Mary Poppins Comes Back by P. L. Travers Page B

behind his wing.
    "Perhaps she came from a Toy-Shop," said Michael.
    Annabel, with a furious movement, flung his finger from her.
    "Don't be silly!" said Jane. "Doctor Simpson must have brought her in his little brown bag!"
    "Was I right or was I wrong?" The Starling's old dark eyes gleamed tauntingly at Annabel.
    "Tell me that!" he jeered, flapping his wings in triumph.
    But for answer Annabel turned her face against Mary Poppins' apron and wept. Her first cries, thin and lonely, rang piercingly through the house.
    "There! There!" said the Starling gruffly. "Don't take on! It can't be helped. You're only a human child after all. But next time, perhaps, you'll believe your Betters! Elders and Betters! Elders and Betters!" he screamed, prancing conceitedly up and down.
    "Michael, take my feather duster please, and sweep those birds off the sill!" said Mary Poppins ominously.
    A squawk of amusement came from the Starling.
    "We can sweep ourselves off, Mary Poppins, thank you! We were just going, anyway! Come along, Boy!"
    And with a loud clucking chuckle he flicked the Fledgling over the sill and swooped with him through the window....
    In a very short time, Annabel settled down comfortably to life in Cherry Tree Lane. She enjoyed being the centre of attraction and was always pleased when somebody leant over her cradle and said how pretty she was, or how good or sweet-tempered.
    "Do go on admiring me!" she would say, smiling. "I like it so much!"
    And then they would hasten to tell her how curly her hair was and how blue her eyes, and Annabel would smile in such a satisfied way that they would cry, "How intelligent she is! You would almost think she understood!"
    But
that
always annoyed her and she would turn away in disgust at their foolishness. Which was silly because when she was disgusted she looked so charming that they became more foolish than ever.
    She was a week old before the Starling returned. Mary Poppins, in the dim glow of the night-light, was gently rocking the cradle when he appeared.
    "Back again?" snapped Mary Poppins, watching him prance in. "You're as bad as a bad penny!" She gave a long disgusted sniff.
    "I've been busy!" said the Starling. "Have to keep my affairs in order. And this isn't the
only
Nursery I have to look after, you know!" His beady black eyes twinkled wickedly.
    "Humph!" she said shortly, "I'm sorry for the others!"
    He chuckled and shook his head.
    "Nobody like her!" he remarked chirpily to the blind-tassel. "Nobody like her! She's got an answer for everything!" He cocked his head towards the cradle. "Well, how are things? Annabel asleep?"
    "No thanks to you, if she is!" said Mary Poppins.
    The Starling ignored the remark. He hopped to the end of the sill.
    "I'll keep watch," he said, in a whisper. "You go down and get a cup of tea!"
    Mary Poppins stood up.
    "Mind you don't wake her, then!"
    The Starling laughed pityingly.
    "My dear girl, I have in my time brought up at least twenty broods of fledglings. I don't need to be told how to look after a mere baby."
    "Humph!" Mary Poppins walked to the cupboard and very pointedly put the biscuit-tin under her arm before she went out and shut the door.
    The Starling marched up and down the window-sill, backwards and forwards, with his wing-tips under his tail-feathers.
    There was a small stir in the cradle. Annabel opened her eyes.
    "Hullo!" she said. "I was wanting to see you."
    "Ha!" said the Starling, swooping across to her.
    "There's something I wanted to remember," said Annabel frowning, "and I thought you might remind me."
    He started. His dark eye glittered.
    "How does it go?" he said softly. "Like this?"
    And he began in a husky whisper—"I am earth and air and fire and water——"
    "No, no!" said Annabel impatiently. "Of course it doesn't."
    "Well," said the Starling anxiously. "Was it about your journey? You came from the sea and its tides, you came from the sky and——"
    "Oh, don't be so
silly!
" cried Annabel. "The only journey I