Mary Poppins Opens the Door (14 page)

"Take my advice and always ride. Walking will only make you grow. And where does it get you? Pretty near nowhere! Ride, I say! Ride—and see the world!"

"But we've nothing to ride on!" Jane protested, looking round to see what Miss Calico rode. For, in spite of the notice "Horses for Hire" there wasn't even a donkey in sight.

"Nothing to ride on? Snakes alive! That's a very unfortunate state of affairs!"

Miss Calico's voice had a mournful sound but her black eyes twinkled impishly as she glanced at Mary Poppins. She gave a little questioning nod and Mary Poppins nodded back.

"Well, it might have been worse!" cried Miss Calico, as she whipped up a handful of sticks. "If you can't have horses—what about these?
At
least they'll help you along a bit. I can let you have 'em for a pin apiece."

The scent of peppermint filled the air, The four lost tempers came creeping back as they searched their clothes for pins. They wriggled and giggled, and peeked and pried, but never a pin could they find.

"Oh, what shall we do, Mary Poppins?" cried Jane. "We haven't a pin between us!"

"I should hope not!" she replied, with a snort. "The children
I
care for are properly mended."

She gave a little disgusted sniff. Then turning back the lapel of her coat, she handed a pin to each of the children. Robertson Ay, who was dozing against the railings, woke up with a start as she handed him another.

"Stick 'em in!" shrieked Miss Calico, leaning towards them. "Don't mind if they prick. I'm too tough to feel 'em!"

They pushed their pins in among the others and her dress seemed to shine more brightly than ever as she handed out the sticks.

Laughing and shouting, they seized and waved them and the scent of peppermint grew stronger.

"I shan't mind walking now!" cried Michael, as he nibbled the end of his stick. A shrill little cry broke on the air, like a faint protesting neigh. But Michael was sampling the Peppermint Candy and was far too absorbed to hear it.

"I'm not going to eat mine," Jane said quickly. "I'm going to keep it always."

Miss Calico glanced at Mary Poppins and a curious look was exchanged between them.

"If you can!" said Miss Calico, cackling loudly. "You may keep 'em
all,
if you can—and welcome! Stick 'em in firmly, don't mind me!" She handed a stick to Robertson Ay as he stuck his pin in her sleeve.

"And now," said Mary Poppins politely, "if you'll excuse us, Miss Calico, we'll get along home to dinner!"

"Oh, wait, Mary Poppins!" protested Michael. "We haven't bought a stick for you!" An awful thought had come to him. What if she hadn't another pin? Would he have to share his stick with her?

"Humph!" she said, with a toss of her head. "
I'm
not afraid of breaking my legs, like some people I could mention!"

"Tee-hee! Ha-ha! Excuse me laughing! As if
she
needed a walking stick!"

Miss Calico gave a bird-like chirp, as though Michael had said something funny.

"Well, pleased to have met you!" said Mary Poppins, as she shook Miss Calico's hand.

"The Pleasure is mine, I assure you, Miss Poppins! Now, remember my warning! Always ride! Good-bye, good-bye!" Miss Calico trilled. She seemed to have quite forgotten the fact that none of them had any horses.

"Peppermint Candy! Bargain Prices! All of it made of the Finest Sugar!" they heard her shouting as they turned away.

"Got a Pin?" she enquired of a passer-by, a well-dressed gentleman wearing an eye-glass. He carried a brief-case under his arm. It was marked in gold letters

LORD CHANCELLOR
DISPATCHES

"Pin?" said the gentleman. "Certainly not! Where would
I
get such a thing as a Pin?"

"Nothing for nothing, that's the law! You can't get a stick if you've got no pin!"

"Take one o' mine, duck! I got plenty!" said a large fat woman who was tramping past. She hitched a basket under her arm and, plucking a handful of pins from her shawl, she offered them to the Lord Chancellor.

"One Pin Only! Bargain Prices! Never Pay Two when you're asked for One!" Miss Calico cried in her hen-like cackle. She gave the Lord Chancellor a stick and he hooked it over his arm and went on.

"You and your laws!" said the fat woman laughing, as she stuck a pin in Miss Calico's skirt. "Well, gimme a strong one, ducky, do! I'm hardly a Fairy Fay!" Miss Calico gave her a long, thick stick and she grasped the handle in her hand and leaned her weight against it.

"Feed the birds! Tlippence a bag! Thank you, my dear!" cried the fat woman gaily.

"Michael!" cried Jane, with a gasp of surprise, "I do believe it's the Bird Woman!"

But before he had a chance to reply, a very strange thing happened. As the fat woman leaned her weight on the stick it gave a little upward swing. Then, swooping under her spreading skirts, it heaved her into the air.

"Ups a daisy! 'Ere I go!" The Bird Woman seized the peppermint handle and wildly clutched her basket.

Off swept the walking stick over the pavement and up across the railings. A long, loud neighing filled the air and the children stared in amazement.

"Hold tightly!" Michael shouted anxiously.

"'Old tight yourself!" the Bird Woman answered, for his stick was already leaping beneath him.

"Hi, Jane! Mine's doing it, too!" he shrieked, as the stick bore him swiftly away.

"Be careful, Michael!" Jane called after him. But just at that moment her own stick wobbled and made a long plunge upwards. Away it swooped on the trail of Michael's, with Jane astride its pink-and-white back. Over the laurel hedge she rode and as she cleared the lilac bushes a crackling shape sped past her. It was Robertson Ay with his arms full of parcels. He was lying lengthways along his stick and dozing as he rode.

"I'll race you to the oak tree, Jane!" cried Michael, as she trotted up.

"Quietly, please! No horseplay, Michael! Put your hats straight and follow me!"

