Mary Poppins in the Park

CHAPTER TWO The Faithful Friends

Faster, please!" said Mary Poppins, tapping on the glass panel with the beak of her parrot-headed umbrella.

Jane and Michael had spent the morning at the Barber's shop, and the Dentist's, and because it was late, as a great treat, they were taking a taxi home.

The Taxi Man stared straight before him and gave his head a shake.

"If I go any faster," he shouted, "it'll make me late for me dinner."

"Why?" demanded Jane, through the window. It seemed such a silly thing to say. Surely, the quicker a Taxi Man drove the earlier he would arrive!

"Why?" echoed the Taxi Man, keeping his eye on the wheel. "A Naccident — that's why! If I go any faster, I'll run into something — and that'll be a Naccident. And a Naccident — it's plain enough! — will make me late for me dinner. Oh, dear!" he exclaimed, as he put on the brake. "Red again, I see!"

He turned and put his head through the window. His bulgy eyes and drooping whiskers made him look like a seal.

"There's always trouble at these 'ere signals!" He waved his hand at the stream of cars all waiting for the lights to change.

And now it was Michael who asked him why.

"Don't you know nothing?" the Taxi Man cried. "It's because of the chap on duty!"

He pointed to the signal-box, where a helmeted figure, with his head on his hand, was gazing into the distance.

"Absent-minded — that's what 'e is. Always staring and moping. And 'alf the time 'e forgets the lights. I've known them stay red for a whole morning. If it's goin' to be like that today I'll never get me dinner. You 'aven't got a sangwidge on you?" He looked at Michael, hopefully. "No? Nor yet a chocolate drop?" Jane smiled and shook her head.

The Taxi Man sighed despondently.

"Nobody thinks of nobody these days."

"I'm thinking of someone!" said Mary Poppins. And she looked so stern and disapproving that he turned away in dismay.

"They're green!" he cried, as he looked at the lights. And, huddling nervously over the wheel, he drove along Park Avenue as though pursued by wolves.

Bump! Bump! Rattle! Rattle! The three of them jolted and bounced on their seats.

"Sit up straight!" said Mary Poppins, sliding into a corner. "You are not a couple of Jack-in-the-boxes!"

"I know I'm not," said Michael, gasping. "But I feel like one and my bones are shaking—" He gulped quickly and bit his tongue and left the sentence unfinished. For the taxi had stopped with a frightful jerk and flung them all to the floor.

"Mary Poppins," said Jane in a muffled voice, "I think you're sitting on me!"

"My foot! My foot! It's caught in something!"

"I'll thank you, Michael," said Mary Poppins, "to take it out of my hat!"

She rose majestically from the floor, and seizing her parrot-headed umbrella sprang out on to the pavement.

"Well, you said to go faster," the Taxi Man muttered, as she thrust the fare into his hand. She glared at him in offended silence. And in order to escape that look he shrank himself down inside his collar so that nothing was left but his whiskers.

"Don't bother about a tip," he begged. "It's really been a p-p-pleasure."

"I had no intention of bothering!" She opened the gate of Number Seventeen with an angry flick of her hand.

The Taxi Man started up his engine and jerked away down the Lane. "She's upset me, that's what she's done!" he murmured. "If I do get home in time for me dinner I shan't be able to eat it!"

Mary Poppins tripped up the path, followed by Jane and Michael.

Mrs. Banks stood in the front hall, looking up at the stairs.

"Oh, do be careful, Robertson Ay!" she was saying anxiously. He was carrying a cardboard box and lurching slowly from stair to stair as though he were almost asleep.

"Never a moment's peace!" he muttered. "First it's one thing, then another. There!" He gave a sleepy heave, thrust the package into the nursery and fell in a snoring heap on the landing.

Jane dashed upstairs to look at the label.

"What's in it — a present?" shouted Michael.

The Twins, bursting with curiosity, were jumping up and down. And Annabel peered through her cot railings and banged her rattle loudly.

"Is this a nursery or a bear-pit?" Mary Poppins stepped over Robertson Ay as she hurried into the room.

"A bear-pit!" Michael longed to answer. But he caught her eye and refrained.

"Really!" Mrs. Banks protested, as she stumbled over Robertson Ay. "He chooses such inconvenient places! Oh, gently, children! Do be careful! That box belongs to Miss Andrew!"

Miss Andrew! Their faces fell.

"Then it isn't presents!" said Michael blankly. He gave the box a push.

"It's probably full of medicine bottles!" said Jane, in a bitter voice.

