Then there was silence. Not even a hiccup. For that look, as Jane and Michael knew, was enough to stop anyone laughing....
CHAPTER 4
THE MARBLE BOY
AND DON'T forget to buy me an evening paper!" said Mrs. Banks, as she handed Jane two pennies and kissed her good-bye.
Michael looked at his Mother reproachfully.
"Is that all you're going to give us?" he asked. "What'll happen if we meet the Ice Cream Man?"
"Well," said Mrs. Banks reluctantly. "Here's another sixpence. But I do think you children get too many treats. I didn't have Ices every day when I was a little girl."
Michael looked at her curiously. He could not believe she had ever been a little girl. Mrs. George Banks in short skirts and her hair tied up with ribbons? Impossible!
"I suppose," he said smugly, "you didn't deserve them!"
And he tucked the sixpence carefully into the pocket of his sailor suit.
"That's Fourpence for the Ice Creams," said Jane. "And we'll buy a Lot-o'-Fun with the rest."
"Out of my way, Miss, if you please!" said a haughty voice behind her.
As neat and trim as a fashion-plate, Mary Poppins came down the steps with Annabel. She dumped her into the perambulator and pushed it past the children.
"Now, Quick March into the Park!" she snapped. "And no meandering!"
Down the path straggled Jane and Michael, with John and Barbara at their heels. The sun spread over Cherry-Tree Lane like a bright enormous umbrella. Thrushes and blackbirds sang in the trees. Down at the corner Admiral Boom was busily mowing his lawn.
From the distance came sounds of martial music. The Band was playing at the end of the Park. Along the walks went the flowery sunshades and beneath them sauntered gossiping ladies, exchanging the latest news.
The. Park Keeper, in his summer suit—blue with a red stripe on the sleeve—was keeping an eye on everyone as he tramped across the lawns.
"Observe the Rules! Keep Off the Grass! All Litter to be Placed in the Baskets!" he shouted.
Jane gazed at the sunny, dreamy scene. "It's just like Mr. Twigley's box," she said with a happy sigh.
Michael put his ear to the trunk of an oak.
"I believe I can hear it growing!" he cried. "It makes a small, soft, creeping sound——"
"You'll be creeping in a minute! Right back home, unless you hurry!" Mary Poppins warned him.
"No Rubbish Allowed in the Park!" shouted the Keeper, as she swept along the Lime Walk.
"Rubbish yourself!" she retorted briskly, with a haughty toss of her head.
He took off his hat and fanned his face as he stared at her retreating back. And you knew from the way Mary Poppins smiled that she knew quite well he was staring. How could he help it, she thought to herself. Wasn't she wearing her new white jacket, with the pink collar and the pink belt and the four pink buttons down the front?
"Which way are we going today?" asked Michael.
"That remains to be seen!" she answered him priggishly.
"I was only enquiring——" Michael argued.
"Don't, then!" she advised, with a warning sniff.
"She never lets me say anything!" he grumbled under his hat to Jane. "I'll go dumb some day and then she'll be sorry!"
Mary Poppins thrust the perambulator in front of her as though she were running an obstacle race.
"This way, please!" she commanded presently, as she swung the pram to the right.
And they knew, then, where they were going. For the little path that turned out of the Lime Walk led away towards the Lake.
There, beyond the tunnels of shade, lay the shining patch of water. It sparkled and danced in its net of sunlight and the children felt their hearts beat faster as they ran through the shadows towards it.
"I'll make a boat, and sail it to Africa!" shouted Michael, forgetting his crossness.
"I'll go fishing!" cried Jane, as she galloped past him.
Laughing and whooping and waving their hats, they came to the shining water. All round the Lake stood the dusty green benches, and the ducks went quacking along the edge, greedily looking for crusts.
At the far end of the water stood the battered marble statue of the Boy and the Dolphin. Dazzling white and bright it shone, between the Lake and the sky. There was a small chip off the Boy's nose and a line like a black thread round his ankle. One of the fingers of his left hand was broken off at the joint. And all his toes were cracked.
There he stood, on his high pedestal, with his arm flung lightly round the neck of the Dolphin. His head, with its ruffle of marble curls, was bent towards the water. He gazed down at it thoughtfully with wide marble eyes. The name NELEUS was carved in faded gilt letters at the base of the pedestal.