Mary Poppins, on her parrot umbrella, rode past them at a canter. Neatly and primly, as though she were in a rocking chair, she sat on the black silk folds. In her hand she held two leading strings attached to the Twins' pink sticks.

"All of 'em made of the Finest Sugar!" Miss Calico's voice came floating up as the earth fell away beneath them.

"She's selling hundreds of sticks!" cried Michael. For the sky was quickly filling with riders.

"There goes Aunt Flossie—over the dahlias!" cried Jane, as she pointed downwards. Below them rode a middle-aged lady. Her feather boa streamed out on the wind and her hat was blowing sideways.

"So it is!" said Michael, staring with interest. "And there's Miss Lark—with the dogs!"

Above the weeping-willow trees a neat little peppermint stick came trotting. On its back sat Miss Lark, looking rather nervous, and behind her rode the dogs. Willoughby, looking none the worse for the perambulator tyre, smiled rudely at the children. But Andrew kept his eyes tight shut as heights always made him giddy.

Ka-lop! Ka-lop! Ka-lop! Ka-lop! came the sound of galloping hooves.

"Help! Help! Murder! Earthquakes!" cried a hoarse, distracted voice.

The children turned to see Mr. Trimlet riding madly up behind them. His hands clung tightly to the Peppermint Candy and his face had turned quite white.

"I tried to eat my stick," he wailed, "and look what it did to me!"

"Bargain Prices! Only one Pin! You get what you give!" came Miss Calico's voice.

By this time the sky was like a race-course. The riders came from all directions; and it seemed to the children that everyone they knew had bought a peppermint horse. A man in a feathered hat rode by and they recognised him as one of the Aldermen. In the distance they caught a glimpse of the Matchman, as he trotted along on a bright pink stick. The Sweep raced past with his sooty brushes and the Ice Cream Man cantered up beside him, licking a Strawberry Bar.

"Out of the way! Make room! Make room!" cried a loud, important voice.

And they saw the Lord Chancellor dashing along at break-neck speed. He leaned low over the neck of his stick as though he were riding a Derby Winner. His eye-glass was firmly stuck in his eye and his brief-case bounced up and down as he rode.

"Important Dispatches!" they heard him shout. "I must get to the Palace in time for Lunch! Make room! Make room!" And away he galloped and soon was out of sight.

What a commotion there was in the Park! Everyone jostled everyone else. "Get up!" and "Whoa there!" the riders yelled. And the walking sticks snorted like angry horses.

"Keep to the Left! No overtaking!" the Park Keeper cried, as he cantered among them.

"No Parking!" he bawled. "Pedestrians Crossing! Speed Limit Twenty Miles an Hour!"

"Feed the Birds! Tuppence a Bag!" The Bird Woman trotted among the crowd. She moved through a tossing surge of wings—pigeons and starlings, blackbirds and sparrows. "Feed the Birds! Tuppence a Bag!" she cried as she tossed her nuts in the air.

"
Out of the wayl Make room! Make room!
"

The Park Keeper pulled up his stick and shouted.

"Why, Mother, wot are
you
doin' 'ere? You ought to be down at St. Paul's!"

"'Ullo, Fred, my boy! I'm feedin' the Birds! See you at Tea-time! Tuppence a Bag!"

The Park Keeper stared as she rode away.

"I never saw 'er do that before, not even when I was a boy! 'Ere! Whoa, there! Look where you're goin'!" he cried, as a bright pink walking stick streaked by.

On it rode Ellen and the Policeman who were off for their Afternoon Out.

"Oh! Oh!" shrieked Ellen. "I daren't look down! It makes me feel quite giddy!"

"Well, don't, then. Look at me instead!" said the Policeman, holding her round the waist as their stick galloped swiftly away.

On and on went the peppermint walking sticks and their pinkness shone in the morning sun. Over the trees they bore their riders, over the houses, over the clouds.

Down below them Miss Calico's voice grew fainter every moment.

"Peppermint Candy! Bargain Prices! All of them made of the Finest Sugar!"

And at last it seemed to Jane and Michael that the
voice was no longer Miss Calico's, but the faint shrill neigh of a little horse in a very distant meadow.

They threaded their way through the crowding riders, bouncing upon their peppermint sticks. The wind ran swiftly by their faces and the echo of hooves was in their ears. Oh, where were they riding? Home to dinner? Or out to the uttermost ends of the earth?

And ever before them, showing the way, went the figure of Mary Poppins. She sat her umbrella with elegant ease, her hands well down on its parrot head. The pigeon's wing flew at a perfect angle, not a fold of her dress was out of place. What she was thinking, they could not tell. But her mouth had a small self-satisfied smile as though she were thoroughly pleased with herself.

Cherry-Tree Lane grew nearer and nearer. The Admiral's telescope shone in the sun.

"Oh, I wish we need never go down!" cried Michael.

"I wish we could ride all day!" cried Jane.

"I wish to be home by One O'clock. Keep up with me, please!" said Mary Poppins. She pointed the beak of her parrot umbrella towards Number Seventeen.

They sighed, though they knew it was no good sighing. They patted the necks of their walking sticks and followed her downwards through the sky.

The garden lawn, like a bright green paddock, rose slowly up to meet them. Down to it raced the peppermint sticks, rearing and prancing like polo ponies. Robertson Ay was the first to land. His stick pulled up in the pansy bed and Robertson opened his eyes and blinked. He yawned and gathered his parcels together and staggered into the house.

Down past the Cherry-Trees trotted the children. Down, down, till the grasses grazed their feet, and the sticks stood still on the lawn.

At the same moment, the parrot-headed umbrella, its black silk folds like a pair of wings, swooped down among the flowers. Mary Poppins alighted with a ladylike jump. Then she gave the umbrella a little shake and tucked it under her arm. To look at that neat, respectable pair, you would never have guessed they had crossed the Park in such a curious fashion.