"You said you'd stay awake!" he whispered accusingly.
"What? Where? Why? Oh, it's you, Michael! Well, you said you would, too."
"Listen!" he said.
There was a sound of somebody tip-toeing in the next room.
Jane drew in her breath sharply. "Quick! Get back into bed. Pretend to be asleep. Hurry!"
With a bound Michael was under the blankets. In the darkness he and Jane held their breath, listening.
From the other Nursery, the door opened stealthily. The thin gap of light widened and grew larger. A head came round the edge and peered into the room. Then somebody slipped through and silently shut the door behind her.
Mary Poppins, wrapped in her fur coat and holding her shoes in her hands, tip-toed through their room.
They lay still, listening to her steps hurrying down the stairs. Far away the key of the front door scraped in its lock. There was a scurry of steps on the garden path and the front gate clicked.
And at that moment the clock struck ten!
Out of bed they sprang and rushed into the other Nursery, where the windows opened on the Park.
The night was black and splendid, lit with high swinging stars. But to-night it was not stars they were looking for. If Mary Poppins' Conversation had really been a message, there was something more interesting to be seen.
"Look!" Jane gave a little gulp of excitement and pointed.
Over in the Park, just by the entrance gate, stood the curious ark-shaped building, loosely moored to a tree-trunk.
"But how did it get there?" said Michael staring. "It was at the other side of the Park this morning."
Jane did not reply. She was too busy watching.
The roof of the Ark was open and on the top of the ladder stood Nellie-Rubina, balancing on her round disc. From inside Uncle Dodger was handing up to her bundle after bundle of painted wooden branches.
"Ready, Miss Poppins?" tinkled Nellie-Rubina, passing an armful down to Mary Poppins who was standing on the deck waiting to receive them.
The air was so clear and still that Jane and Michael, crouched in the window-seat, could hear every word.
Suddenly there was a loud noise inside the Ark as a wooden shape clattered to the floor.
"Uncle Dod-GER! Be careful, please! They're fragile!" said Nellie-Rubina sternly. And Uncle Dodger, as he lifted out a pile of painted clouds, replied apologetically, "Begging your pardon, my dear!" The flock of wooden sheep came next, all very stiff and solid. And last of all, the birds, butterflies and flowers.
"That's the lot!" said Uncle Dodger, heaving himself up through the open roof. Under his arm he carried the wooden cuckoo, now entirely covered with grey paint. And in his hand swung a large green paint-pot.
"Very well," said Nellie-Rubina. "Now, if you're ready, Miss Poppins, we'll begin!"
And then began one of the strangest pieces of work Jane and Michael had ever seen. Never, never, they thought, would they forget it, even if they lived to be ninety.
From the pile of painted wood Nellie-Rubina and Mary Poppins each took a long spray of leaves and, leaping into the air, attached them swiftly to the naked frosty branches of the trees. The sprays seemed to clip on easily for it did not take more than a minute to attach them. And as each was slipped into place, Uncle Dodger would spring up and neatly dab a spot of green paint at the point where the spray joined the tree.
"My Goodness Goodness!" exclaimed Jane, as Nellie-Rubina sailed lightly up to the top of a tall poplar and fixed a large branch there. But Michael was too astonished to say anything.
All over the Park went the three, jumping up to the tallest branch as if they were on springs. And in no time every tree in the Park was decked out with wooden sprays of leaves and neatly finished off with dabs of paint from Uncle Dodger's brush.
Every now and then Jane and Michael heard Nellie-Rubina's shrill voice crying, "Uncle Dod-GER! Be CAREFUL!" and Uncle Dodger's voice begging her pardon.
And now Nellie-Rubina and Mary Poppins took up in their arms the flat white wooden clouds. With these they soared higher than ever before, shooting right above the trees and pressing the clouds carefully against the sky.
"They're sticking, they're sticking!" cried Michael excitedly, dancing on the window-seat. And, sure
Against the sparkling, darkling sky
the flat white clouds stuck fast
enough, against the sparkling, darkling sky the flat white clouds stuck fast.
"Who-o-o-op!" cried Nellie-Rubina as she swooped down. "Now for the sheep!"
Very carefully, on a snowy strip of lawn, they set up the wooden flock, huddling the larger sheep together with the stiff white lambs among them.
"We're getting on!" Jane and Michael heard Mary Poppins say, as she put the last lamb on its legs.
"I don't know what we'd have done without you, Miss Poppins, indeed I don't!" said Nellie-Rubina, pleasantly. Then, in quite a different voice,
"Flowers, please, Uncle Dodger! And look sharp!"
"Here, my dear!" He rolled hurriedly up to her, his apron bulging with snow-drops, scyllas and aconites.
"Oh, look! Look!" Jane cried, hugging herself delightedly. For Nellie-Rubina was sticking the wooden shapes round the edge of an empty flower-bed. Round and round she rolled, planting her wooden border and reaching up her hand again and again for a fresh flower from Uncle Dodger's apron.
"That's neat!" said Mary Poppins admiringly, and Jane and Michael were astonished at the pleasant friendly tone of her voice.
"Yes, isn't it?" trilled Nellie-Rubina, brushing the snow from her hands, "Quite a Sight! What's left, Uncle Dodger?"
"The birds, my dear, and the butterflies!" He held out his apron. Nellie-Rubina and Mary Poppins seized the remaining wooden shapes and ran swiftly about the Park, setting the birds on branches or in nests and tossing the butterflies into the air. And the curious thing was that they stayed there, poised above the earth, their bright patches of paint showing clearly in the starlight.
"There! I think that's all!" said Nellie-Rubina, standing still on her disc, with her hands on her hips, as she gazed round at her handiwork.
"One thing more, my dear!" said Uncle Dodger.
And, rather unevenly, as though the evening's work had made him feel old and tired, he bowled towards the ash tree near the Park Gates. He took the cuckoo from under his arm and set it on a branch among the wooden leaves.
"There, my bonny! There, my dove!" he said, nodding his head at the bird.
"Uncle Dod-GER! When will you learn? It's not a dove. It's a cuckoo!"
He bent his head humbly.
"A dove of a cuckoo — that's what I meant. Begging your pardon, my dear!"
"Well, now, Miss Poppins, I'm afraid we must really be going!" said Nellie-Rubina and, rolling towards Mary Poppins, she took the pink face between her two woodeny hands and kissed it.
"See you soon, Tra-la!" she cried airily, bowling along the deck of the Ark and up the little ladder. At the top she turned and waved her hand jerkily to Mary Poppins. Then, with a woodeny clatter, she leapt down and disappeared inside.
"Uncle Dod-GER! Come along! Don't keep me waiting!" her thin voice floated back.
"Coming, my dear, coming! Begging your pardon!" Uncle Dodger rolled toward the deck, shaking hands with Mary Poppins on the way. The wooden cuckoo stared out from its leafy branch. He flung it a sad, affectionate glance. Then his flat disc rose in the air and echoed woodenly as he landed inside. The roof flew down and shut with a click.
"Let her go!" came Nellie-Rubina's shrill command from within. Mary Poppins stepped forward and unwound the mooring-rope from the tree. It was immediately drawn in through one of the windows.