P. Travers: Mary Poppins in the Park

"Poor pigs!" they murmured mockingly. "Roast mutton with onion sauce!"

"You'll look pretty foolish," the swine retorted, "on an ornamental lake!"

But though they spoke harshly to each other, they could not help feeling, privately, that the Tramp had put them in a very tight corner.

Then an old goose gave a high-pitched giggle.

"What does it matter?" he cackled gaily. "Whatever we are within ourselves, at least we look like geese!"

"True!" agreed an elderly pig. "And we have the shape of swine!"

And at that, as though released from a burden, they all began to laugh. The field rang with their mingled cries and the larks looked down in wonder.

"What does it matter — cackle, cackle! What does it matter — ker-onk, ker-onk!"

"Hee-haw!" said the Ass, as he flung up his head and joined in the merry noise.

"Thinking about your fine oasis?" the Toad enquired sarcastically.

"Hee-haw! Hee-haw! I am indeed! What an ass I was, not to see it before. I've only just realised, Natterjack, that my oasis is not in the desert. Hee-haw! Hee-haw! It's under my hoof — here in this very field."

"Then you're not an Arab steed after all?" the Toad enquired, with a jeer.

"Ah," said the Ass, "I wouldn't say that. Butnow" — he glanced at the flying figure—"I'm content with my disguise!"

He snatched at a buttercup hungrily as though he had galloped a long distance through a leafless, sandy land.

The Toad looked up with a wondering eye.

"Could I be content with my disguise?" He pondered the question gravely. And as he did so a hazel nut fell from a branch above him. It hit his head and bounced off lightly, bobbing away on the stream.

"That would have stunned a frog," thought the Toad, "but I, in my horny coat, felt nothing." A gratified smile, very large and toothy, split his face in the middle. He thrust out his head and craned it upwards.

"Come on with your pebbles, boy!" he croaked. "I've got my armour on!"

But the Boy did not hear the puddocky challenge. He was leaning back against the bridge, watching the Tramp on his broad wings flying into the sunset. Not with surprise — perhaps he was not yet old enough to be surprised at things — but his eyes had a look of lively interest.

He watched and watched till the sky grew dusky and the first stars twinkled out. And when the little flying speck was no longer even a speck, he drew a long, contented sigh and turned again to the earth.

That he was Corambo, he did not doubt. He had never doubted it. But now he knew he was other things, as well as a one-eyed pirate. And far above all — he rejoiced at it — he was just a bare-foot boy. And, moreover, a boy who was feeling peckish and ready for his supper.

"Come on!" he called to the Toy Monkey. He tucked it comfortably under his arm, with its tail around his wrist. And the two of them kept each other warm as they wandered home together.

The long day fell away behind him to join his other days. All he could think of now was the night. He could sense already the warmth of the kitchen, the sizzling pancakes on the stove and his mother bending above them. Her face, framed in its ring of curls, would be ruddy and weary — like the sun. For, indeed, as he had many times told her, the sun has a mother's face.

And presently, there he was on the doorstep and there was she as he had pictured her. He leaned against her checked apron and broke off a piece of pancake.

"Well, what have you been doing?" she smiled.

"Nothing," he murmured contentedly.

For he knew — and perhaps she knew it too — that nothing is a useful word. It can mean exactly what you like — anything — everything….

The end of the story died away.

Mary Poppins sat still and silent.

Around her lay the motionless children, making never a sound. Her gaze, coming back from the far horizon, flickered across their quiet faces and over the head of the Park Keeper, as it nodded dreamily.

"Humph!" she remarked, with a haughty sniff. "I recount a chapter of history and you all fall fast asleep!"

"I'm not asleep," Jane reassured her. "I'm thinking about the story."

"I heard every word," said Michael, yawning.

The Park Keeper rocked, as if in a trance. "A Nexplorer in disguise," he murmured, "sittin' in the midnight sun and climbin' the North Pole!"

"Ouch!" cried Michael, starting up. "I felt a drop on my nose!"

"And I felt one on my chin," said Jane.

They rubbed their eyes and looked about them. The syrupy sun had disappeared and a cloud was creeping over the Park. Plop! Plop! Patter, patter! The big drops drummed on the leaves.

The Park Keeper opened his eyes and stared.

"It's rainin'!" he cried in astonishment. "And me with no umbrella!"

He glanced at the dangling shape on the bough and darted towards the parrot.

"Oh, no, you don't!" said Mary Poppins. Quick as a needle, she grasped the handle.

"I've a long way to go and me chest is bad and I oughtn't to wet me feet!" The Park Keeper gave her a pleading glance.

"Then you'd better not go to the North Pole!" She snapped the parrot umbrella open and gathered up Annabel. "The Equator — that's the place for you!" She turned away with a snort of contempt.

"Wake up, John and Barbara, please! Jane and Michael, take the rug and wrap it round yourselves and the Twins."

Raindrops bigger than sugar-plums were tumbling all about them. They drummed and thumped on the children's heads as they wrapped themselves in the rug.

"We're a parcel!" cried Michael excitedly. "Tie us up with string, Mary Poppins, and send us through the post!"

"Run!" she commanded, taking no notice. And away they hurried, stumbling and tumbling, over the rainy grass.

The dogs came barking along beside them and, forgetting their promise to Mary Poppins, shook themselves over her skirt.

"All that sun and all this rain! One after another! Who'd 'ave thought it?"

The Park Keeper shook his head in bewilderment. He could still hardly believe it.

"An explorer would!" snapped Mary Poppins. She gave her head a satisfied toss. "And so would I — so there!"

"Too big for your boots — that's what you are!" The Park Keeper's words were worse than they sounded. For he whispered them into his coat-collar in case she should overhear. But, even so, perhaps she guessed them, for she flung at him a smile of conceit and triumph as she hurried after the children.

Off she tripped through the streaming Park, picking her way among the puddles. Neat and trim as a fashion-plate she crossed Cherry Tree Lane and flitted up the garden path of Number Seventeen….

Jane emerged from the plaid bundle and patted her soaking hair.

"Oh, bother!" she said. "I've lost my feather."

"That settles it, then," said Michael calmly. "You can't be Minnehaha!"

He unwound himself and felt in his pocket. "Ah, here's my ant! I've got him safely!"

"Oh, I don't mean Minnehaha, really — but somebody," persisted Jane, "somebody else inside me. I know. I always have the feeling."

The black ant hurried across the table.

"I don't," Michael said, as he gazed at it. "I don't feel anything inside me but my dinner and Michael Banks."

But jane was thinking her own thoughts.

"And Mary Poppins," she went on. "She's somebody in disguise, too. Everybody is."

"Oh, no, she's not!" said Michael stoutly. "I'm absolutely certain!"

A light step sounded on the landing.

"Who's not what?" enquired a voice.

"You, Mary Poppins!" Michael cried. "Jane says you're somebody in disguise. And I say you aren't. You're nobody!"