"It's not," insisted Mrs. Banks. "Miss Andrew has sent us all her treasures. And I thought, Mary Poppins" — she glanced at the stiff white shape beside her—"I thought, perhaps, you could keep them here!" She nodded towards the mantelpiece.

Mary Poppins regarded her in silence. If a pin had fallen you could have heard it.

"Am I an octopus?" she enquired, finding her voice at last.

"An octopus?" cried Mrs. Banks. Had she ever suggested such a thing? "Of course you're not, Mary Poppins."

"Exactly!" Mary Poppins retorted. "I have only one pair of hands."

Mrs. Banks nodded uneasily. She had never expected her to have more.

"And that one pair has enough to do without dusting anyone's treasures."

"But Mary Poppins, I never dreamed—" Mrs. Banks was getting more and more flustered. "Ellen is here to do the dusting. And it's only until Miss Andrew comes back — if, of course, she ever does. She behaved so strangely when she was here. Why are you giggling, Jane?"

But Jane only snickered and shook her head. She remembered that strange behaviour!

"Where has she gone to?" Michael asked.

"She seems to have had some sort of a shock — what are you laughing at, children? — and the doctor has ordered a long voyage, away to the South Seas. She says—" Mrs. Banks fished into her pocket and brought out a crumpled letter. "And while I am away," she read out,

"I shall leave my valuables with you. Be sure they are put in a safe place where nothing can happen to them. I shall expect, on my return, to find everything exactly as it is — nothing broken, nothing mended. Tell George to wear his overcoat. This weather is changeable."

"So you see, Mary Poppins," said Mrs. Banks, looking up with a flattering smile, "the nursery does seem the best place. Anything left in your charge is always perfectly safe!"

"There's safety and safety!" sniffed Mary Poppins. "And I hope I see further than my nose!" It was tilted upwards, as she spoke, even more than usual.

"Oh, I am sure you do!" murmured Mrs. Banks, wondering, for the hundredth time, why Mary Poppins — no matter what the situation — was always so pleased with herself.

"Well, now I think I must go and—" But without saying what she was going to do, she ran out of the nursery, jumped over Robertson Ay's legs and bustled away down the stairs.

"Allow me, Michael, if you please!" Mary Poppins seized his wrist, as he pulled the lid off the box. "Remember what curiosity did — it killed the cat, you know!"

Her quick hands darted among the papers, and briskly unwrapped a little bundle. Out came a bird with a chipped nose and a Chelsea china lamb.

"Funny sort of treasures," said Michael. "I could mend this bird with a piece of putty. But I mustn't — so Miss Andrew said. They're to stay exactly as they are."

"Nothing does that," said Mary Poppins, with a priggish look on her face.

"You do!" he insisted, gallantly.

She sniffed, and glanced at the nursery mirror. Her reflection gave a similar sort of sniff and glanced at Mary Poppins. Each of them, it was easy to see, highly approved of the other.

"I wonder why she kept this?" Jane took an old cracked tile from the box. The picture showed a boatload of people rowing towards an island.

"To remind her of her youth," said Michael.

"To give more trouble," snapped Mary Poppins, shaking the dust from another wrapping.

Back and forth the children ran, collecting and setting up the treasures — a cottage in a snowstorm, with Home Sweet Home on the glass globe; a pottery hen on a yellow nest; a red-and-white china clown; a winged horse of celluloid, prancing on its hind legs; a flower vase in the shape of a swan; a little red fox of carved wood; an egg-shaped piece of polished granite; a painted apple with a boy and a girl playing together inside it; and a roughly made, full-rigged ship in a jam-jar.

"I hope that's all," grumbled Michael. "The mantelpiece is crowded."

"Only one more," said Mary Poppins, as she drew out a knobbly bundle. A couple of china ornaments came forth from the paper wrapper. Her eyebrows went up as she looked at them and she gave a little shrug. Then she handed one each to Jane and Michael.

Weary of running back and forth, they set the ornaments hurriedly at either end of the mantelpiece. Then Jane looked at hers and blinked her eyes.

A china lion, with his paw on the chest of a china huntsman, was reclining beneath a banana tree which, of course, was also china. The man and the animal leaned together, smiling blissfully. Never, thought Jane, in all her life, had she seen two happier creatures.

"He reminds me of somebody!" she exclaimed, as she gazed at the smiling huntsman. Such a manly figure he looked, too, in his spruce blue jacket and black top-boots.

"Yes," agreed Michael. "Who can it be?"

