“Well, it was. So I glued the bits together. And then someone dropped a tin of cocoa.” He glanced at the tin on the edge of the stove and Jane remembered that such a one had fallen from the string bag on their way home from the grocer’s.
“And I had a packet of sugar by me, so you see, with three such treats coming together, I just couldn’t resist them. I’m sorry, Mary. I won’t do it again, I promise. “The Man-in-the-Moon looked shamefaced.
“You won’t get the chance,” said Mary Poppins, seizing the tin from the top of the stove and stuffing it into her handbag.
“Well, goodbye cocoa, goodbye sleep!” The Man-in-the-Moon sighed heavily. Then he grinned and looked at Jane and Michael. “Did you ever know anyone like her?” he asked.
“Never, never!” they both replied.
“Of course you didn’t,” he beamed proudly. “She’s the One and Only.”
“Do all lost things come to the Moon?” Jane thought of the lost things in the world and wondered if there was room for them.
“Mostly, yes,” said the Man-in-the-Moon. “It’s a kind of storehouse.”
“And what’s at the back of it?” asked Michael. “We only see this side.”
“Ah, if I knew that, I’d know a lot. It’s a mystery, a kind of riddle – a front without a back you might say, as far as I’m concerned. Besides, it’s very overcrowded. You couldn’t relieve me of anything, could you? Something you might have lost in the Park?”
“I can!” said Jane suddenly, for among the parcels and umbrellas she had spied a shabby, familiar shape.
“The Blue Duck!” She reached for the faded toy. “The Twins dropped it out of the perambulator.”
“And there’s my dear old mouth organ.” Michael pointed to a metal shape on the shelf above the stove. “But it doesn’t make music any more. It’s really no use to me.”
“Nor to me, either. I have tried it. A musical instrument that can’t make music! Take it, there’s a good fellow, and put it in your pocket.”
Michael reached for the mouth organ and as he did so, something that was lying beside it toppled sideways and came bouncing down, rolling out over the cloud.
“Oh, that is mine, my lost coconut!” Luti stepped out from behind Mary Poppins and seized the moving object. It was brown and shaggy, round as a ball, one side of it closely shaven with a round face carved upon it.
Luti hugged the hairy thing to his breast.
“My father carved it,” he said proudly, “and I lost it one day in the tide of the sea.”
“And now the tide has given it back. But you, young man, should be on your way. They are all waiting for you on the island and Keria is at her clay stove making spells with herbs for your safe return. Your father has lately hurt his arm and he needs your help in the canoe. “The Man-in-the-Moon spoke firmly to Luti.
“He is on his way,” said Mary Poppins. “That is why we are here.”
“Ha! I knew you had something up your sleeve. You never visit me, Mary, my dear, just for a friendly cup of tea – or perhaps I should say cocoa!” The Man-in-the-Moon grinned impishly.
“I want you to keep an eye on him. He is young for such a long journey, Uncle.”
“As if I could help it – you know that. Not a wink will I take, much less forty! Trust your old uncle, my girl.”
“How do you know Keria?” asked Jane. The thought of the Wise Woman far away filled her with a kind of dream. She wished she could know her too.
“In the same way that I know everyone. It’s my job to watch and wake. The world turns and I turn with the world; mountain and sea, city and desert; the leaf on the bough and the bough bare; men sleeping, waking, working; the cradle child, the old woman, the wise ones and the not so wise; you in your smock, Michael in his sailor blouse; the children on Luti’s South Sea island in their girdles of leaves and wreaths of flowers such as he too will wear in the morning. Those things he has on now, Mary, would be most unsuitable.”
“I have thought of that, thank you,” said Mary Poppins, unfastening Luti’s stiff collar and, with her usual lightning speed, sweeping off jacket and knickerbockers and Mr Banks’ big boots. Then, as he stood there in his underwear, she wound about him, as one would a parcel, her knitted scarf with its pink roses that matched the one on her hat.
“But my treasures! I must take them with me.” Luti eyed her earnestly.
Mary Poppins took from the perambulator a battered paper bag. “Fuss, fuss, fuss!” she said, with a sniff, as he fished in the pockets of his jacket.
“I could take care of the dagger for you.” Michael was secretly envious. He had often had thoughts of becoming a pirate.
“One must never give away a gift. My father will use it for his carving and cutting twigs for the fire.”
Luti stuffed the dagger into his bag with the fan, the wooden King and Queen and the Admiral’s canoe. Last of all came a dark and sticky lump of something wrapped up in a handkerchief.
“The chocolate bar!” Jane exclaimed. “We thought you had eaten it up.”
“It was too precious,” said Luti simply. “We have no such sweetmeats on the island. They shall have a taste of it, all of them.”
He reached an arm out of the scarf and stowed the bag in its woollen folds. Then he picked up the shaggy coconut, held it for a moment to his heart, before thrusting it at the children.
“Remember me, please,” he said shyly. “I am indeed sad to leave you.”
Mary Poppins picked up the folded clothes and laid them neatly on the floor of the moon.
“Come, Luti, it is time to go. I will show you the way. Jane and Michael, take care of the little one. Uncle, remember your promise.”
She put her arm round the pink knitted bundle and Luti turned within it, smiling.
“Peace and blessings!” He held up his hand.
“Peace and blessings!” cried Jane and Michael.
“Do exactly as she tells you,” said the Man-in-the-Moon, “and Peace and blessings, my boy!”
They watched him being marched away over the white cloudy field to the place where it met the sky. There Mary Poppins bent down to him, pointing to a string of cloudlets that floated like puffballs in the blue. They saw Luti nod as he gazed at them, saw him hold up his hand in a farewell gesture, then his bare legs took a little run that ended in an enormous leap.
“Oh, Luti!” they cried anxiously, and gasped with relief as he landed safely in the middle of the nearest puffball. Then he was skimming lightly across it and jumping on to the next. Oh, on he went, bounding over the gulfs of air between the floating clouds.
A shrill sound came back to them. He was singing, they could distinguish the words:
“I am Luti, Son of the Sun,
I am wearing a garment of roses,
I am going home to my island,
Peace and blessings, O clouds!”
Then he was silent and lost to sight. Mary Poppins was standing beside them and the moon, when they turned to look at it, was off on its course sailing away.
“Goodbye!” called Jane and Michael, waving. And the faint shape of an arm waved back with an answering call of “Au Revoir!”.