"Come along, come along! Threepence a ride!" the Park Keeper was calling in the distance.
Stiff from their long ride, the four children clambered down. But their eyes were shining and their voices trembled with excitement.
"Oh, lovely, lovely, lovely!" cried Jane, gazing at Mary Poppins with sparkling eyes, as she put John into the perambulator.
"If only we could have gone on for ever!" exclaimed Michael, lifting Barbara in beside him.
Mary Poppins gazed down at them. Her eyes were strangely soft and gentle in the gathering dusk.
"All good things come to an end," she said, for the second time that day.
Then she flung up her head and glanced at the Merry-go-round.
"My turn!" she cried joyfully, as she stooped and took something from the perambulator.
Then she straightened and stood looking at them for a moment — that strange look that seemed to plunge right down inside them and see what they were thinking.
"Michael!" she said, lightly touching his cheek with her hand. "Be good!"
He stared up at her uneasily. Why had she done that? What could be the matter?
"Jane! Take care of Michael and the Twins!" said Mary Poppins. And she lifted Jane's hand and put it gently on the handle of the perambulator.
"All aboard! All aboard!" cried the Ticket Collector.
The lights of the Merry-go-round blazed up.
Mary Poppins turned.
"Coming!" she called, waving her parrot-headed umbrella.
She darted across the little gulf of darkness that lay between the children and the Merry-go-round.
"Mary Poppins!" cried Jane, with a tremble in her voice. For suddenly — she did not know why — she felt afraid.
"Mary Poppins!" shouted Michael, catching Jane's fear.
But Mary Poppins took no notice. She leapt gracefully upon the platform, and, climbing upon the back of a dappled horse called Caramel, she sat down neatly and primly.
"Single or Return?" said the Ticket Collector.
For a moment she appeared to consider the question. She glanced across at the children and back at the Collector.
"You never know," she said, thoughtfully. "It might come in useful. I'll take a Return."
The Ticket Collector snapped a hole in a green ticket and handed it to Mary Poppins. Jane and Michael noticed that she did not pay for it.
The music broke out again, softly at first, then loudly, wildly, triumphantly. Slowly the painted horses began to move.
Mary Poppins, looking straight ahead of her, was borne past the children. The parrot's head of her umbrella nestled under her arm. Her neatly gloved hands were closed on the brass pole. And in front of her, on the horse's neck—
"Michael!" cried Jane, clutching his arm. "Do you see? She must have hidden it under the rug! Her Carpet-bag!"
Michael stared.
"Do you think—?" he began in a whisper.
Jane nodded.
"But — she's wearing the locket! The chain hasn't broken! I distinctly saw it!"
Behind them the Twins began to whimper but Jane and Michael took no notice. They were gazing anxiously at the shining circle of horses.
The Merry-go-round was moving swiftly now, and soon the children could no longer tell which horse was which, nor distinguish Merry-Legs from Twinkle. Everything before them was a blaze of spinning light, except for the dark figure, neat and steady, that ever and again approached them and sped past and disappeared.
Wilder and wilder grew the drumming music. Faster and faster whirled the Merry-go-round. Again the dark shape rode towards them upon the dappled horse. And this time, as she came by, something bright and gleaming broke from her neck and came flying through the air to their feet.
Jane bent and picked it up. It was the gold locket, hanging loosely from its broken golden chain.
"It's true, then, it's true!" came Michael's bursting cry. "Oh, open it, Jane!"
With trembling fingers she pressed the catch and the locket flew open. The flickering light fell across the glass and they saw before them their own pictured faces, clustered about a figure with straight black hair, stern blue eyes, bright pink cheeks, and a nose turning upwards like the nose of a Dutch doll.
"Jane, Michael, John, Barbara and Annabel Banks,
and
Mary Poppins."
read Jane from the little scroll beneath the picture.
"So that's what was in it!" said Michael, miserably, as Jane shut the locket and put it in her pocket. He knew there was no hope now.
They turned again to the Merry-go-round, dazzled and giddy in the spinning light. For by now the horses were flying more swiftly than ever and the pealing music was louder than before.
And then a strange thing happened. With a great blast of trumpets, the whole Merry-go-round rose, spinning, from the ground. Round and round, rising ever higher, the coloured horses wheeled and raced with Caramel and Mary Poppins at their head. And the swinging circle of light went lifting among the trees, turning the leaves to gold as the light fell upon them.
"She's going!" said Michael.
"Oh, Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins! Come back, come back!" they cried, lifting their arms towards her.
But her face was turned away, she looked out serenely above her horse's head and gave no sign that she had heard.
"Mary Poppins!" It was a last despairing cry.
No answer now came from the air.
By now the Merry-go-round had cleared the trees and was whirling up towards the stars. Away it went and away, growing smaller and smaller, until the figure of Mary Poppins was but a dark speck in a wheel of light.
Away it went and away, growing smaller and smaller
On and on, pricking through the sky, went the Merry-go-round, carrying Mary Poppins with it. And at last it was just a tiny twinkling shape, a little larger but not otherwise different from a star.
Michael sniffed and fumbled for his handkerchief.
"I've got a crick in my neck," he said to explain the sniff. But when she was not looking he hurriedly wiped his eyes.
Jane, still watching the bright spinning shape, gave a little sigh. Then she turned away.
"We must go home," she said flatly, remembering that Mary Poppins had told her to take care of Michael and the Twins.
"Come along, come along! Threepence a ride!" The Park Keeper, who had been putting litter in the baskets returned to the scene. He glanced at the place where the Merry-go-round had been and started violently. He looked around him and his mouth fell open. He looked up and his eyes nearly burst out of his head.
"See here!" he shouted. "This won't do! Here one minute and gone the next! It's against the regulations! I'll have the law on you." He shook his fist wildly at the empty air. "I never saw such a thing! Not even when I was a boy! I must make a report! I shall tell the Lord Mayor!"
Silently the children turned away. The Merry-go-round had left no trace in the grass, not a dent in the clover. Except for the Park Keeper, who stood there shouting and waving his arms, the green lawn was quite empty.
"She took a Return," said Michael, walking slowly beside the perambulator. "Do you think that means she'll come back?"
Jane thought for a moment. "Perhaps. If we want her enough," she said slowly.
"Yes, perhaps…!" he repeated, sighing a little, and said no more till they were back in the Nursery….
"I say! I say! I say!"
Mr. Banks came running up the path and burst in at the front door.
"Hi! Where's everybody?" he shouted, running up the stairs three at a time.
"Whatever is the matter?" said Mrs. Banks, hurrying out to meet him.