He frowned as he tried to recall the name. Then he looked at his half of the china pair and gave a cry of dismay.

"Oh! Jane! What a pity! My lion has lost his huntsman!"

It was true. There stood another banana tree, there sat another painted lion. But in the other huntsman's place there was only a gap of roughened china. All that remained of his manly shape was one black shiny boot.

"Poor lion!" said Michael. "He looks so sad!"

And, indeed, there was no denying it. Jane's lion was wreathed in smiles, but his brother had such a dejected look that he seemed to be almost in tears.

"You'll be looking sad in a minute — unless you get ready for lunch!"

Mary Poppins' face was so like her voice that they ran to obey her without a word.

But they caught a glimpse, as they rushed away, of her starched white figure standing there, with its arms full of crumpled paper. She was gazing with a reflective smile at Miss Andrew's broken treasure — and it seemed to them that her lips moved.

Michael gave Jane a fleeting grin.

"I expect she's only saying 'Humph!'"

But Jane was not so sure….

"Let's go to the swings," suggested Michael, as they hurried across the Lane after lunch.

"Oh, no! The Lake. I'm tired of swinging."

"Neither swings nor lakes," said Mary Poppins. "We are taking the Long Walk!"

"Oh, Mary Poppins," grumbled Jane, "the Long Walk's far too long!"

"I can't walk all that way," said Michael. "I've eaten much too much."

The Long Walk stretched across the Park from the Lane to the Far Gate, linking the little countrified road to the busy streets they had travelled that morning. It was wide and straight and uncompromising — not like the narrow, curly paths that led to the Lake and the Playground. Trees and fountains bordered it, but it always seemed to Jane and Michael at least ten miles in length.

"The Long Walk — or the short walk home! Take your choice!" Mary Poppins warned them.

Michael was just about to say he would go home, when Jane ran on ahead.

"I'll race you," she cried, "to the first tree!"

Michael could never bear to be beaten. "That's not fair! You had a good start!" And off he dashed at her heels.

"Don't expect me to keep up with you! I am not a centipede!"

Mary Poppins sauntered along, enjoying the balmy air, and assuring herself that the balmy air was enjoying Mary Poppins. How could it do otherwise, she thought, when under her arm was the parrot-umbrella and over her wrist a new black handbag?

The perambulator creaked and groaned. In it, the Twins and Annabel, packed as close as birds in a nest, were playing with the blue duck.

"That's cheating, Michael!" grumbled Jane. For accidentally on purpose, he had pushed her aside and was running past.

From tree to tree they raced along, first one ahead and then the other, each of them trying to win. The Long Walk streamed away behind them and Mary Poppins and the perambulator were only specks in the distance.

"Next time you push me I'll give you a punch!" said Michael, red in the face.

"If you bump into me again I'll pull your hair, Michael!"

"Now, now!" the Park Keeper warned them sternly. "Observe the rules! No argle-bargling!"

He was meant to be sweeping up the twigs but, instead, he was chatting with the Policeman, who was leaning against a maple-tree, whiling away his time.

Jane and Michael stopped in their tracks. Their race, they were both surprised to find, had brought them right across the Park and near to the Far Gate.

The Park Keeper looked at them severely. "Always argufying!" he said. "I never did that when I was a boy. But then I was a Nonly child, just me and me poor old mother. I never 'ad nobody to play with. You two don't know when you're lucky!"

"Well, I dunno!" the Policeman said. "Depends on how you look at it. I had someone to play with, you might say, but it never did me any good!"

"Brothers or sisters?" Jane enquired, all her crossness vanishing. She liked the Policeman very much. And today he seemed to remind her of someone, but she couldn't think who it was.

"Brothers!" the Policeman informed her, without enthusiasm.

"Older or younger?" Michael asked. Where, he wondered to himself, had he seen another face like that?

"Same age," replied the Policeman flatly.

"Then you must have been twins, like John and Barbara!"

"I was triplets," the Policeman said.

"How lovely!" cried Jane, with a sigh of envy.

"Well, it wasn't so lovely, not to my mind. The opposite, I'd say. 'Egbert,' my mother was always asking, 'why don't you play with Herbert and Albert?' But it wasn't me — it was them that wouldn't. All they wanted was to go to the Zoo, and when they came back they'd be animals — tigers tearing about the house and letting on it was Timbuctoo or around the Gobi Desert. I never wanted to be a tiger. I liked playing bus-conductors and keeping things neat and tidy."

