Duck!” shrieked John, snatching the Duck from Barbara.
“Mine, mine, mine!” cried Barbara, snatching it back again.
“Children! Children!” Mrs Banks was wringing her hands in despair. “Be quiet or I shall Go Mad!”
There was silence for a moment as they stared at her with interest. Would she really, they wondered? And what would she be like, if she did?
“Now,” said Mrs Banks, “I will not have this behaviour. Poor Ellen has hurt her ankle, so there is nobody to look after you. You must all go into the Park and play there till Tea-time. Jane and Michael, you must look after the little ones. John, let Barbara have the Duck now and you can have it when you go to bed. Michael, you may take your new Kite. Now, get your hats, all of you!”
“But I want to finish my horse—” began Michael crossly.
“Why must we go to the Park?” complained Jane. “There’s nothing to do there!”
“Because,” said Mrs Banks, “I must have peace. And if you will go quietly and be good children there will be Coconut Cakes for tea.”
And before they had time to break out again, she had put on their hats and was hurrying them down the stairs.
“Look both ways!” she called as they went through the gate, Jane pushing the Twins in the perambulator and Michael carrying his Kite.
They looked to the right. There was nothing coming.
They looked to the left. There was nobody there but the Ice Cream Man, who was jingling his bell at the end of the Lane.
Jane hurried across. Michael trailed after her.
“I hate this life!” he said miserably to his Kite. “Everything always goes wrong always.”
Jane pushed the perambulator as far as the Lake.
“Now,” she said,” give me the Duck!”
The Twins shrieked and clutched it at either end. Jane uncurled their fingers.
“Look!” she said, throwing the Duck into the Lake. “Look, darlings, it’s going to India!”
The Duck drifted off across the water. The Twins stared at it and sobbed.
Jane ran round the Lake and caught it and sent it off again.
“Now,” she said brightly, “it’s off to Southampton!”
The Twins did not appear to be amused.
“Now to New York!” They wept harder than ever.
Jane flung out her hands. “Michael, what are we to do with them? If we give the Duck to them they’ll fight over it, and if we don’t they’ll go on crying.”
“I’ll fly the Kite for them,” said Michael. “Look, children, look!”
He held up the beautiful green-and-yellow Kite and began to unwind the string. The Twins eyed it tearfully and without interest. He lifted the Kite above his head and ran a little way. It flapped along the air for a moment and then collapsed hollowly on the grass.
“Try again!” said Jane encouragingly.
“You hold it up while I run,” said Michael.
This time the Kite rose a little higher. But, as it floated, its long, tasselled tail caught in the branches of a Lime Tree and the Kite dangled limply among the leaves.
The Twins howled lustily.
“Oh, dear,” said Jane. “Nothing goes right nowadays.”
“Hullo, hullo, hullo! What’s all this?” said a voice behind them.
They turned and saw the Park Keeper, looking very smart in his uniform and peaked cap. He was prodding up stray pieces of paper with the sharp end of his walking-stick.
Jane pointed to the Lime Tree. The Keeper looked up. His face became very stern.
“Now, now, you’re breaking the rules! We don’t allow Litter here, you know – not on the ground nor in the trees neither. This won’t do at all!”
“It isn’t Litter. It’s a Kite,” said Michael.
A mild, soft, foolish look came over the Keeper’s face. He went up to the Lime Tree.
“A Kite? So it is. And I haven’t flown a Kite since I was a boy!” He sprang up into the tree and came down holding the Kite tenderly under his arm.
“Now,” he said excitedly, “we’ll wind her up and give her a run and away she’ll go!” He put out his hand for the winding-stick.
Michael clutched it firmly.
“Thank you, but I want to fly it myself.”
“Well, but you’ll let me help, won’t you?” said the Keeper humbly. “Seeing as I got it down and I haven’t flown a Kite since I was a boy.”
“All right,” said Michael, for he didn’t want to seem unkind.
“Oh, thank you, thank you!” cried the Keeper gratefully. “Now, I take the Kite and walk ten paces down the green. And when I say ‘Go!’ you run! See?”
The Keeper walked away, counting his steps out loud.
“Eight, nine, ten.”
He turned and raised the Kite above his head.
“Go!”
Michael began to run.
There was a tug at the string as the winding-stick turned in his hand.
“She’s afloat!” cried the Keeper.
Michael looked back. The Kite was sailing through the air, plunging steadily upwards. Higher and higher it dived, a tiny wisp of green-and-yellow bounding away into the blue. The Keeper’s eyes were popping.
“I never saw such a kite. Not even when I was a boy,” he murmured, staring upwards.
A light cloud came up over the sun and puffed across the sky.
“It’s coming towards the Kite,” said Jane in an excited whisper.
Up and up went the tossing tail, darting through the air until it seemed but a faint, dark speck on the sky. The cloud moved slowly towards it. Nearer, nearer. . .
“Gone!” said Michael, as the speck disappeared behind the thin grey screen.
Jane gave a little sigh. The Twins sat quietly in the perambulator. A curious stillness was upon them all. The taut string running up from Michael’s hand seemed to link them all to the cloud,
