She stared at him. "But can I?" It seemed so impossible.
"Try!"
She bent towards the Apple and it leapt into her hand. She bit into the red side. It tasted very sweet.
"But how do you do it?" said Michael, staring.
"I don't," said the Match Man. "It's Her!" He nodded at Mary Poppins as she stood primly beside the perambulator. "It only happens when She's around, I assure you!"
Then he bent down and picked the pear clean out of the pavement and offered it to Michael.
"But what about you?" said Michael, fo
r though he wanted the Pear, he also wanted to be polite.
"That's all right!" said the Match Man. "I can always paint more!" And with that he plucked the Banana, peeled it, and gave half each to the Twins.
A clear sweet strain of music came floating urgently to their ears.
"Now, Bert, we must really be going!" said Mary Poppins hurriedly, as she neatly hid her Plum-stone between two Park railings.
"Must you, Mary?" said the Match Man, very sadly. "Well, Good-bye, my Dear! And Good Luck!"
"But you'll see him again, won't you?" said Michael, as he followed Mary Poppins through the Gates.
"Maybe and maybe not!" she said shortly. "And it's no affair of yours!"
Jane turned and looked back. The Match Man was standing by his box of chalks, gazing with all his eyes after Mary Poppins.
"This is a curious day!" she said, frowning.
Mary Poppins glared at her.
"What's wrong with it, pray?"
"Well — everyone's saying Good-bye, and looking at you so strangely."
"Speech costs nothing!" snapped Mary Poppins. "And a Cat can look at a King, I suppose?"
Jane was silent. She knew it was no good saying anything to Mary Poppins because Mary Poppins never explained.
She sighed. And because she was not quite sure why she sighed, she began to run, streaking past Michael and Mary Poppins and the perambulator towards the thundering music.
"Wait for me! Wait for me!" screamed Michael, dashing after her. And behind him came the rumbling trundle of the perambulator as Mary Poppins hurried after them both.
There stood the Merry-go-round on a clear patch of lawn between the lime trees. It was a new one, very bright and shiny, with prancing horses going up and down on their brass poles. A striped flag fluttered from the top, and everywhere it was gorgeously decorated with golden scrolls and silver leaves and coloured birds and stars. It was, in fact, everything Miss Lark had said, and more.
The Merry-go-round slowed up and drew to a standstill as they arrived. The Park Keeper ran up officiously and held on to one of the brass poles.
"Come along, come along! Threepence a ride!" he called importantly.
"I know which horse I'll have!" said Michael, dashing up to one painted blue-and-scarlet with the name "Merry-Legs" on its gold collar. He clambered on to its back and seized the pole.
"No Litter Allowed and Observe the Bye-Laws," called the Keeper fussily as Jane sped past him.
"I'll have Twinkle!" she cried, climbing upon the back of a fiery white horse with its name on a red collar.
Then Mary Poppins lifted the Twins from the perambulator and put Barbara in front of Michael and John behind Jane.
"Penny, Tuppeny, Threepenny, Fourpenny or Fivepenny rides?" said the Merry-go-round Attendant, as he came to collect the money.
"Sixpenny," said Mary Poppins, handing him four sixpenny bits.
The children stared, amazed. They had never before had a sixpenny ride on a Merry-go-round.
"No Litter Allowed!" called the Keeper, his eye on the tickets in Mary Poppins' hands.
"But aren't you coming?" Michael called down to her.
"Hold tight, please! Hold tight! I'll take the next turn!" she replied snappily.
There was a hoot from the Merry-go-round's chimney. The music broke out again. And slowly, slowly the horses began to move.
"Hold on, please!" called Mary Poppins sternly.
They held on.
The trees were moving past them. The brass poles slipped up and down through the horses' backs. A dazzle of light fell on them from the rays of the setting sun.
"Sit tight!" came Mary Poppins' voice again.
They sat tight.
Now the trees were moving more swiftly, spinning about them as the Merry-go-round gathered speed. Michael tightened his arm about Barbara's body. Jane flung back her hand and held John firmly. On they rode, turning ever more quickly, with their hair blowing out behind them and the wind sharp on their faces. Round and round went Merry-Legs and Twinkle, with the children on their backs and the Park tipping and rocking, whirling and wheeling about them.
It seemed as if they would never stop, as if there were no such thing as Time, as if the world was nothing but a circle of light and a group of painted horses.
The sun died in the West and the dusk came fluttering down. But still they rode, faster and faster, till at last they could not distinguish tree from sky. The whole broad earth was spinning now about them with a deep, drumming sound like a humming top.
Never again would Jane and Michael and John and Barbara be so close to the centre of the world as they were on that whirling ride. And somehow, it seemed, they knew it.
"For— Never again! Never again!" was the thought in their hearts as the earth whirled about them and they rode through the dropping dusk.