"Like er!" The Park Keeper waved to a distant fountain where Mary Poppins was leaning over to admire the set of her hat.

"Like her," agreed the Policeman, nodding. "Or," he said, grinning, "that nice Miss Ellen."

"Ellen's not neat," protested Michael. "Her hair straggles and her feet are too big."

"And when they grew up," demanded Jane, "what did Herbert and Albert do?" She liked to hear the end of a story.

"Do?" said the Policeman, very surprised. "What one triplet does, the others do. They joined the police, of course!"

"But I thought you were all so different!"

"We were and we are!" the Policeman argued. "Seeing as how I stayed in London and they went off to distant lands. Wanted to be near the jungle, they said, and mix with giraffes and leopards. One of 'em — Herbert — he never came back. Just sent a note saying not to worry. 'I'm happy,' he said, 'and I feel at home!' And after that, never a word — not even a card at Christmas."

"And what about Albert?" the children prompted.

"Ah — Albert — yes! He did come back. After he met with his accident."

"What accident?" they wanted to know. They were burning with curiosity.

"Lorst his foot," the Policeman answered. "Wouldn't say how, or why or where. Just got himself a wooden one and never smiled again. Now he works on the traffic signals. Sits in his box and pines away. And sometimes—" The Policeman lowered his voice. "Sometimes he forgets the lights. Leaves them at red for a whole day till London's at a standstill!"

Michael gave an excited skip. "He must be the one we passed this morning, in the box by the Far Gate!"

"That's him all right!" The Policeman nodded.

"But what is he pining for?" asked Jane. She wanted every detail.

"For the jungle, he keeps on telling me. He says he's got a friend there!"

"A funny place to 'ave a friend!" The Park Keeper glanced around the Park to see that all was in order.

"T'chah!" he exclaimed disgustedly. "That's Wil-lerby up to 'is tricks again! Look at 'im sittin' up there on the wall! Come down out of that! Remember the bye-laws! No dogs allowed on the Park Wall. I shall 'ave to speak to Miss Lark," he muttered, "feedin 'im all that dainty food! 'E's twice the size he was yesterday!"

"That's not Willoughby!" said Michael. "It's a much, much larger dog."

"It isn't a dog at all!" cried Jane. "It's a—"

"Lumme! You're right!" The Policeman stared. "It's not a dog — it's a lion!"

"Oh, what shall I do?" wailed the Park Keeper. "Nothing like this ever 'appened before, not even when I was a boy!"

"Go and get someone from the Zoo — it must have escaped from there! Here, you two—" the Policeman cried. He caught the children and swung them up to the top of a near-by fountain. "You stay there while I head him off!"

"Observe the rules!" shrieked the Park Keeper. "No lions allowed in the Park!" He gave one look at the tawny shape and ran in the opposite direction.

The Lion swung his head about, glancing along Cherry Tree Lane and then across the lawns. Then he leapt from the wall with a swift movement and made for the Long Walk. His curly mane blew out in the breeze like a large lacy collar.

"Take care!" cried Jane to the Policeman, as he darted forward with arms outspread. It would be sad indeed, she felt, if that manly figure were gobbled up.

"Gurrrr!" the Policeman shouted fiercely.

His voice was so loud and full of warning that everyone in the Park was startled.

Miss Lark, who was knitting by the Lake, came hurrying to the Long Walk with her dogs in close attendance.

"Such a commotion!" she twittered shrilly. "Whatever is the matter? Oh!" she cried, running round in a circle. "What shall I do? It's a wild beast! Send for the Prime Minister!"

"Get up a tree!" the Policeman yelled, shaking his fist at the Lion.

"Which tree? Oh, how undignified!"

"That one!" screamed Michael, waving his hand.

Gulping and panting, Miss Lark climbed up, her hair catching in every twig and her knitting wool winding around her legs.

"Andrew and Willoughby, come up, please!" she called down, anxiously. But the dogs were not going to lose their heads. They composed themselves at the foot of the tree and waited to see what would happen.

By this time everyone in the Park had become aware of the Lion. Terrified shouts rang through the air as people swung themselves into the branches or hid behind seats or statues.

"Call out the Firemen!" they all cried. "Tell the Lord Mayor! Send for a rope!"

But the Lion noticed none of them. He crossed the lawn in enormous leaps, making direct for the blue serge shape of the Officer of the Law.

"Gurrrr, I said!" the Policeman roared, taking out his baton.

The Lion merely tossed his head and flung himself into a crouching position. A ripple ran through all his muscles as he made ready to spring.

