“Quite right, Miss Poppins! Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and. . . Now, who was it first told me that – Robert the Bruce? No, I’ve forgotten!”
“See you later,” said Fannie and Annie, waving to Jane and Michael.
“Later?” said Jane. “But we’re going to bed.”
“There you go – you galumphing giraffes! Can’t you ever open your mouths without putting your feet into them? They mean, my dears,” said Mrs Corry, “they’ll be seeing you later in the year! November, perhaps, or after Christmas. Unless, of course –” her smile widened – “unless you are very clever! Well, goodnight and sleep well!”
She held out her little wrinkled hands and Jane and Michael both sprang forward.
“Look out! Look out!” she shrieked at them. “You’re stepping on my shadow!”
“Oh – I’m sorry!” They both jumped back in alarm.
“Deary goodness – you gave me a turn!” Mrs Corry clapped her hand to her heart. “Two of you standing right on its head – the poor thing will be distressed!”
They looked at her in astonishment and then at the little patch of black that lay on the windy grass.
“But I didn’t think shadows could feel,” said Jane.
“Not feel! What nonsense!” cried Mrs Corry. “They feel twice as much as you do. I warn you, children, take care of your shadows or your shadows won’t take care of you. How would you like to wake one morning and find they had run away? And what’s a man without a shadow? Practically nothing, you might say!”
“I wouldn’t like it at all,” said Michael, glancing at his own shadow rippling in the wind. He realised, for the first time, how fond he was of it.
“Exactly!” Mrs Corry snorted. “Ah, my love,” she crooned to her shadow. “We’ve been through a lot together – haven’t we? – you and I. And never a hair of your head hurt till these two went and stepped on it. All right, all right, don’t look so glum!” She twinkled at Jane and Michael. “But remember what I say – take care! Fannie and Annie, stir your stumps. Look lively – if you possibly can!”
And off she trotted between her daughters, bending sideways now and again to blow a kiss to her shadow.
“Now, come along. No loitering,” said Mary Poppins briskly.
“We’re keeping an eye on our shadows!” said Jane. “We don’t want anything to hurt them.”
“You and your shadows,” said Mary Poppins, “can go to bed – spit-spot!”
And, sure enough, that was what they did. In next to no time they had eaten their supper, undressed before the crackling fire and bounced under the blankets.
The Nursery curtains blew in and out and the nightlight flickered on the ceiling.
“I see my shadow and my shadow sees me!” Jane looked at the neatly brushed head reflected on the wall. She nodded in a friendly way and her shadow nodded back.
“My shadow and I are two swans!” Michael held his arm in the air and snapped his fingers together. And upon the wall a long-necked bird opened and closed its beak.
“Swans!” said Mary Poppins, sniffing, as she laid her coat and tulip hat at the end of her camp bed. “Geese more like it, I should say!”
The canvas creaked as she sprang in.
Michael craned his neck and called: “Why don’t you hang up your coat, Mary Poppins, the way you always do?”
“My feet are cold, that’s why! Now, not another word!”
He looked at Jane. Jane looked at him. They knew it was only half an answer. What was she up to tonight? they wondered. But Mary Poppins never explained. You might as well ask the Sphinx.
“Tick!” said the clock on the mantelpiece.
They were warm as toast inside their beds. And their beds were warm inside the Nursery. And the Nursery was warm inside the house. And the howling of the wind outside made it seem warmer still.
They leant their cheeks upon their palms and let their eyelids fall.
“Tock!” said the clock on the mantelpiece.
But neither of them heard. . .
“What is it?” Jane murmured sleepily. “Who’s scratching my nose?”
“It’s me!” said Michael in a whisper. He was standing at the side of her bed with a wrinkled leaf in his hand.
“I’ve been scratching it for ages, Jane! The front door banged and woke me up and I found this on my pillow. Look! There’s one on yours too. And Mary Poppins’ bed is empty and her coat and hat have gone!”
Jane took the leaves and ran to the window.
“Michael,” she cried, “there was a message. One leaf says ‘Come’ and the other ‘Tonight’.”
“But where has she gone? I can’t see her!” He craned his neck and looked out.
All was quiet. The wind had dropped. Every house was fast asleep. And the full moon filled the world with light.
“Jane! There are shadows in the garden – and not a single person!”
He pointed to two little dark shapes – one in pyjamas, one in a nightgown – that were floating down the front path and through the garden railings.
Jane glanced at the Nursery walls and ceiling. The nightlight glowed like a bright eye. But in spite of that steady, watchful gleam there was not a single shadow!
“They’re ours, Michael! Put something on. Quick – we must go and catch them!”
He seized a sweater and followed her, tiptoeing down the creaking stairs and out into the moonlight.
Cherry Tree Lane was calm and still, but from the Park came the strains of music and trills of high-pitched laughter.
The children, clutching their brown leaves, dashed through the Lane Gate. And something, light as snow or feathers, fell upon Michael’s shoulder. Something gentler than air brushed against Jane’s cheek.
“Touched you last!” two voices cried. And they turned and beheld their shadows.
“But why did you run away?” asked Jane, gazing at the transparent face that looked so like her own.
“We’re guests at the Party.” Her shadow smiled.
“What party?” Michael demanded.
“It’s Hallowe’en,” his shadow told him. “The night when every shadow is free. And this is a very special occasion. For one thing, there’s a full moon – and it falls on the Birthday Eve. But come along, we mustn’t be late!”
And away the two little shadows flitted, with the children solidly running behind them.
The music grew louder every second, and as they darted round the laurels they beheld a curious sight.
The whole playground was thronged with shadows, each of them laughing and greeting the others and hopping about in the moonlight. And the strange thing was that, instead of lying flat on the ground, they were all standing upright. Long shadows, short shadows, thin shadows, fat shadows, were bobbing, hobnobbing, bowing, kowtowing, and passing in and out of each other with happy cries of welcome.
In one of the swings sat a helmeted shape, playing a concertina. It smiled and waved a shadowy hand, and Jane and Michael saw at once that it belonged to the Policeman.
“Got your invitations?” he cried. “No human beings allowed in without a special pass!”