Free Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers Page A

been inside him all day had melted and disappeared. He felt peaceful and happy, and as if he would like to give everybody he knew a birthday present.
    "What — what happened?" he said rather anxiously to Mary Poppins.
    "I told you that was my compass, didn't I? Be kind enough not to touch my things,
if
you please," was all she said as she stooped and picked up the compass and put it in her pocket. Then she began to fold the clothes that he had thrown down on the floor.
    "Shall I do it?" he said.
    "No, thank you."
    He watched her go into the next room, and presently she returned and put something warm into his hands. It was a cup of milk.
    Michael sipped it, tasting every drop several times with his tongue, making it last as long as possible so that Mary Poppins should stay beside him.
    She stood there without saying a word, watching the milk slowly disappear. He could smell her crackling white apron and the faint flavour of toast that always hung about her so deliriously. But try as he would, he could not make the milk last for ever, and presently, with a sigh of regret, he handed her the empty cup and slipped down into the bed. He had never known it to be so comfortable, he thought. And he thought, too, how warm he was and how happy he felt and how lucky he was to be alive.
    "Isn't it a funny thing, Mary Poppins," he said drowsily. "I've been so very naughty and I feel so very good."
    "Humph!" said Mary Poppins as she tucked him in and went away to wash up the supper things….

CHAPTER 7
    THE BIRD WOMAN
    PERHAPS SHE WON'T be there," said Michael.
    "Yes, she will," said Jane. "She's always there for ever and ever."
    They were walking up Ludgate Hill on the way to pay a visit to Mr. Banks in the City. For he had said that morning to Mrs. Banks:
    "My dear, if it doesn't rain I think Jane and Michael might call for me at the Office today — that is, if you are agreeable. I have a feeling I should like to be taken out to Tea and Shortbread Fingers and it's not often I have a Treat."
    And Mrs. Banks had said she would think about it.
    But all day long, though Jane and Michael had watched her anxiously, she had not seemed to be thinking about it at all. From the things she said, she was thinking about the Laundry Bill and Michael's new overcoat and where was Aunt Flossie's address, and why did that wretched Mrs. Jackson ask her to tea on the second Thursday of the month when she knew that was the very day Mrs. Banks had to go to the Dentist's?
    Suddenly, when they felt quite sure she would never think about Mr. Banks's treat, she said:
    "Now, children, don't stand staring at me like that. Get your things on. You are going to the City to have tea with your Father. Had you forgotten?"
    As if they could have forgotten! For it was not as though it were only the Tea that mattered. There was also the Bird Woman, and she herself was the best of all Treats.
    That is why they were walking up Ludgate Hill and feeling very excited.
    Mary Poppins walked between them, wearing her new hat and looking very distinguished. Every now and then she would look into the shop window just to make sure the hat was still there and that the pink roses on it had not turned into common flowers like marigolds.
    Every time she stopped to make sure, Jane and Michael would sigh, but they did not dare say anything for fear she would spend even longer looking at herself in the windows, and turning this way and that to see which attitude was the most becoming.
    But at last they came to St. Paul's Cathedral, which was built a long time ago by a man with a bird's name.

    Sir Christopher Wren's Cathedral
    Wren it was, but he was no relation to Jenny. That is why so many birds live near Sir Christopher Wren's Cathedral, which also belongs to St. Paul, and that is why the Bird Woman lives there, too.
    "There she is!" cried Michael suddenly, and he danced on his toes with excitement.
    "Don't point," said Mary Poppins, giving a last glance at the pink roses in the window