More about Mary Poppins / И снова о Мэри Поппинз

“Wonderful Girl,” said Mrs Banks proudly, and kissed her.

“There, you see, Mary Poppins! They’re quite good again. I can always comfort them. Quite good, quite good,” said Mrs Banks, as though she were singing a lullaby. “And the teeth will soon be through.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Mary Poppins quietly; and smiling to the Twins, Mrs Banks went out and closed the door.

The moment she had disappeared the Starling burst into a peal of rude laughter.

“Excuse me smiling!” he cried.

John took no notice of him. He pushed his face through the bars of his cot and called softly and fiercely to Barbara:

“I won’t be like the others. I tell you I won’t. They,” he jerked his head towards the Starling and Mary Poppins, “can say what they like. I’ll never forget, never!”

Mary Poppins smiled, a secret, I-know-better-than-you sort of smile, all to herself.

“Nor I,” answered Barbara. “Ever.”

“Bless my tail-feathers – listen to them!” shrieked the Starling, as he put his wings on his hips and roared with mirth. “As if they could help forgetting! Why, in a month or two – three at the most – they won’t even know what my name is – silly cuckoos! Silly, half-grown, featherless cuckoos! Ha! Ha! Ha!” And with another loud peal of laughter he spread his speckled wings and flew out of the window…

* * *

It was not very long afterwards that the teeth, after much trouble, came through as all teeth must, and the Twins had their first birthday.

The day after the birthday party the Starling, who had been away on holiday at Bournemouth*, came back to Number Seventeen. Cherry-Tree Lane.

“Hullo, hullo, hullo! Here we are again!” he screamed joyfully, landing with a little wobble upon the window-sill.

“Well, how’s the girl?” he enquired cheekily of Mary Poppins, cocking his little head on one side and regarding her with bright, amused, twinkling eyes.

“None the better for your asking,*” said Mary Poppins, tossing her head.

The Starling laughed.

“Same old Mary P.,” he said. “No change out of you! How are the other ones – the cuckoos?” he asked, and looked across at Barbara’s cot.