More about Mary Poppins / И снова о Мэри Поппинз

And she had stopped dancing! Her feet were as steady as though they were made of stone and she walked as sedately as any other respectable cow. Quietly and serenely she moved across the field, beheading her golden soldiers* as she went to greet the Red Calf.

“I’m so glad you’re back!” said the Red Calf. “I’ve been so lonely.”

The Red Cow kissed it and fell to* munching the meadow. It was her first good meal for a week. And by the time her hunger was satisfied she had eaten up several regiments*.

After that she felt better. She soon began to live her life just exactly as she had lived it before.

At first she enjoyed her quiet regular habits very much, and was glad to be able to eat her breakfast without dancing and to lie down in the grass and sleep at night instead of curtseying to the moon until the morning.

But after a little she began to feel uncomfortable and dissatisfied. Her dandelion field and her Red Calf were all very well, but she wanted something else and she couldn’t think what it was.

At last she realised that she was missing her star. She had grown so used to dancing and to the happy feeling the star had given her that she wanted to do a Sailor’s Hornpipe and to have the star on her horn again.

She fretted, she lost her appetite, her temper was atrocious. And she frequently burst into tears for no reason at all. Eventually, she went to my Mother and told her the whole story and asked her advice.

“Good gracious, my dear!” my Mother said to her.

“You don’t suppose that only one star ever fell out of the sky! Billions fall every night, I’m told. But they fall in different places, of course. You can’t expect two stars to drop in the same field in one lifetime.”

“Then, you think – if I moved about a bit —?” the Red Cow began, a happy eager look coming into her eyes.

“If it were me,” said my Mother, “I’d go and look for one.”

“I will,” said the Red Cow joyously, “I will indeed.”

* * *

Mary Poppins paused.

“And that, I suppose, is why she was walking down Cherry-Tree Lane,” Jane prompted gently.

“Yes,” whispered Michael, “she was looking for her star.”

Mary Poppins sat up with a little start. The intent look had gone from her eyes and the stillness from her body.

“Come down from that window at once, sir!” she said crossly. “I am going to turn on the lights.” And she hurried across the landing to the electric light switch.