Presently the trees ceased to be a circular green blur and their trunks again became visible. The sky moved away from the earth and the Park stopped spinning. Slower and slower went the horses. And at last the Merry-go-round stood still.
"Come along, come along! Threepence a ride!" the Park Keeper was calling in the distance.
Stiff from their long ride, the four children clambered down. But their eyes were shining and their voices trembled with excitement.
"Oh, lovely, lovely, lovely!" cried Jane, gazing at Mary Poppins with sparkling eyes, as she put John into the perambulator.
"If only we could have gone on for ever!" exclaimed Michael, lifting Barbara in beside him.
Mary Poppins gazed down at them. Her eyes were strangely soft and gentle in the gathering dusk.
"All good things come to an end," she said, for the second time that day.
Then she flung up her head and glanced at the Merry-go-round.
"My turn!" she cried joyfully, as she stooped and took something from the perambulator.
Then she straightened and stood looking at them for a moment — that strange look that seemed to plunge right down inside them and see what they were thinking.
"Michael!" she said, lightly touching his cheek with her hand. "Be good!"
He stared up at her uneasily. Why had she done that? What could be the matter?
"Jane! Take care of Michael and the Twins!" said Mary Poppins. And she lifted Jane's hand and put it gently on the handle of the perambulator.
"All aboard! All aboard!" cried the Ticket Collector.
The lights of the Merry-go-round blazed up.
Mary Poppins turned.
"Coming!" she called, waving her parrot-headed umbrella.
She darted across the little gulf of darkness that lay between the children and the Merry-go-round.
"Mary Poppins!" cried Jane, with a tremble in her voice. For suddenly — she did not know why — she felt afraid.
"Mary Poppins!" shouted Michael, catching Jane's fear.
But Mary Poppins took no notice. She leapt gracefully upon the platform, and, climbing upon the back of a dappled horse called Caramel, she sat down neatly and primly.
"Single or Return?" said the Ticket Collector.
For a moment she appeared to consider the question. She glanced across at the children and back at the Collector.
"You never know," she said, thoughtfully. "It might come in useful. I'll take a Return."
The Ticket Collector snapped a hole in a green ticket and handed it to Mary Poppins. Jane and Michael noticed that she did not pay for it.
The music broke out again, softly at first, then loudly, wildly, triumphantly. Slowly the painted horses began to move.
Mary Poppins, looking straight ahead of her, was borne past the children. The parrot's head of her umbrella nestled under her arm. Her neatly gloved hands were closed on the brass pole. And in front of her, on the horse's neck—
"Michael!" cried Jane, clutching his arm. "Do you see? She must have hidden it under the rug! Her Carpet-bag!"
Michael stared.
"Do you think—?" he began in a whisper.
&
nbsp; Jane nodded.
"But — she's wearing the locket! The chain hasn't broken! I distinctly saw it!"
Behind them the Twins began to whimper but Jane and Michael took no notice. They were gazing anxiously at the shining circle of horses.
The Merry-go-round was moving swiftly now, and soon the children could no longer tell which horse was which, nor distinguish Merry-Legs from Twinkle. Everything before them was a blaze of spinning light, except for the dark figure, neat and steady, that ever and again approached them and sped past and disappeared.
Wilder and wilder grew the drumming music. Faster and faster whirled the Merry-go-round. Again the dark shape rode towards them upon the dappled horse. And this time, as she came by, something bright and gleaming broke from her neck and came flying through the air to their feet.
Jane bent and picked it up. It was the gold locket, hanging loosely from its broken golden chain.
"It's true, then, it's true!" came Michael's bursting cry. "Oh, open it, Jane!"
With trembling fingers she pressed the catch and the locket flew open. The flickering light fell across the glass and they saw before them their own pictured faces, clustered about a figure with straight black hair, stern blue eyes, bright pink cheeks, and a nose turning upwards like the nose of a Dutch doll.
"Jane, Michael, John, Barbara and Annabel Banks,
and
Mary Poppins."
read Jane from the little scroll beneath the picture.
"So that's what was in it!" said Michael, miserably, as Jane shut the locket and put it in her pocket. He knew there was no hope now.
They turned again to the Merry-go-round, dazzled and giddy in the spinning light. For by now the horses were flying more swiftly than ever and the pealing music was louder than before.
And then a strange thing happened. With a great blast of trumpets, the whole Merry-go-round rose, spinning, from the ground. Round and round, rising ever higher, the coloured horses wheeled and raced with Caramel and Mary Poppins at their head. And the swinging circle of light went lifting among the trees, turning the leaves to gold as the light fell upon them.
"She's going!" said Michael.
"Oh, Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins! Come back, come back!" they cried, lifting their arms towards her.
Mary Poppins Comes Back mp-2 Page 17
