Mary Poppins in the Park

well, Mary Poppins?' he asked gaily, as he sauntered into the nursery.

She gave a conceited toss of her head. Could all be anything but well while she was about the house?

Mr. Banks glanced contentedly at the roomful of rosy children. Then his eye fell on the mantelpiece and he gave a start of surprise.

'Hullo!' he exclaimed. 'Where did those things come from?'

'Miss Andrew!' all the children answered.

'Quick — let me escape!' Mr. Banks turned pale. 'Tell her I've run away! Gone to the moon!'

'She's not here, Daddy,' they reassured him. 'She's far away in the South Seas. And these are all her treasures.'

'Well, I hope she stays there — right at the bottom! Her treasures, you say! Well this one isn't!' Mr. Banks marched to the mantelpiece and picked up the celulloid horse. 'I won him myself at an Easter Fair when I was a little boy. Ah, there's my friend, the soapstone bird! A thousand years old, she said it was. And, look, I made that little ship. Aren't you proud of your father?'

Mr. Banks smiled at his cleverness as he glanced along the mantelpiece.

'I feel like a boy again,' he said. 'These things all come from my old schoolroom. That hen used to warm my breakfast egg. And the fox and the clown and Home Sweet Home—how well I remember them! And there — bless their hearts! — are the Lion and Huntsman. I always called them the Faithful Friends. Used to be a pair of these fellows, but they weren't complete, I remember. The second huntsman was broken off, nothing left of him but his boot. Ah! There's the other — the broken one. Good gracious!' He gave a start of surprise. 'Both the huntsmen are here!'

They looked at the broken ornament and blinked with astonishment.

For there, where the blank white gap had been, was a second smiling figure. Beneath the banana tree he sat, leaning — like his unbroken brother — against a shaggy shape. A paw lay lovingly on his breast and his lion — only this morning so sad and tearful — was now showing all his teeth in a grin.

The two ornaments were exactly alike — the two trees bore the same fruit, the two lions were equally happy and the two huntsmen smiled. Exactly alike — but for one exception. For the second huntsman had a crack in his leg just above his boot — the sort of crack you always find when two pieces of broken china are carefully fitted together.

A smile swept over Jane's face as she realised what had happened. She gently touched the crack with her fingers.

'It's Albert, Michael! Albert and Rover! And the other' — she touched the unbroken pair—'the other must be Herbert!'

Michael's head nodded backwards and forwards like the head of a mandarin.

The questions rose in them like bubbles and they turned to Mary Poppins.

But just as the words leapt to their tongues she silenced them with a look.

'Extraordinary thing,' Mr. Banks was saying. 'I could have sworn one figure was missing. It just goes to show — I'm getting older. Losing my memory, I'm afraid. Well, what are you two so amused about?'

'Nothing!' they gurgled, as they flung back their heads and burst into peals of laughter. How could they assure him that his memory was as good as ever it was? How explain the afternoon's adventure, or tell him that they knew now where the Second Policeman had gone? Some things there are that are past telling. And it's no use trying — as they knew very well — to say what cannot be said.

'It's a long time,' grumbled Mr. Banks, 'since I could laugh at nothing!'

But he looked quite cheerful as he kissed them and went downstairs to dinner.

'Let's put them side by side,' said Jane, setting the little cracked huntsman next to his crackless brother. 'Now they're both at home!'

Michael looked up at the mantelpiece and gave a contented chuckle.

'But what will Miss Andrew say, I wonder? Everything was to be kept safe — nothing broken, nothing mended. You don't think she'll separate them, Jane?'

'Just let her try!' said a voice behind them. 'Safe she said they were to be, and safe they are going to stay!'

Mary Poppins was standing on the hearthrug with the teapot in her hand. And her manner was so belligerent that for half a second Jane and Michael felt sorry for Miss Andrew.

She looked from them to the mantelpiece, glancing from their living faces to the smiling china figures.

'One and one makes two,' she declared. 'And two halves make a whole. And Faithful Friends should be together, never kept apart. But, of course, if you don't approve, Michael—' for his face had assumed a thoughtful expression. 'If you think they'd be safer somewhere else — If you'd like to go to the South Seas and ask Miss Andrew's permission—'

'You know I approve, Mary Poppins!' he cried. 'And I don't want to go to the South Seas. I was only thinking—' He hesitated. 'Well — if you hadn't been there, Mary Poppins, do you think they'd have found each other?'

She stood there like a pillar of starch. He was almost sorry he had spoken, she looked so stern and priggish.

'Ifs and whys and buts and hows — you want too much,' she said. But her blue eyes gave a sudden sparkle, and a pleased smile — very like those on the huntsmen's face — trembled about her lips.

At the sight of it Michael forgot his question. Only that sparkle mattered.

'Oh, be my lion, Mary Poppins! Put your paw around me!'

'And me!' cried Jane as she turned to join them.

Her arms came lightly across their shoulders as she drew them close to the starched apron. And there they were, the three of them, embracing under the nursery lamplight as though beneath a banana tree.

With a little push, Michael spun them round. And again a push. And again a spin. And soon they were all revolving gently in the middle of the room.

'Michael,' said Mary Poppins severely, 'I am not a merry-go-round!'

But he only laughed and hugged her tighter.

'The Faithful Friends are together,' he cried. 'All the Faithful Friends!'

CHAPTER THREE Lucky Thursday

It's dod fair!' grumbled Michael.

He pressed his nose to the window-pane and sniffed a tear away. And, as if to taunt him, a gust of rain rattled against the glass.

All day the storm had raged. And Michael, because he had a cold, was not allowed to go out. Jane and the Twins had put on gum-boots and gone to play in the Park. Even Annabel, wrapped in a mackintosh, had sailed off under the parrot umbrella, looking as proud as a queen.

Oh, how lonely Michael felt! It was Ellen's Day Out. His mother had gone shopping. Mrs. Brill was down in the kitchen. And Robertson Ay, up in the attic, was asleep in a cabin trunk.

'Get up and play in your dressing-gown. But don't put a toe outside the nursery!' Mary Poppins had warned him.

So there he was, all by himself, with nothing to do but grumble. He built a castle with his blocks, but it tumbled down when he blew his nose. He tried cutting his hair with his penknife, but the blade was far too blunt. And at last there was nothing left to do but breathe on the rainy window-pane and draw a picture there.

The nursery clock ticked the day away. The weather grew wetter and Michael grew crosser.

But then, at sunset, the clouds lifted and a line of crimson shone from the West. Everything glittered in rain and sun. Rat-tat-tat — on the black umbrellas, the cherry-trees dropped their weight of water. The shouts of Jane and John and Barbara floated up to the window. They were playing leapfrog over the gutters on their way home