Mary Poppins Comes Back

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.

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.