Mary Poppins in the Park

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.

Michael hopped excitedly. 'Was it a message, Mary Poppins?'

'That's as may be,' said Mary Poppins, turning up her nose to the sky.

'But we caught them!' Jane protested.

'C. caught it. G. got it,' she answered, with annoying calm.

'Will you show us when we get home?' screamed Michael, his voice floating away.

'Home is the sailor, home from the sea!' The Admiral took off his hat with a flourish. 'Au revoir, messmates and Miss Poppins! Up with the anchor, Pompey!'

'Ay, ay, sir!' Pompey seemed to be saying, as he galloped after his master.

Michael rummaged in his package.

'Mary Poppins, why didn't you wait? I wanted to give you a toffee-apple.'

'Time and tide wait for no man,' she answered priggishly.

He was just about to ask what time and tide had to do with toffee-apples, when he caught her disapproving look.

'A pair of Golliwogs — that's what you are! Just look at your hair! Sweets to the sweet,' she added conceitedly, as she took the sticky fruit he offered and nibbled it daintily.

'It's not our fault, it's the wind!' said Michael, tossing the hair from his brow.

'Well, the quicker you're into it the quicker you're out of it!' She thrust the perambulator forward under the groaning trees.

'Look out! Be careful! What are you doin'?'

A howl of protest rent the air as a figure, clutching his tie and his cap, lurched sideways in the dusk.

'Remember the bye-laws! Look where you're goin'! You can't knock over the Park Keeper.'

Mary Poppins gave him a haughty stare.

'I can if he's in my way,' she retorted. 'You'd no right to be there.'

'I've a right to be anywhere in the Park. It's in the Regulations.' He peered at her through the gathering dark and staggered back with a cry.

'Toffee-apples? And bags o' nuts? Then it must be 'Allowe'en! I might 'ave known it—' His voice shook. 'You don't get a wind like this for nothin'. O-o-ow!' He shuddered. 'It gives me the 'Orrors. I'll leave the Park to look after itself. This is no night to be out.'

'Why not?' Jane handed him a nut. 'What happens at Hallowe'en?'

The Park Keeper's eyes grew as round as plates. He glanced nervously over his shoulder and leant towards the children.

'Things,' he said in a hoarse whisper, 'come out and walk in the night. I don't know what they are quite — never 'avin' seen them — ghosts, perhaps, or h'apparitions. Anyway, it's spooky. Hey — what's that?' He clutched his stick. 'Look! There's one of them up there — a white thing in the trees!'

A light was gleaming among the branches, turning their black to silver. The wind had blown the clouds away and a great bright globe rode through the sky.

'It's only the moon!' Jane and Michael laughed. 'Don't you recognise it?'

'Ah—' The Park Keeper shook his head. 'It looks like the moon and it feels like the moon. And it may be the moon—but it may not. You never can tell on 'Allowe'en!'

And he turned up his coat-collar and hurried away, not daring to look behind him.

'Of course it's the moon,' said Michael stoutly. 'There's moonlight on the grass!'

Jane gazed at the blowing, shining scene.

'The bushes are dancing in the wind. Look! There's one coming towards us — a small bush and two larger ones. Oh, Mary Poppins, perhaps they're ghosts?' She clutched a fold of the blue coat. 'They're coming nearer, Mary Poppins! I'm sure they're apparitions!'