"The most wonderful thing!" he cried, flinging open the Nursery door. "A new star has appeared. I heard about it on the way home. The Largest Ever. I've borrowed Admiral Boom's telescope to look at it. Come and see!"
He ran to the window and clapped the telescope to his eye.
"Yes! Yes!" he said, hopping excitedly. "There it is! A Wonder! A Beauty! A Marvel! A Gem! See for yourself!"
He handed Mrs. Banks the telescope.
"Children!" he shouted. "There's a new star!"
"I know—" began Michael. "But it's not really a star. It's—"
"You know? And it isn't? What on earth do you mean?"
"Take no notice. He is just being silly!" said Mrs. Banks. "Now, where is this star? Oh, I see! Very pretty! Quite the brightest in the sly! I wonder where it came from! Now, children!"
She gave the telescope in turn to Jane and Michael, and as they looked through the glass they could clearly see the circle of painted horses, the brass poles and the dark blur that ever and again whirled across their sight for a moment and was gone.
They turned to each other and nodded. They knew what the dark blur was — a neat, trim figure in a blue coat with silver buttons, a stiff straw hat on its head, and a parrot-headed umbrella under its arm. Out of the sky she had come, back to the sky she had gone. And Jane and Michael would not explain to anyone for they knew there were things about Mary Poppins that could never be explained.
A knock sounded at the door.
"Excuse me, Ma'am," said Mrs. Brill, hurrying in, very red in the face. "But I think you ought to know that that there Mary Poppins has gone again!"
"Gone!" said Mrs. Banks unbelievingly.
"Lock, stock and barrer — gone!" said Mrs. Brill, triumphantly. "Without a word or By Your Leave. Just like last time. Even her Camp-bed and her Carpet-bag — clean gone! Not even her Postcard-album as a Memento. So there!"
"Dear, dear!" said Mrs. Banks. "How very tiresome! How thoughtless, how and — George!" she turned to Mr. Banks. "George, Mary Poppins has gone again!"
"Who? What? Mary Poppins? Well, never mind that! We've got a new star!"
"A new star won't wash and dress the children!" said Mrs. Banks crossly.
"It will look through their window at night!" cried Mr. Banks, happily. "That's better than washing and dressing."
He turned back to the telescope.
"Won't you, my Wonder? My Marvel? My Beauty!" he said, looking up at the star.
Jane and Michael drew close and leant against him, gazing across the window-sill into the evening air.
And high above them the great shape circled and wheeled through the darkening sky, shining and keeping its secret for ever and ever and ever….
P. L. TRAVERS (1906–1996) was a drama critic, travel essayist, reviewer, lecturer, and the creator of Mary Poppins. Travers wrote eight Mary Poppins books altogether, including Mary Poppins (1934), Mary Poppins Comes Back (1935), Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1943), and Mary Poppins in the Park (1952), all from Harcourt Brace. Ms. Travers wrote several other children's books as well as adult books, but it is for the character of Mary Poppins that she is best remembered.