More about Mary Poppins / И снова о Мэри Поппинз. Памела Трэверс
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“Why, Mary, this is a treat!” she said, and she, too, rubbed noses all round. “You must be cold,” she said then, looking with surprise at their thin dresses. “Let me get you some fur coats. We’ve just been skinning a couple of Polar Bears. And you’d like some hot whale-blubber* soup, wouldn’t you, my dears?”
“I’m afraid we can’t stay,” Mary Poppins rejoined quickly. “We’re going round the world, and only looked in for a moment, thank you all the same. Another time, perhaps.”
And, making a little movement of her hand, she spun the compass and said “South!”
It seemed to Jane and Michael then as if the whole world, like the compass, were spinning round and that they were in the middle of the spin, as one is when the conductor, as a special treat, takes you inside the works of a Merry-go-Round.
As the world swung round them they felt themselves getting warmer and warmer, and when it slowed down again and became steady they found themselves standing beside a grove of palm-trees. The sun spread a cloak of warmth around them, and the sand was golden beneath their feet.
Under the palm-trees sat a man and a woman as black and shiny and plump as ripe plums, and wearing very few clothes. But to make up for this they wore a great many beads. Some hung round their foreheads below great crowns of feathers; others were looped about their ears; there were one or two in their noses. They had necklaces of coloured beads and belts of plaited beads round their waists. And on the knee of the dark lady sat a tiny plum-black baby with nothing on at all! It smiled at the children as its Mother spoke.
“We’ve been anticipating your visit, Mary Poppins,” she said, smiling. “Goodness, those are very pale children! Where did you find them? On the moon?” She laughed at them, loud happy laughter, as she got to her feet and began to lead the way to a little hut made of palm-leaves. “Come in, come in and share our dinner. You’re all as welcome as sunlight.”
Jane and Michael were about to follow, but Mary Poppins held them back.
“We’ve no time to stay, unfortunately. Just dropped in as we were passing, you know. We’ve got to get round the world,” she explained. And the black people flung up their hands in surprise.
“That’s some distance,* Mary Poppins,” said the man, his dark eyes looking doubtful as he rubbed his cheek with the end of the big club he was carrying.
“Round the world! That’s all the way from here to there! You’ll wear out your shoes,” his wife cried. She laughed again as if this, and everything else in the world, were one huge happy joke. And while she was laughing Mary Poppins moved the compass and cried in a loud, firm voice, “East!”
The world went spinning again and presently – it seemed to the astonished children only a few seconds – the palm-trees were no longer there, and when the spinning movement ceased they found themselves in a street lined with curiously shaped and very small houses. These appeared to be made of paper and the curved roofs were hung with little bells that rang gently in the breeze. Over the houses almond and plum trees spread branches weighted down with bright blossom, and along the little street people in strange flowery garments were quietly walking. It was a most pleasant and peaceful scene.
“I believe we’re in China,” whispered Jane to Michael. “Yes, I’m sure we are!” she went on, as they watched the door of one of the little paper houses opening and an old man stepping through it. He was curiously dressed, in a stiff brocade kimono of gold, and silken trousers gathered in with a golden ring at the ankles. His shoes turned up at the toes, very stylishly; from his head there hung a long grey pigtail that reached nearly to his knees, and from his lips drooped as far as his waist a very long moustache.
The old gentleman, seeing the little group formed by Mary Poppins and the children, bowed so low that his head touched the ground. Jane and Michael were surprised to see Mary Poppins bowing in the same way, till the daisies in her hat were brushing the earth.
“Where are your manners?*” hissed Mary Poppins, looking up at them from that unusual position. And she said it so fiercely that they thought they had better bow, too, and the Twins bent their foreheads against the edge of their perambulator.
The old man, rising ceremoniously, began to speak.
“Honourable Mary* of the House of Poppins,” he said. “Deign to shed upon my unworthy abode the light of your virtuous countenance. And, I beseech you, lead thither to its graceless hearth these other honourable travellers.” He made another bow and waved his hand towards his house.
Jane and Michael had never heard such strange and beautiful language and were very astonished. But much more so when Mary Poppins herself answered the invitation with equal ceremony.
“Gracious Sir,” she began, “it is with deep regret that we, the humblest of your acquaintances, must refuse your expansive and more-than-royal invitation. The lamb does not leave the ewe, nor the young bird its nest, more unwillingly than we depart from your shining presence. But, noble and ten-times-splendid Sir, we are in the act of encompassing the world and our visit to your honourable city can, alas, be but momentary. Permit us, there-fore, to remove our unworthy persons from you without further ceremony.”
The Mandarin, for such indeed he was, bent his head and was preparing another elaborate bow, when Mary Poppins very quickly moved the compass again.
“West!” she said firmly.
Round went the world till Jane and Michael were quite dizzy. And when it grew still again they found themselves hurrying with Mary Poppins through great pine woods towards a clearing where several tents were pitched round a huge fire. In and out of the firelight flickered dark figures crowned with feathers and wearing loose tunics and trousers of fringed doe-skin. One of the largest of these figures broke away from the rest and came hurrying towards Mary Poppins and the children.
“Morning-Star-Mary,*” he said. “Greeting!” And he bent over her and touched his forehead with hers. Then he turned to the four children and did the same to them.
“My wigwam awaits you,” he said in a grave, friendly voice. “We are just frying a reindeer for supper.”
“Chief Sun-at-Noonday*,” said Mary Poppins, “we have only dropped in – indeed, we have come, as it were, to say good-bye. We have been round the world and this is our last port of call*.”
“Ha?* Is that so?” said the Chief, looking very interested. “I have often thought of doing that myself. But surely you can spend a little time with us, if only so long as to let this young person” (he nodded at Michael) “try his strength against my great-great-great-grandson, Fleet-as-the-Wind*!” The Chief clapped his hands.
“Hi – ho – hee!” he called loudly, and from the tents a little Indian boy ran towards them. He came swiftly up to Michael and when he reached him he flicked him lightly on the shoulder.
“Touched you last!*” he said and ran like a hare.
That was too much for Michael. With a bound he was after him, with Jane on the heels of both. The three of them went dodging among the trees, circling one huge pine again and again as Fleet-as-the-Wind led them on, always laughing and always out of reach. Jane dropped behind, beaten, but Michael was angry now and set his teeth and fled screaming after Fleet-as-the-Wind, determined not to be outrun by an Indian boy.
“I’ll get you!” he cried, straining to run still faster.
“What are you doing?” enquired Mary Poppins, snappily.
Michael looked back at her and stopped suddenly in his tracks. Then he turned again to the chase, but to his surprise there was no sign of Fleet-as-the-Wind. Nor of the Chief, nor the tents, nor the fire. There was not even a pine-tree to be seen. Nothing but a garden seat, and Jane and the Twins and Mary Poppins standing in the middle of the Park.
“Running round and round that garden seat as if you’d gone mad! One’d think you’d been naughty enough for one day. Come along!” said Mary Poppins.
Michael pushed out his mouth sulkily.
“All