Mary Poppins Comes Back

'I don't remember seeing this house before!' exclaimed Jane, her eyes wide with surprise.

'It's more like an Ark than a house,' said Michael, staring.

The house stood solidly in the snow, moored by a thick rope to the trunk of a tree. Round it, like a verandah, ran a long narrow deck and its high peaked roof was painted bright scarlet. But the most curious thing about it was that though it had several windows there was not a single door.

'Where are we?' said Jane, full of curiosity and excitement.

Mary Poppins made no reply. She led the way along the deck and stopped in front of a notice that said,

'KNOCK THREE AND A HALF TIMES'

'What is half a knock?' whispered Michael to Jane.

'Sh!' she said, nodding towards Mary Poppins. And her nod said as clearly as if she had spoken—'We're on the brink of an Adventure. Don't spoil it by asking questions!'

Mary Poppins, seizing the knocker that hung above the notice, swung it upwards and knocked three times against the wall. Then, taking it daintily between the finger and thumb of her woolen glove, she gave the merest, tiniest, smallest, gentlest tap.

Like this.

RAP! RAP! RAP!… tap.

Immediately, as though it had been listening and waiting for that signal, the roof of the building flew back on its hinges.

'Goodness Graciousness!' Michael could not restrain the exclamation, for the wind of the roof, as it swung open, nearly lifted his hat off.

Mary Poppins walked to the end of the narrow deck and began to climb a small, steep ladder. At the top she turned, and looking very solemn and important, beckoned with a woolly finger.

'Step up, please!'

The four children hurried after her.

'Jump!' cried Mary Poppins, leaping down from the top of the ladder into the house. She turned and caught the Twins as they came tumbling over the edge with Jane and Michael after them. And as soon as they were all safely inside, the roof closed over again and shut with a little click.

They gazed round them. Four pairs of eyes popped with surprise.

'What a funny room!' exclaimed Jane.

But it was really more than funny. It was extraordinary. The only piece of furniture in it was a large counter that ran along one end of the room. The walls were white-washed, and leaning against them were piles of wood cut into the shape of trees and branches and all painted green. Small wooden sprays of leaves, newly painted and polished, were scattered about the floor. And several notices hung from the walls saying:

'MIND THE PAINT!'

or

'DON'T TOUCH!'

or

'KEEP OFF THE GRASS!'

But this was not all.

In one corner stood a flock of wooden sheep with the dye still wet on their fleeces. Crowded in another were small stiff groups of flowers — yellow aconites, green-and-white snow-drops and bright blue scyllas. All of them looked very shiny and sticky as though they had been newly varnished. So did the wooden birds and butterflies that were neatly piled in a third corner. So did the flat white wooden clouds that leant against the counter.

But the enormous jar that stood on a shelf at the end of the room was not painted. It was made of green glass and filled to the brim with hundreds of small flat shapes of every kind and colour.

'You're quite right, Jane,' said Michael staring. 'It is a funny room!'

'Funny!' said Mary Poppins, looking as though he had said something insulting.

'Well — peculiar.'

'PECULIAR?'

Michael hesitated. He could not find the right word.

'What I meant was—'

'I think it's a lovely room, Mary Poppins—' said Jane, hastily coming to the rescue.

'Yes it is,' said Michael, very relieved. 'And—' he added cleverly, 'I think you look very nice in that hat.'

He watched her carefully. Yes, her face was a little softer — there were even faint beginnings of a conceited smile around her mouth.

'Humph!' she remarked and turned towards the end of the room.

'Nellie-Rubina!' she called. 'Where are you? We've arrived!'

'Coming! Coming!'

The highest, thinnest voice they had ever heard seemed to rise up from beneath the counter. And, presently, from the same direction as the voice, a head, topped with a small flat hat, popped up. It was followed by a round, rather solid body that held in one hand a pot of red paint and in the other a plain wooden tulip.

Surely, surely, thought Jane and Michael, this was the strangest person they had ever seen.

From her face and size she seemed to be quite young but somehow she looked as though she were made, not of flesh, but of wood. Her stiff, shiny black hair seemed to have been carved on her head and then painted. Her eyes were like small black holes drilled in her face, and surely that bright pink patch on her shiny cheek was paint!

'Well, Miss Poppins!' said this curious person, her red lips glistening as she smiled. 'This is nice of you, I must say!' And putting down the paint and the tulip, she came round the counter and shook hands with Mary Poppins.

Then it was that the children noticed she had no legs at all! She was quite solid from the waist downwards and moved with a rolling motion by means of a round flat disc that was where her feet should have been.

'Not at all, Nellie-Rubina,' said Mary Poppins, with unusual politeness. 'It is a Pleasure and a Treat!'

'We've been expecting you, of course,' Nellie-Rubina went on, 'because we wanted you to help with the—' She broke off, for not only had Mary Poppins flashed her a warning look, but she had caught sight of the children.

'Oh,' she cried in her high friendly voice. 'You've brought Jane and Michael! And the Twins, too. What a surprise!' She bowled across and shook hands jerkily with them all.

'Do you know us, then?' said Michael, staring at her amazed.

'Oh, dear me, yes!' she trilled gaily. 'I've often heard my Father and Mother speak of you. Pleased to make your acquaintance.' She laughed, and insisted on shaking hands all round again.

'I thought, Nellie-Rubina,' said Mary Poppins, 'that maybe you could spare an ounce of Conversations.'

'Most certainly!' said Nellie-Rubina, smiling and rolling towards the counter. 'To do anything for you, Miss Poppins, is an Honour and a Joy!'

'But can you have conversation by the ounce?' said Jane.

'Yes, indeed. By the pound, too. Or the ton, if you like.' Nellie-Rubina broke off. She lifted her arms to the large jar on the shelf. They were just too short to reach it. 'Tch, tch, tch! Not long enough. I must have a bit added. In the meantime, I'll get my Uncle to lift them down. Uncle Dodger! Uncle Dod-GER!'

She screamed the last words through a door behind the counter and immediately an odd-looking person appeared.

He was as round as Nellie-Rubina, but much older and with a sadder sort of face. He, too, had a little flat hat on his head and his coat was tightly buttoned across a chest as woodeny as Nellie-Rubina's. And Jane and Michael could see, as his apron swung aside for a moment, that, like his niece, he was solid from the waist downwards. In