Free Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers Page B

of a carpet-shop.
    "She's saying it! She's saying it!" cried Jane, holding tight to herself for fear she would break in two with delight.
    And she
was
saying it. The Bird Woman was there and she was saying it.
    "Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag! Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag! Feed the Birds, Feed the Birds, TUppence a Bag, Tuppence a Bag!" Over and over again, the same thing, in a high chanting voice that made the words seem like a song.
    And as she said it she held out little bags of breadcrumbs to the passers-by.
    All round her flew the birds, circling and leaping and swooping and rising. Mary Poppins always called them "sparrers," because, she said conceitedly, all birds were alike to her. But Jane and Michael knew that they were not sparrows, but doves and pigeons. There were fussy and chatty grey doves like Grandmothers; and brown, rough-voiced pigeons like Uncles; and greeny, cackling, no-I've-no-money-today pigeons like Fathers. And the silly, anxious, soft blue doves were like Mothers. That's what Jane and Michael thought, anyway.
    They flew round and round the head of the Bird Woman as the children approached, and then, as though to tease her, they suddenly rushed away through the air and sat on the top of St. Paul's, laughing and turning their heads away and pretending they didn't know her.
    It was Michael's turn to buy a bag. Jane had bought one last time. He walked up to the Bird Woman and held out four halfpennies.
    "
Feed
the Birds, Tuppence a Bag!" said the Bird Woman, as she put a bag of crumbs into his hand and tucked the money away into the folds of her huge black skirt.
    "Why don't you have penny bags?" said Michael. "Then I could buy two."
    "Feed the Birds,
Tuppence
a Bag!" said the Bird Woman, and Michael knew it was no good asking her any more questions. He and Jane had often tried, but all she could say, and all she had ever been able to say was, "Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag!" Just as a cuckoo can only say "Cuckoo," no matter what questions you ask him.
    Jane and Michael and Mary Poppins spread the crumbs in a circle on the ground, and presently, one by one at first, and then in twos and threes, the birds came down from St. Paul's.
    "Dainty David," said Mary Poppins with a sniff, as one bird picked up a crumb and dropped it again from its beak.
    But the other birds swarmed upon the food, pushing and scrambling and shouting. At last there wasn't a crumb left, for it is not really polite for a pigeon or a dove to leave anything on the plate. When they were quite certain that the meal was finished the birds rose with one grand, fluttering movement and flew round the Bird Woman's head, copying in their own language the words she said. One of them sat on her hat and pretended he was a decoration for the crown. And another of them mistook Mary Poppins's new hat for a rose garden and pecked off a flower.
    "You sparrer!" cried Mary Poppins, and shook her umbrella at him. The pigeon, very offended, flew back to the Bird Woman and, to pay out Mary Poppins, stuck the rose in the ribbon of the Bird Woman's hat.
    "You ought to be in a pie — that's where
you
ought to be," said Mary Poppins to him very angrily. Then she called to Jane and Michael.
    "Time to go," she said, and flung a parting glance of fury at the pigeon. But he only laughed and flicked his tail and turned his back on her.
    "Good-bye," said Michael to the Bird Woman.
    "Feed the Birds," she replied, smiling.
    "Good-bye," said Jane.
    "Tuppence a Bag!" said the Bird Woman and waved her hand.
    They left her then, walking one on either side of Mary Poppins.
    "What happens when
everybody
goes away — like us?" said Michael to Jane.
    He knew quite well what happened, but it was the proper thing to ask Jane because the story was really hers.
    So Jane told him and he added the bits she had forgotten.
    "At night when everybody goes to bed—" began Jane.
    "And the stars come out," added Michael.
    "Yes, and even if they don't — all the birds come down from