He bowed gravely and, urged by Mary Poppins’ glare, they bowed in return. “You see,” he went on, in his old, cracked voice, “I know who Jane and Michael are. But I wonder – yes, I wonder indeed, if they know who I am!”
They shook their heads and gazed at him speechlessly.
He moved his carapace a little and thoughtfully blinked for a moment. Then he spoke.
“I am the Terrapin. I dwell at the roots of the world. Under the cities, under the hills, under the very sea itself, I make my home. Up from my dark root, through the waters, the earth rose with its flowers and forests. The man and the mountain sprang from it. The great beasts too, and the birds of the air.”
He ceased for a moment and the creatures in the sea about him were quiet as they watched him. Then he went on: “I am older than all things that are. Silent and dark and wise am I, and quiet and very patient. Here in my cave all things have their beginning. And all things return to me in the end. I can wait. I can wait. . .”
He folded his lids upon his eyes and nodded his naked wrinkled head as though he were talking to himself. “I have no more to say,” he said, blinking. “So. . .” he held up a little lordly flipper. “Bid the music play!” he commanded the Seal. “And let the sea-people choose their dance. What shall it be this time, my children?”
“Tiddy-um-pom-pom, tiddy-um-pom-pom!” hummed a voice like a bee in a bottle.
“Ah, yes, my dear Admiral!” the Terrapin nodded. “A very suitable suggestion. Strike up the Sailor’s Hornpipe!”
At once a wild commotion rose. The band broke into swift gay music and the still fish flickered their tails again. Voices and laughter filled the sea and the tide began to move.
Tiddy-um-pom-pom! Away they went – fishes and mermaids, urchins, seals. The green lawns bent beneath fins and flippers and the coral glimmered with silver shapes.
“Tiddy-um-pom-pom!” cried Admiral Boom, as he pulled on invisible tarry ropes. “Tiddy-um-pom-pom!” sang Mrs Boom, clasping her hands and rocking her feet. “Tiddy-um-pom-pom!” sang Binnacle loudly, as he thought of his happy pirate days. And the fish danced in and out among them, with sea-flowers hung behind their fins.
The Bronze Seal flapped up and down on his tail and the Salmon swooped over the lawns like a bird. The Angler-fish pranced by with their rods and the Swordfish and Schoolmaster danced together. And ever among the scaly throng, a dark shape moved like a graceful shadow. Heel and toe, went Mary Poppins, as she danced the Hornpipe on the floor of the sea. The fish swung round her in shining rings and their scales made a dapple of light about her.
The children stood by the pearly rock and stared at the curious scene.
“You find it strange, do you not?” said the Terrapin. “I can see you are feeling All at Sea!” He cackled gently at his own little joke.
Jane nodded. “I thought the Sea would be so different, but really, it’s very like the land!”
“And why not?” said the Terrapin, blinking. “The land came out of the sea, remember. Each thing on the earth has a brother here – the lion, the dog, the hare, the elephant. The precious gems have their kind in the sea, so have the starry constellations. The rose remembers the salty waters and the moon the ebb and flow of the tide. You too must remember it, Jane and Michael! There are more things in the sea, my children, than ever came out of it. And I don’t mean fish!” the Terrapin smiled. “But I see that your twenty toes are twitching! Be off with you, now, and join the dance.”
Jane seized Michael by the hand. Then, because she remembered he was very old, she curtsied to the Terrapin before they darted away.
They plunged together among the fish in time to the beat of the music. Oh, how their bare feet twinkled and pranced! Oh, how their arms waved through the water! And their bodies swayed like strands of sea-weed as they went through the steps of the Sailor’s Hornpipe.
Tiddy-um-pom-pom! cried the merry music, as Mary Poppins came swimming towards them. She took their hands and they danced together, pulling and rocking through the boughs of coral. Round they went, faster and ever faster, spinning like tops in the spinning water. Till, dazed with the dance and dazzled with lights, they closed their eyes and leant against her. And her arms went round them, firmly, strongly, as she lifted them through the moving tide.
Tiddy-um-pom-pom! They swung together and the music grew fainter as they swung. Tiddy-um-pom-pom! Oh, the circling sea, that rocks us all in its mighty cradle! Tiddy-um-pom-pom! Oh, Mary Poppins, swing me round like a bubble in the falling tide. Swing me round – tiddy-um. . . Swing me round – pom-pom. . . Swing me. . . Swing me. . . Swing. . .
“Hold me tight, Mary Poppins!” muttered Michael drowsily, as he felt for her comforting arm.
There was no answer.
“Are you there, Mary Poppins?” he said with a yawn, as he leant on the rocking sea.
Still no answer.
So, keeping his eyes closed, he called again and the sea seemed to echo his voice. “Mary Poppins, I want you! Mary Poppins, where are you?”
“Where I always am at this hour in the morning!” she replied with an angry snap.
“Oh, what a beautiful dance!” he said sleepily. And he put out his hand to draw her to him.
It touched nothing. All that his searching fingers found was a warm, soft bulkiness suspiciously like a pillow.
“I’ll thank you to dance yourself out of bed! It is nearly time for breakfast!”
Her voice had the rumble of distant thunder. And Michael opened his eyes with a start.
Good gracious! Where was he? Surely it could not be the Nursery! Yet there was Old Dobbin standing still in the corner; and Mary Poppins’ neat camp bed and the toys and the books and his slippers. All the old familiar things were there, but the last thing Michael wanted just now was an old familiar thing.
“But where’s the sea gone?” he said crossly. “I want to be back in the sea!”
Her face popped round the bathroom door and he knew at once she was furious.
“The sea is at Brighton where it always is!” she said, with fierce distinctness. “Now, spit-spot and up you get. And Not Another Word!”
“But I was in it a moment ago! And so were you, Mary Poppins. We were dancing around among the fish and doing the Sailor’s Hornpipe!”
“Humph!” she said, giving the bath-mat a shake. “I hope I have something better to do than to go out dancing with sailors!”
He quailed beneath her darkened glare but he knew he would have to go on.
“Well, what about all the fish?” he demanded. “And the Seal and the Salmon and that funny old Turtle? We were down there with them, Mary Poppins, right on the floor of the sea!”
“Down in the sea? With a funny old Salmon? Well, you certainly have the fishiest dreams! I suppose you had too many buns for Supper! Sailors and Turtles, indeed! What next?” Her apron gave an angry crackle as she flounced away, muttering.
He gazed at her retreating back and frowned and shook his head. He dared not say any more, he knew, but she couldn’t stop him wondering.
So he wondered and wondered as he got out of bed and poked his toes into his slippers. And as he wondered his eyes met Jane’s as she peeped from under the blankets.
She had heard every word of the argument and, while she had listened, she had thought her own thoughts and her eyes had noticed something. Now she smiled a secret smile at Michael and nodded her head wisely.