"How bright he is today!" breathed Jane, blinking her eyes at the shining marble.
And it was at that moment that she saw the Elderly Gentleman.
He was sitting at the foot of the statue, reading a book with the aid of a magnifying glass. His bald head was sheltered from the sun by a knotted silk handkerchief, and lying on the bench beside him was a black top-hat.
The children stared at the curious figure with fascinated eyes.
"That's Mary Poppins' favourite seat! She will be cross!" exclaimed Michael.
"Indeed? And when was I ever cross?" her voice enquired behind him.
The remark quite shocked him. "Why, you're often cross, Mary Poppins!" he said. "At least fifty times a day!"
"Never!" she said with an angry snap. "I have the patience of a Boa Constrictor! I merely Speak My Mind!"
She flounced away and sat down on a bench exactly opposite the Statue. Then she glared across the Lake at the Elderly Gentleman. It was a look that might have killed anybody else. But the Elderly Gentleman was quite unaffected. He went on poring over his book and took no notice of anyone. Mary Poppins, with an infuriated sniff, took her mending-bag from the perambulator and began to darn the socks.
The children scattered round the sparkling water.
"Here's my boat!" shrieked Michael, snatching a piece of coloured paper from a litter basket.
"I'm fishing," said Jane, as she lay on her stomach and stretched her hand over the water. She imagined a fishing-rod in her fingers and a line running down, with a hook and a worm. After a little while, she knew, a fish would swim lazily up to the hook and give the worm a tweak. Then, with a jerk, she would land him neatly and take him home in her hat. "Well, I never!" Mrs. Brill would say. "It's just what we needed for supper!"
Beside her the Twins were happily paddling. Michael steered his ship through a terrible storm. Mary Poppins sat primly on her bench and rocked the perambulator with one foot. Her silver needle flashed in the sunlight. The Park was quiet and dreamy and still.
Bang!
The Elderly Gentleman closed his book and the sound shattered the silence.
"Oh, I say!" protested a shrill sweet voice. "You might have let me finish!"
Jane and Michael looked up in surprise. They stared. They blinked. And they stared again. For there, on the grass before them, stood the little marble statue. The marble Dolphin was clasped in his arms and the pedestal was quite empty.
The Elderly Gentleman opened his mouth. Then he shut it and opened it again.
"Er—did you say something?" he said at last, and his eyebrows went up to the top of his head.
"Yes, of course I did!" the Boy replied. "I was reading over your shoulder there—" he pointed towards the empty pedestal, "and you closed the book too quickly. I wanted to finish the Elephant story and see how he got his TVunk."
"Oh, I beg your pardon," said the Elderly Gentleman. "I had no idea—er—of such a thing. I always stop reading at four, you see. I have to get home to my Tea."
He rose and folded the handkerchief and picked up the black top hat.
"Well, now that you've finished," the Boy said calmly, "you can give the book to me!"
The Elderly Gentleman drew back, clutching the book to his breas
t.
"Oh, I couldn't do that, I'm afraid," he said. "You see, I've only just bought it. I wanted to read it when I was young, but the grown-ups always got it first. And now that I've got a copy of my own, I really feel I must keep it."
He eyed the statue uneasily as though he feared that at any moment it might snatch the book away.
"I could tell you about the Elephant's Child—" Jane murmured shyly to the Boy.
He wheeled around with the fish in his arms.
"Oh, Jane—would you really?" he cried in surprise. His marble face gleamed with pleasure.
"And I'll tell you Yellow Dog Dingo," said Michael, "and The Butterfly That Stamped."
"No!" said the Elderly Gentleman suddenly. "Here am I with a suit of clothes and a hat. And he's quite naked. I'll give him the book! I suppose," he added, with a gloomy sigh, "I was never meant to have it."
He gave the book a last long look, and, thrusting it at the Marble Boy, he turned away quickly. But the Dolphin wriggled and caught his eye and he turned to the Boy again.
"By the way," he said, curiously, "I wonder how you caught that Porpoise? What did you use—a line or a net?"
