"Oh, I could learn
Until I'm pink.
But then I'd have
No time to think!"
"Or perhaps, Professor, you'd prefer—
"We won't go round
The World for then
We'd only come
Back Home again!"
The Chief Professor clapped his hands. "There's one more," said the King, "if you'd care to hear it."
"Please sing it, Sire!"
And the King cocked his head at the Fool and smiled wickedly and sang—
"Chief Professors
All should be
Drowned in early
Infancee!"
At the end of the song the Chief Professor gave a loud laugh and fell at the King's feet.
"Oh, King," he said, "live for ever! You have no need of me!"
And without another word he ran down the steps and took off his overcoat, coat and waistcoat. Then he flung himself down upon the grass and called for a plate of Strawberries-and-Cream and a large glass of Beer.
"Tch, tch, tch!" said the horrified Lord High Chancellor. For now all the courtiers were rushing down the steps and taking off their coats and rolling in the rainy grass.
"Strawberries and Beer! Strawberries and Beer!" they shouted thirstily.
"Give him the prize!" said the Chief Professor, sucking his beer through a straw, and nodding in the direction of the Fool.
"Pooh!" said the Fool. "I don't want it. What would I do with it?"
And he scrambled to his feet, put his knuckle-bones in his pocket and strolled off down the path.
"Hi, where are you going?" cried the King anxiously.
"Oh, anywhere, everywhere!" said the Fool airily, sauntering on down the path.
"Wait for me, wait for me!" called the King stumbling over his train as he hurried down the steps.
"Ethelbert! What are you doing? You forget yourself!" cried the Queen angrily.
"I do not, my dear!" The King called back. "On the contrary, I am remembering myself for the first time!"
He hurried down the path, caught up with the Fool, and embraced him.
"Ethelbert!" called the Queen again.
The King took no notice.
The rain had ceased but there was still a watery brightness in the air. And presently a rainbow streamed out of the sun and curved in a great arc down to the Castle path.
"I thought we might take this road," said the Fool, pointing.
"What? The rainbow? Is it solid enough? Will it hold us?"
"Try!"
The King looked at the rainbow and its shimmering stripes of violet, blue and green, and yellow and orange and red. Then he looked at the Fool.
"All right, I'm willing!" he said. "Come on!" He stepped up to the coloured path.
"It holds!" cried the King, delightedly. And he ran swiftly up the Rainbow, his train gathered in his hand.
"I'm the King of the Castle!" he sang triumphantly.
"And I'm the Dirty Rascal!" called the Fool, running after him.
"But — it's impossible!" said the Lord High Chancellor, gasping.
The Chief Professor laughed and swallowed another strawberry.
"How can anything that truly happens be impossible?" he enquired.
"But it is! It must be! It's against all the Laws!" The face of the Lord High Chancellor was purple with anger.
A cry burst from the Queen.
"Oh, Ethelbert, come back!" she implored. "I don't mind how foolish you are if you'll only come back!"
The King glanced down over his shoulder and shook his head. The Fool laughed loudly. Up and up they went together, steadily climbing the rainbow.
Something curved and shining fell at the Queen's feet. It was the bent sceptre. A moment later it was followed by the King's crown.
She stretched out her arms imploringly.
But the King's only answer was a song, sung in his high, quavering voice—
"Say good-bye, Love,
Never cry, Love,
You are wise
And so am I, Love!"
The Fool, with a contemptuous flick of his hand, tossed her down a knuckle-bone. Then he gave the King a little push, and urged him onwards. The King picked up his train and ran, and the Fool pounded at his heels. On and on they went up the bright, coloured path until a cloud passed between them and the earth and the watching Queen saw them no longer.
"You are wise,
And so am I, Love!"
The echo of the King's song came floating back. She heard the last thin thread of it after the King himself had disappeared.
"Tch, tch, TCH!" said the Lord High Chancellor. "Such things are simply NOT DONE!"
But the Queen sat down upon the empty throne and wept.
"Aie!" she cried softly, behind the screen of her hands. "My King is gone and I am very desolate and nothing will ever be the same again!"
Meanwhile, the King and the Fool had reached the top of the rainbow.
"What a climb!" said the King, sitting down and wrapping his cloak about him. "I think I shall sit here for a bit — perhaps for a long time. You go on!"
"You won't be lonely?" the Fool enquired.
"Oh, dear, no. Why should I be? It is very quiet and pleasant up here. And I can always think — or, better still, go to sleep." And as he said that he stretched himself out upon the rainbow with his cloak under his head.
The Fool bent down and kissed him.
"Good-bye, then, King," he said softly. "For you no longer have any need of me."
He left the King quietly sleeping and went whistling down the other side of the rainbow.
And from there he went wandering the world again, as he had done in the days before he met the King, singing and whistling and taking no thought for anything but the immediate moment.
Sometimes he took service with other Kings and high people, and sometimes he went among ordinary men living in small streets or lanes. Sometimes he would be wearing gorgeous livery and sometimes clothes as poor as any one ever stood up in. But no matter where he went he brought good fortune and great luck to the house that roofed him—
Mary Poppins ceased speaking. For a moment her hands lay still in her lap and her eyes gazed out un-seeingly across the Lake.
Then she sighed and gave her shoulders a little shake and stood up.
"Now then!" she said briskly, "Best Feet Forward! And off home!"
She turned to find Jane's eyes fixed steadily upon her.
"You'll know me next time, I hope!" she remarked tartly. "And you, Michael, get down off that seat at once! Do you want to break your neck and give me the trouble of calling a Policeman?"
She strapped the Twins into the perambulator and pushed it in front of her with a quick impatient movement.
Jane and Michael fell into step behind.
"I wonder where the King of the Castle went when the rainbow disappeared?" said Michael thoughtfully.
"He went with it, I suppose, wherever it goes," said Jane. "But what I wonder is — what happened to the Rascal?"
Mary Poppins had wheeled the perambulator into the Elm Walk. And as the children turned the corner, Michael caught Jane's hand.
"There he is!" he cried excitedly, pointing down the Elm Walk to the Park Gates.
A tall slim figure, curiously dressed in red-and-yellow, was swaggering towards the entrance. He stood for a moment, looking up and down Cherry Tree Lane, and whistling. Then he slouched across to the opposite pavement and swung himself lazily over one of the garden fences.
"It's ours!" said Jane, recognising it by the brick that had always been missing. "He's gone into our garden. Run, Michael. Let's catch up with him!"
They ran at a gallop after Mary Poppins and the perambulator.