"Oh, save him, somebody!" cried Jane, with an anxious glance at the manly figure.

"Help!" screamed a voice from every tree.

"Prime Minister!" cried Miss Lark again.

And then the Lion sprang. He sped like an arrow through the air and landed beside the big black boots.

"Be off, I say!" the Policeman shouted, in a last protesting cry.

But as he spoke a strange thing happened. The Lion rolled over on his back and waved his legs in the air.

"Just like a kitten," whispered Michael. But he held Jane's hand a little tighter.

"Away with you!" the Policeman bellowed, waving his baton again.

But as though the words were as sweet as music, the Lion put out a long red tongue and licked the Policeman's boots.

"Stop it, I tell you! Get along off!"

But the Lion only wagged its tail and, springing up on its hind legs, it clasped the blue serge jacket.

"Help! Oh, help!" the Policeman gasped.

"Coming!" croaked a hoarse voice, as the Park Keeper crawled to the edge of the Walk with an empty litter-basket over his head.

Beside him crept a small thin man with a butterfly net in his hand.

"I brought the Keeper of the Zoological Gardens!" the Park Keeper hissed at the Policeman. "Go on!" he urged the little man. "It's your property — take it away!"

The Keeper of the Zoological Gardens darted behind a fountain. He took a careful look at the Lion as it hugged the dark blue waist.

"Not one of ours!" He shook his head. "It's far too red and curly. Seems to know you!" he called to the Policeman. "What are you — a lion tamer?"

"Never saw him before in my life!" The head in the helmet turned aside.

The Lion… clasped the blue serge jacket

"Oh, wurra! wurra!" the Lion growled, in a voice that held a note of reproach.

"Will nobody send for the Prime Minister?" Miss Lark's voice shrilled from her maple bough.

"I have been sent for, my dear madam!" a voice observed from the next tree. An elderly gentleman in striped trousers was scrambling into the branches.

"Then do something!" ordered Miss Lark, in a frenzy.

"Shoo!" said the Prime Minister earnestly, waving his hat at the Lion.

But the Lion bared its teeth in a grin as it hugged the Policeman closer.

"Now, what's the trouble? Who sent for me?" cried a loud impatient voice.

The Lord Mayor hurried along the Walk with his Aldermen at his heels.

"Good gracious! What are you doing, Smith?" He stared in disgust at the Park Keeper. "Come out of that basket and stand up straight! It is there to be used for litter, Smith, and not some foolish game."

"I'm usin' it for armour, your Worship! There's a lion in the Park!"

"A lion, Smith? What nonsense you talk! The lions are in the Zoo!"

"A lion?" echoed the Aldermen. "Ha, ha! What a silly story!"

"It's true!" yelled Jane and Michael at once. "Look out! He's just behind you!"

The three portly figures turned, and their faces grew pale as marble.

The Lord Mayor waved a feeble hand at the trembling Aldermen.

"Get me water! Wine! Hot milk!" he moaned.

But for once the Aldermen disobeyed. Hot milk, indeed! they seemed to say as they dragged him to the Prime Minister's tree and pushed him into the branches.

"Police! Police!" the Lord Mayor cried, catching hold of a bough.

"I'm here, your Honour!" the Policeman panted, pushing away a tawny paw.

But the Lion took this for a mark of affection.

"Gurrrrumph!" he said in a husky voice, as he clasped the Policeman tighter.

"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" Miss Lark wailed. "Has nobody got a gun?"

"A dagger! A sword! A crowbar!" cried the voices from every tree.

The Park was ringing with shouts and screams. The Park Keeper rattled his stick on the litter-basket. "Yoo-hoo!" cried the Keeper of the Zoological Gardens to distract the Lion's attention. The Lion was growling. The Policeman was yelling. The Lord Mayor and the Aldermen were still crying "Police!"

Then suddenly a silence fell. And a neat, trim figure appeared on the path. Straight on she came, as a ship into port, with the perambulator wheeling before her and the tulip standing up stiff on her hat.

Creak went the wheels.

Tap went her shoes.

And the watching faces grew pale with horror as she tripped towards the Lion.

"Go back, Mary Poppins!" screamed Miss Lark, breaking the awful silence. "Save yourself and the little ones! There's a wild beast down on the path!"

Mary Poppins looked up at Miss Lark's face as it hung like a fruit among the leaves.

"Go back? When I've only just come out?" She smiled a superior smile.