"Neither," replied the Boy, with a smile. "He was given to me when I was born."
"Oh—I see." The Elderly Gentleman nodded, though he still looked rather puzzled. "Well—I must be getting along. Good-day!" He lifted the black top-hat politely and hurried off down the path.
"Thank you!" the Marble Boy shouted after him, as he eagerly opened the book. On the fly-leaf was written, in spidery writing, "William Weatherall Wilkins."
"I'll cross out his name and put mine instead." The Boy smiled gaily at Jane and Michael.
"But what is your name? And how can you read?" cried Michael, very astonished.
"My name is Neleus," the Boy said laughing. "And I read with my eyes, of course!"
"But you're only a statue!" Jane protested. "And statues don't usually walk and talk. However did you get down?"
"I jumped," replied Neleus, smiling again, as he tossed his marble curls. "I was so disappointed not to finish that story, that something happened to my feet. First they twitched, and then they jumped and the next thing I knew I was down on the grass!" He curled his little marble toes and stamped on the earth with his marble feet. "Oh, lucky, lucky human beings to be able to do this every day! I've watched you so often, Jane and Michael, and wished I could come and play with you. And now at last my wish has come true. Oh, tell me you're glad to see me!"
He touched their cheeks with his marble fingers and crowed with joy as he danced around them. Then before they could utter a word of welcome he sped like a hare to the edge of the Lake and dabbled his hand in the water.
"So—this is what water feels like!" he cried. "So deep and so blue—and as light as air!" He leaned out over the sparkling Lake and the Dolphin gave a flick of its tail and slipped from his arms with a splash.
"Catch him! He'll sink!" cried Michael quickly.
But the Dolphin did nothing of the kind. It swam round the Lake and threshed the water; it dived and caught its tail in its mouth and leapt in the air and dived again. The performance was just like a turn in the circus. And as it sprang, dripping, to the arms of its master, the children could not help clapping.
"Was it good?" asked Neleus enviously. And the Dolphin grinned and nodded.
"Good!" cried a well-known voice behind them. "I call it extremely naughty!"
Mary Poppins was standing at the edge of the Lake and her eyes were as bright as her darning needle. Neleus sprang to his feet with a little cry and hung his head before her. He looked very young and small and shy as he waited for her to speak.
"Who said you might get down, may I ask?" Her face had its usual look of fury.
He shook his head guiltily.
"No one," he mumbled. "My feet jumped down by themselves, Mary Poppins."
"Then they'd better jump up again, spit-spot. You've no right to be off your pedestal."
He tilted back his marble head and the sunlight glanced off his small chipped nose.
"Oh, can't I stay down, Mary Poppins?" he pleaded. "Do let me stay for a little while and play with Jane and Michael! You don't know how lonely it is up there, with only the birds to talk to!" The earnest marble eyes entreated her. "Please, Mary Poppins!" he whispered softly, as he clasped his marble hands.
She gazed down thoughtfully for a moment, as though she were making up her mind. Then her eyes softened. A little smile skipped over her mouth and crinkled the edge of her cheek.
"Well, just for this afternoon!" she said. "This one time, Neleus! Never again!"
"Never—I promise, Mary Poppins!" He gave her an impish grin.
"Do you know Mary Poppins?" demanded Michael. "Where did you meet her?" he wanted to know. He was feeling a little jealous.
"Of course I do!" exclaimed Neleus laughing. "She's a very old friend of my Father's."
"What is your Father's name? Where is he?" Jane was almost bursting with curiosity.
"Far away. In the Isles of Greece. He is called the King of the Sea." As he spoke, the marble eyes of Neleus brimmed slowly up with sadness.
"What does he do?" demanded Michael. "Does he go to the City—like Daddy?"
"Oh, no! He never goes anywhere. He stands on a cliff above the sea, holding his trident and blowing his horn. Beside him my Mother sits, combing her hair. And Pelias, that's my younger brother, plays at their feet with a marble shell. And all day long the gulls fly past them, making black shadows on their marble bodies, and telling them news of the harbour. By day they watch the red-sailed ships going in and out of the bay. And at night they listen to the wine-dark waters that break on the shore below."
"How lovely!" cried Jane. "But why did you leave them?"
