"I wonder!" said Michael softly, half to himself.
"You wonder what?" said Mary Poppins, sorting out her parcels.
"I wonder if it would all have happened if you hadn't been with us."
Mary Poppins sniffed.
"I shouldn't wonder if you didn't wonder much too much!" she replied.
And with that Michael had to be content.
CHAPTER NINE
Nellie-Rubina
I don't believe it will ever stop — ever!"
Jane put down her copy of Robinson Crusoe and gazed gloomily out of the window.
The snow fell steadily, drifting down in large soft flakes, covering the Park and the pavements and the houses in Cherry Tree Lane with its thick white mantle. It had not stopped snowing for a week and in all that time the children had not once been able to go out.
"I don't mind — not very much," said Michael from the floor where he was busy arranging the animals of his Noah's Ark. "We can be Esquimos and eat whales."
"Silly — how could we get whales when it's too snowy even to go and buy cough drops!"
"They might come here. Whales do, sometimes," he retorted.
"How do you know?"
"Well, I don't know, exactly. But they might. Jane, where's the second giraffe? Oh, here he is — under the tiger!"
He put the two giraffes into the Ark together.
"The Animals went in Two-by-Two,
The Elephant and the Kangaroo,"
sang Michael. And, because he hadn't got a kangaroo, he sent an antelope in with the elephant and Mr. and Mrs. Noah behind them to keep order.
"I wonder why they never have any relatives!" he remarked presently.
"Who don't?" said Jane crossly, for she didn't want to be disturbed.
"The Noahs. I've never seen them with a daughter or a son or an uncle or an aunt. Why?"
"Because they don't have them," said Jane. "Do be quiet."
"Well, I was only remarking. Can't I remark if I want to?"
He was beginning to feel cross now, and very tired of being cooped up in the Nursery. He scrambled to his feet and swaggered over to Jane.
"I only said—" he began annoyingly, jogging the hand that held the book.
But at that, Jane's patience gave way and she hurled Robinson Crusoe across the room.
"How dare you disturb me!" she shouted, turning on Michael.
"How dare you not let me make a remark!"
"I didn't!"
"You did!"
And in another moment Jane was shaking Michael furiously by the shoulders and he had gripped a great handful of her hair.
"WHAT IS ALL THIS?"
Mary Poppins stood in the doorway, glowering down at them.
They fell apart.
"She sh-sh-shook me!" wailed Michael, but he looked guiltily at Mary Poppins.
"He p-p-pulled my hair!" sobbed Jane, hiding her head in her arms, for she dared not face that stern gaze.
Mary Poppins stalked into the room. She had a pile of coats, caps and mufflers on her arm, and the Twins, round-eyed and interested, were at her heels.
"I would rather," she remarked with a sniff, "have a family of Cannibals to look after. They'd be more human!"
"But she did sh-sh-shake me—" Michael began again.
"Tell-Tale-Tit, Your tongue shall be slit!" jeered Mary Poppins. Then, as he seemed to be going to protest, "Don't dare answer back!" she said warningly and tossed him his overcoat. "Get your things on, please! We're going out!"
"Out?"
They could hardly believe their ears! But at the sound of that word all their crossness melted away. Michael, buttoning up his leggings, felt sorry he had annoyed Jane and looked across to find her putting on her woolen cap and smiling at him.
"Hooray, hooray, hooray!" They shouted, stamping and clapping their woolen-gloved hands.
"Cannibals!" she said fiercely and pushed them in front of her down the stairs….
The snow was no longer falling but was piled in heavy drifts all over the garden, and beyond, in the Park, it lay over everything like a thick white quilt. The naked branches of the Cherry trees were covered with a glistening rind of snow, and the Park railings, that had once been green and slender, were now white and rather woolly.
Down the garden path Robertson Ay was languidly trailing his shovel, pausing every few inches to take a long rest. He was wearing an old overcoat of Mr. Banks' that was much too big for him. As soon as he had shovelled the snow from one piece of path, the coat, drifting behind him, swept a new drift of snow over the cleared patch.
But the children raced past him and down to the gate, crying and shouting and waving their arms.
Outside in the Lane everybody who lived in it seemed to be taking the air.
"Ahoy there, shipmates!" cried a roaring, soaring voice as Admiral Boom came up and shook them all by the hand. He was wrapped from head to foot in a large Inverness cape and his nose was redder than they had ever seen it.
"Good day!" said Jane and Michael politely.
"Port and starboard!" cried the Admiral. "I don't call this a good day. Hur-rrrrrumph! A hideous, hoary, land lubberly sort of a day, I call it. Why doesn't the Spring come? Tell me that!"
"Now, Andrew! Now, Willoughby! Keep close to Mother!"
Miss Lark, muffled up in a long fur coat and wearing a fur hat like a tea-cosy, was taking a walk with her two dogs.
"Good morning, everybody!" She greeted them fussily. "What weather! Where has the sun gone? And why doesn't the Spring come?"
"Don't ask me, Ma'am!" shouted Admiral Boom. "No affair of mine. You should go to sea. Always good weather there! Go to sea!"
"Oh, Admiral Boom, I couldn't do that! I haven't the time. I am just off to buy Andrew and Willoughby a fur coat each."
A look of shame and horror passed between the two dogs.
"Fur coats!" roared the Admiral. "Blast my binnacle! Fur coats for a couple of mongrels? Heave her over! Port, I say! Up with the Anchor! Fur coats!"
"Admiral! Admiral!" cried Miss Lark, stopping her ears with her hands. "Such language! Please, please remember I am not used to it. And my dogs are not mongrels. Not at all! One has a long pedigree and the other has at least a Kind Heart. Mongrels, indeed!"
And she hurried away, talking to herself in a high, angry voice, with Andrew and Willoughby sidling behind her, swinging their tails and looking very uncomfortable and ashamed.
The Ice Cream Man trundled past on his cycle, going at a terrific rate and ringing his bell madly.
"DON'T STOP ME OR I SHALL CATCH COLD" said the notice in front of his cart.
"Whenever's that there Spring coming?" shouted the Ice Cream Man to the Sweep, who at that moment came trudging round the corner. To keep out the cold he had completely covered himself with brushes so that he looked more like a porcupine than a man.
"Bur-rum, bur-rum, bumble!" came the voice of the Sweep through the brushes.
"What's that?" said the Ice Cream Man.
"Bumble!"
The Sweep remarked, disappearing in at Miss Lark's Tradesman's Entrance.
In the gateway to the Park stood the Keeper, waving his arms and stamping his feet and blowing on his hands.
"Need a bit of Spring, don't we?" he said cheerfully to Mary Poppins as she and the children passed through.
"I'm, quite satisfied!" replied Mary Poppins primly, tossing her head.
"Self-satisfied, I'd call it," muttered the Keeper. But as he said it behind his hand, only Jane and Michael heard him.