"Away! Away!" The Prime Minister warned her. "Take care of those children, woman!"

Mary Poppins gave him a glance so icy that he felt himself freeze to the bough.

"I am taking care of these children, thank you. And as for the wild beasts—" She gave a sniff. "They seem to be all in the trees!"

"It's a lion, Mary Poppins, look!" Michael pointed a trembling finger — and she turned and beheld the two locked figures.

The Policeman now was ducking sideways to prevent the Lion licking his cheek. His helmet was off and his face was pale, but he still had a plucky look in his eye.

"I might have known it!" said Mary Poppins, as she stared at the curious pair. "Rover!" she called in exasperation. "What do you think you're doing?"

From under his lacy, flopping mane the Lion pricked up an ear.

"Rover!" she called again. "Down, I say!"

The Lion gave one look at her and dropped with a thud to the ground. Then he gave a little throaty growl and bounded away towards her.

"Oh, the Twins! He'll eat them! Help!" cried Jane.

But the Lion hardly looked at the Twins. He was fawning at Mary Poppins. He rolled his eyes and wagged his tail and arched himself against her skirt. Then away he rushed to the Policeman, seized the blue trousers between his teeth and tugged them towards the perambulator.

"Don't be so silly!" said Mary Poppins. "Do as I tell you! Let him go! You've got the wrong one."

The Lion loosed the trouser-leg and rolled his eyes in surprise.

"Do you mean," the Prime Minister called from his bough, "he's to eat another Policeman?"

Mary Poppins made no reply. Instead, she fished inside her handbag and brought out a silver whistle. Then, setting it daintily to her lips, she puffed out her cheeks and blew.

"Why—I could have blown my whistle" — the Policeman stared at the silver shape—"if only I'd thought of it."

She turned upon him a look of scorn. "The trouble with you is that you don't think. Neither do you!" she snapped at the Lion.

He hung his head between his paws and looked very hurt and foolish.

"You don't listen, either," she added severely. "In at one ear and out of the next. There was no need to make such a foolish mistake."

The Lion's tail crept between his legs.

"You're careless, thoughtless and inattentive. You ought to be thoroughly ashamed of yourself."

The Lion gave a humble snuffle as though he agreed with her.

"Who whistled?" called a voice from the Gate. "Who summoned an Officer of the Law?"

Along the Walk came another policeman, limping unevenly. His face had a melancholy look, as though he possessed a secret sorrow.

"I can't stay long whatever it is," he said, as he reached the group. "I left the lights when I heard the whistle and I must get back to them. Why, Egbert!" he said to the First Policeman, "what's the matter with you?"

"Oh, nothing to complain of, Albert! I've just been attacked by a lion!"

"Lion?" The sad face grew a shade more cheerful as the Second Policeman glanced about him. "Oh, what a beauty!" he exclaimed, limping towards the tawny shape at Mary Poppins' side.

Jane turned to whisper in Michael's ear.

"He must be the Policeman's brother — the one with the wooden foot!"

"Nice lion! Pretty lion!" said the Second Policeman softly.

And the Lion, at the sound of his voice, leapt to his feet with a roar.

"Now gently, gently! Be a good lion. He's an elegant fellow, so he is!" the Second Policeman crooned.

Then he put back the mane from the Lion's brow and met the golden eyes. A shudder of joy ran through his frame.

"Rover! My dear old friend! It's you!" He flung out his arms with a loving gesture and the Lion rushed into them.

"Oh, Rover! After all these years!" the Second Policeman sobbed.

"Wurra, wurra!" the Lion growled, licking the tears away.

And for a whole minute it was nothing but Rover — Wurra, Rover — Wurra, while they hugged and kissed each other.

"But how did you get here? How did you find me?" demanded the Second Policeman.

"Woof! Burrrum!" replied the Lion, nodding towards the perambulator.

"No! You don't say! How very kind! We must always be grateful, Rover! And if I can do you a good turn, Miss Poppins—"

"Oh, get along, do — the pair of you!" said Mary Poppins snappily. For the Lion had rushed to lick her hand and darted back to his friend.

"Woof? Wurra-woof?" he said in a growl.

"Will I come with you? What do you think? As if I could ever leave you again!" And flinging his arm round the Lion's shoulders, the Second Policeman turned.

"Hey!" cried the First Policeman sternly. "Where are you going to, may I ask? And where are you taking that animal?"

"He's taking me!" cried the Second Policeman. "And we're going where we belong!" His gloomy face had quite changed. It was now rosy and gay.