She was thinking that she would never have left Mr. and Mrs. Banks and Michael alone on the cliffs of Greece.
"I didn't want to," said the Marble Boy. "But what can a statue do against men? They were always coming to stare at us—peeking and prying and pinching our arms. They said we were made a long time ago by a very famous artist. And one day somebody said—'I'll take himV—and he pointed at me. So—I had to go."
He hid his eyes for a moment behind the Dolphin's fin.
"What happened then?" demanded Jane. "How did you get to our Park?"
"In a packing-case," said Neleus calmly, and laughed at their look of astonishment. "Oh, we always travel that way, you know. My family is very much in demand. People want us for Parks or Museums or Gardens. So they buy us and send us by Parcel Post. It never seems to occur to them that some of us might be—lonely." He choked a little on the word. Then he flung up his head with a lordly gesture. "But don't let's think about that!" he cried. "It's been much better since you two came. Oh, Jane and Michael, I know you so well—as if you were part of my family. I know about Michael's Kite and his Compass; and the Doulton Bowl, and Robertson Ay, and the things you have for supper. Didn't you ever notice me listening? And reading the fairy-tales over your shoulders?"
Jane and Michael shook their heads.
"I know Alice in Wonderland by heart," he went on. "And most of Robinson Crusoe. And Everything a Lady Should Know, which is Mary Poppins' favourite. But best of all are the coloured comics, especially the one called Lot-o'-Fun. What happened to Tiger Tim this week? Did he get away safely from Uncle Moppsy?"
"The new one comes out today," said Jane. "We'll all read it together!"
"Oh, dear! How happy I am!" cried Neleus. "The Elephant's Child, and a new Lot-o'-Fun, and my legs like the wings of a bird. I don't know when my Birthday is, but I think it must be today!" He hugged the Dolphin and the book in his arms and capered across the grass.
"Hi! Ting-aling-aling! Look where you're going!" the Ice Cream Man gave a warning cry. He was wheeling his barrow along by the Lake. The printed notice in front of it said:
STOP ME AND BUY ONE
WHAT WONDERFUL WEATHER!
"Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!" cried th
e children wildly, as they ran towards the barrow.
"Chocolate!" said Michael.
"Lemon!" cried Jane.
And the fat little Twins put out their hands and gladly took what was given them.
"And wot about you!" said the Ice Cream Man, as Neleus came and stood shyly beside him.
"I don't know what to choose," said Neleus. "I never had one before."
"Wot! Never 'ad a Nice? Wot's the matter—weak stummick? A boy your size should know all about Ices! 'Ere!" The Ice Cream Man fished inside his barrow and brought out a Raspberry Bar. "Take this and see 'ow you like it!"
Neleus broke the bar with his marble fingers. He popped one half in the Dolphin's mouth and began to lick the other.
"Delicious," he said, "much better than seaweed."
"Seaweed? I should think so! Wot's seaweed got to do with it? But—talking of seaweed, that's a nice big Cod!" The Ice Cream Man waved his hand at the Dolphin. "If you took it along to the Fishmonger e'd give you a fancy price."
The Dolphin gave its tail a flick and its face looked very indignant.
"Oh, I don't want to sell him," said Neleus quickly. "He isn't just a fish—he's a friend!"
"A fishy kind of friend!" said the man. "Why doesn't 'e tell you to put on your clothes? You'll catch your death running round stark naked. Well, no offence meant! Ting-aling! Ting-aling!" He rode away whistling and ringing his bell.
Neleus glanced at the children out of the corner of his eye and the three burst out into peals of laughter.
"Oh, dear!" cried Neleus, gasping for breath. "I believe he thinks I'm human! Shall I run and tell him he's made a mistake? That I haven't worn clothes for two thousand years and never caught even a sniffle?"
He was just about to dart after the barrow when Michael gave a shout.
"Look out! Here's Willoughby!" he cried, and swallowed the rest of his Ice in one gulp.
For Willoughby, who belonged to Miss Lark, had a habit of jumping up at the children and snatching the food from their hands. He had rough, bouncy, vulgar manners and no respect for anyone. But what else could you expect of a dog who was half an Airedale and half a Retriever and the worst half of both?