Mary Poppins in the Park Read Online Free PDF Page B

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