"But what about the traffic lights? Who's going to look after those?"

"They're all at green!" said the Second Policeman. "No more signals for me, Egbert! The traffic can do what it likes!"

He looked at the Lion and roared with laughter, and the two of them turned away. Over the lawns they sauntered, chatting — the Lion on its hind legs and the Policeman limping a little. When they came to the Lane Gate they paused for a moment and waved. Then through they went and shut it behind them, and the watchers saw them no more.

The Keeper of the Zoological Gardens gathered up his net.

"I hope they're not making for the Zoo. We haven't a cage to spare!"

"Well, as long as he's out of the public Park—" The Prime Minister clambered out of the tree.

"Haven't we met before?" he enquired, as he took off his hat to Mary Poppins. "I'm afraid I've forgotten where it was!"

"Up in the air! On a red balloon!" She bowed in a ladylike manner.

"Ah, yes! Hurrrmph!" He seemed rather embarrassed. "Well — I must be off and make some more laws!"

And, glancing round to make sure the Lion was not coming back, he made for the Far Gate.

"Constable!" cried the Lord Mayor, as he swung himself down from his branch. "You must go at once to the signal box and switch the lights to red. The traffic can do as it likes, indeed! Whoever heard of such a thing!"

The Policeman, mopping up his scratches, gallantly sprang to attention.

"Very good, Your Honour!" he said smartly, and marched away down the Walk.

"As for you, Smith, this is all your fault. Your duty is to look after the Park! But what do I find when I pass this way? Wild animals running all over it. You disappoint me again and again. I must mention it to the King."

The Park Keeper fell on his knees with a groan.

"Oh, please don't mention it, Your Honour! Think of me poor old mother!"

"You should have thought of her yourself before you let that lion in!"

"But I never let 'im in, Your Worship! It wasn't my fault 'e came over the wall. If anyone's to blame, it's—" The Park Keeper broke off nervously, but he looked in Mary Poppins' direction.

So did the Lord Mayor.

"Aha!" he exclaimed, with a gracious smile. "Charmed to meet you again, Miss — er—?"

"Poppins," said Mary Poppins politely.

"Poppins — ah, yes! A charming name! Now, if Smith were only you, Miss Poppins, these things would never occur!"

With a bow, the Lord Mayor turned away and billowed down the Walk. The two Aldermen also bowed, and billowed along behind him.

"That's all you know!" said the Park Keeper, as he watched them disappear. "If I was 'er — ha, ha, that's funny! — anything could happen!"

"If I were you, I'd straighten my tie," said Mary Poppins primly. "Get down from that fountain, Jane and Michael!" She glanced at their grimy knees and faces. "You look like a couple of Blackamoors!"

"We can't all be like you, you know!" the Park Keeper said sarcastically.

"No," she agreed. "And mores the pity!" She pushed the perambulator forward.

"But, Mary Poppins—" Michael burst out. He was longing to ask her about the Lion.

"Butting's for goats — not human beings! Best foot forward, please!"

"It's no use, Michael," whispered Jane. "You know she never explains."

But Michael was too excited to heed.

"Well, if I can't talk about the Lion, will you let me blow your whistle?"

"Certainly not!" She sauntered on.

"I wonder, Mary Poppins," he cried, "if you'll ever let me do anything!"

"I wonder!" she said, with a mocking smile.

Twilight was falling over the Park. People were scrambling out of the trees and hurrying home to safety.

From the Far Gate came a frightful din. And looking through it the children saw a motionless block of traffic. The lights were red, the horns were hooting and the drivers were shaking their fists.

The Policeman was calmly surveying the scene. He had been given an order and he was obeying it.

"Has your brother Albert gone for good?" cried Jane, as he waved to them.

"No idea," he replied calmly. "And it's no affair of mine!"

Then round the perambulator swung and they all went back by the Long Walk. The Twins and Annabel, weary of playing with the blue duck, let it drop over the side. Nobody noticed. Jane and Michael were far too busy thinking about the day's adventure. And Mary Poppins was far too busy thinking about Mary Poppins.

"I wonder where Albert's gone?" murmured Michael, as he strolled along beside her.

"How should I know?" she answered, shrugging.

"I thought you knew everything!" he retorted. "I meant it politely, Mary Poppins!"

Her face, which was just about to be fierce, took on a conceited expression.

"Maybe I do," she said smugly, as she hurried them across the Lane and in through the front gate….

