"Ah! If that's the case, you're very welcome. But do be careful where you tread. We don't like to be stepped on."
"One of them's stepping on me, I think!" A nervous voice seemed to come from the grass.
Michael carefully shifted his feet as the shadow of the Keeper of the Zoological Gardens came crawling past on all fours.
"Any luck?" cried the crowd excitedly.
"Hundreds!" came the happy reply. "Red Admirals. Blue Admirals. Spotted Bermudas. Pink Amazons. Chinese Yellows!"
He waved the shadow of his net. It was full of butterfly shadows.
"Well, I know one you haven't got — and that's an Admiral Boom!" A shadow in a cocked hat, with a spectral dachshund at its heels, elbowed its way through the throng. "Very rare specimen indeed. Largest butterfly in the world! All hail, my hearties!"
"Yo, ho, ho! And a bottle of rum!" The shadows yelled in reply.
The Admiral's shadow turned to the children.
"Welcome aboard!" it said, winking. '"Catch a leaf, a message brief — only an old wives' tale — hey? Ah, here she comes! Your servant, ma'am."
The cocked hat bowed to a broad shadow that was sailing through the see-saw. It was dressed in a shadowy swirl of skirts, and a swarm of little weightless shapes fluttered about its head.
"The Bird Woman!" whispered Jane to Michael.
"Who are you callin' an old wife? Feed the birds! Tuppence a bag!"
A cry of pleasure went up from the crowd as everyone greeted the new arrival. The children saw their own reflections running to kiss her cheeks, and as though — tonight—they were the shadows, they hurried after them.
The party was growing more and more lively. The whole Park was ringing with laughter. And above the voices, high and sweet, came the reedy note of the flute.
"Over the hills and far a way!" played Tom, the Piper's son.
And in Cherry Tree Lane the people lying in bed listened and huddled under the blankets.
"It's Hallowe'en!" each said to himself. "Of course I don't believe in ghosts — but listen to them shrieking!"
They would have been surprised, perhaps, had they dared to look out of the window.
Every second the crowd thickened. And it seemed to the children as they watched that everyone they had ever known had a shadow at the party. Was that Aunt Flossie's? They could not tell. She was there and gone again. And surely those were John's and Barbara's flitting among the leaves!
"Well, lovies?" murmured the Bird Woman's shadow, as it smiled at the four young faces — a girl with her airy shape beside her and a boy arm-in-arm with his double.
"Quack-quack!" said a voice at the same moment.
"Oh, Goosey Gander, wait for us!" And away went the airy children.
The Bird Woman's shadow gathered its skirts and made room on the bench for Jane and Michael.
"My!" she exclaimed, as her arms went round them. "You're solid and no mistake!"
"That's because we're real," said Jane.
"Bones and toe-nails and hair and blood," Michael kindly informed her.
"Ah!" The Bird Woman's shadow nodded. "I expect you 'ad a Special Ticket. It isn't everyone gets the chance. But you're not tellin' me — are you, lovies? — that shadders isn't real?"
"Well — they go through things. And they're made of nothing—" Jane tried to explain.
The Bird Woman shook her shadowy head.
"Nothin's made of nothin', lovey. And that's what they're for — to go through things. Through and out on the other side — it's the way they get to be wise. You take my word for it, my loves, when you know what your shadder knows — then you know a lot. Your shadder's the other part of you, the outside of your inside — if you understand what I mean."
"Don't explain! It's no use. They don't understand anything!"
The portly shadow of Cock Robin came tripping past the bench.
"They told me only a moment ago that Cock Robin never existed. Well, who was buried, I'd like to know! And why were the birds a-sighing and a-sobbing? Take care, Bo-peep! Do look where you're going. Those lambs of yours nearly knocked me over!"
A shadow carrying a crook was skimming through the crowd. And behind her a flock of curly shapes gambolled on the lawn.
"But I thought Bo-peep had lost her sheep!" cried Michael in surprise.
"That's right!" The Bird Woman's shadow chuckled. "But 'er shadder always finds them."
"We've been looking for you everywhere!" a trio of voices grunted. Three furry shadows scattered the sheep and bore Bo-peep away.
"Oh!" exclaimed Jane. "They're the Three Bears. I hope they'll do nothing to hurt her."
"Hurt her? Bless you, why should they? A shadder never did anyone harm — at least, not as I know of. See! The four of 'em — dancin' together as friendly as can be!"
The Bird Woman's shadow surveyed the scene, beating time to the Piper's flute. Then suddenly the music changed and she started up with a cry. "'Ere they are at last, lovies! Get up on the bench and look!"
"Who are here?" demanded Michael. But even as he spoke, he knew.
The music of the concertina had changed to a stately march. The shadows were clearing a path in their midst. And down between the waving lines came a pair of familiar figures.
One of them was small and old, with elastic-sided boots on her feet and threepenny-bits on her coat.
And the other — oh, how well they knew it — was carrying a parrot-headed umbrella and wearing a tulip-trimmed hat.
Turn! Turn! Tee-um, turn, turn! the concertina boomed.
On they came, the two figures, graciously bowing to all spectators and followed by the bulky forms of Fannie and Annie Corry. Solid flesh and bone they were amid the transparent shapes, and the children saw that their four shadows were firmly attached to their heels.
A shout of rapture rose from the throng.
And the sleepers in Cherry Tree Lane shuddered and thrust their heads under their pillows.
"A Hallowe'en welcome, Mary Poppins! Three cheers for the Birthday Eve!"
"'Ip, 'Ip, 'Ooray!" yelled the Bird Woman's shadow.
"Whose birthday is it?" Jane enquired. She was standing on tip-toe on the bench, trembling with excitement.
"It's 'ers—Miss Mary Poppins'—tomorrer! 'Allowe'en falls on the day before, so of course we make a night of it. Feed the Birds! Tuppence a bag!" she shouted to Mary Poppins.
The rosy face beneath the tulip smiled at her in acknowledgment. Then it glanced up at the two children and the smile disappeared.
"Why aren't you wearing a dressing-gown, Michael? And, Jane, where are your slippers? A fine pair of scarecrows you are — to come to an evening party!"
"Aha! You were cleverer than I thought! Taking care of your shadows, I hope!" Mrs. Corry grinned.
But before the children had time to reply, the
The shadows were clearing a path in their midst
music changed from a solemn march to a reeling, romping dance.
"Choose your partners! Time's running out! We must all be back on the stroke of twelve!" The voice of the Policeman's shadow rose above the laughter.
"Pray give me the pleasure, dearest friend!" The shadow of the Father Bear bowed to Mrs. Corry.
"A-a-way, you rolling river!" The Admiral's shadow grasped Miss Andrew's and whirled it through a litter-basket.
The Fishmonger's shadow raised its hat to another that looked like Mrs. Brill; the shadow of the Mother Bear floated to Old King Cole. The Prime Minister's shadow and Aunt Flossie's jumped up and down in the fountain. And Cock Robin propelled a languid shape whose head hung down on its chest.
"Wake up, wake up, my good shadow! Who are you? Where do you live?"
The shadow gave a loud yawn and slumped against Cock Robin. "Mumble, mumble. Broom cupboard. Over across the Lane."