"Oh, Ellen!" Mrs. Banks was saying, as they all came into the hall. "Would you dust the mantelpiece while you're there? Well, darlings?" She greeted the children gaily.

Ellen, half-way up the stairs, replied with a loud sneeze. "A-tishoo!" She had Hay Fever. She was carrying mugs of milk on a tray and they rattled each time she sneezed.

"Oh, go on, Ellen! You're so slow!" said Michael impatiently.

"You hard-hearted — a-tishoo!" she cried, as she dumped the tray on the nursery table.

Helter-skelter they all ran in, as Ellen took a cloth from her pocket and began to dust Miss Andrew's treasures.

"Rock cakes for supper! I'll have the biggest!" cried Michael greedily.

Mary Poppins was buttoning on her apron. "Michael Banks—" she began in a warning voice. But the sentence was never finished.

"Oh, help!" A wild scream rent the air and Ellen fell backwards against the table.

Bang! went the milk mugs on to the floor.

"It's him!" shrieked Ellen. "Oh, what shall I do?" She stood in a running stream of milk and pointed to the mantelpiece.

"What's him? Who's him?" cried Jane and Michael. "Whatever's the matter, Ellen?"

"There! Under that banana bush! His very self! A-tishoo!"

She was pointing straight at Miss Andrew's huntsman as he smiled in the arms of his Lion.

"Why, of course!" cried Jane, as she looked at the huntsman. "He's exactly like Egbert — our Policeman!"

"The only one I ever loved, and now a wild beast's got him!"

Ellen flung out a frenzied arm and knocked the teapot over. "A-tishoo!" she sneezed, distractedly, as she hurried sobbing from the room and thundered down the stairs.

"What a silly she is!" said Michael, laughing. "As if he'd have turned into china! Besides, we saw him a moment ago, away by the Far Gate!"

"Yes, she's a silly," Jane agreed. "But he's very like the huntsman, Michael—" She smiled at the smiling china face. "And both such manly figures…"

"Well, Constable?" said Mr. Banks, as he came up the garden path that evening. He wondered if he had broken a bye-law when he saw the policeman at the door.

"It's about the duck!" The Policeman smiled.

"We don't keep ducks," said Mr. Banks. "Good heavens! What have you done to your face?"

The Policeman patted his bruised cheek. "Just a scratch," he murmured modestly. "But now, that there blue duck—"

"Whoever heard of a blue duck? Go and ask Admiral Boom!"

The Policeman gave a patient sigh and handed over a dingy object.

"Oh, that thing!" Mr. Banks exclaimed. "I suppose the children dropped it!" He stuffed the blue duck into his pocket and opened the front door.

It was at this moment that Ellen, her face hidden in her duster, hurled herself down the front stairs and straight into his arms.

"A-tishoo!" She sneezed so violently that Mr, Banks' bowler hat fell off.

"Why, Ellen! What on earth's the matter?" Mr. Banks staggered beneath her weight.

"He's gone right into that bit of china!" Her shoulders heaved as she sobbed out the news.

"You're going to China?" said Mr. Banks. "Well, don't be so depressed about it! My dear," he remarked to Mrs. Banks, who was hurrying up the kitchen stairs. "Ellen is feeling upset, she says, because she is going to China!"

"China?" cried Mrs. Banks, raising her eyebrows.

"No! It's him that's gorn!" insisted Ellen. "Under a banana in the African jungle!"

"Africa!" Mr. Banks exclaimed, catching only a word here and there. "I made a mistake," he said to Mrs. Banks. "She's going to Africa!"

Mrs. Banks seemed quite stupefied.

"I'm not! I'm not!" shrieked Ellen wildly.

"Well, wherever you're going, do make up your mind!" Mr. Banks thrust her towards a chair.

"Allow me, sir!" the Policeman murmured, stepping into the hall.

Ellen looked up at the sound of his voice and gave a strangled sob.

"Egbert. But I thought you were up on the mantelpiece — and a wild beast going to eat you!" She flung out her arm towards the nursery.

"Mantelpiece?" Mr. Banks exclaimed.

"A wild beast?" murmured Mrs. Banks. Could they — they wondered — believe their ears?

"Leave it to me," the Policeman said. "I'll take her a turn along the path. Perhaps it will clear her head."

He heaved Ellen out of the chair and led her, still gaping, through the door.

Mr. Banks mopped his beaded brow. "Neither China, nor Africa," he murmured. "Merely to the front gate with the Policeman. I never knew that his name was Egbert! Well, I'll just go and say goodnight to the children…. All 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!"