Mary Poppins / Мэри Поппинс. Книга для чтения на английском языке. П. Л. Трэверс

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What greatly surprised the children when the woman followed Mrs. Banks upstairs?

      14. What did Jane ask Mary Poppins when Mrs. Banks left the Nursery?

      15. What surprised Jane and Michael when Mary Poppins opened her bag?

      16. What did Mary Poppins take out of her bag?

      2. LAUGHING GAS

      Jane, Michael and Mary Poppins got off the Bus. “Are you sure your Uncle is at home?” said Jane.

      Mary Poppins sniffed.

      “My Uncle has asked me to bring you to tea today,” she said. “Do you think he is not at home?”

      “Why is your Uncle called Mr. Wigg?” asked Michael. “Is it because he has a wig16 on his head?”

      “He has no wig,” said Mary Poppins. “And he is called Mr. Wigg because his name is Mr. Wigg. And if you ask any more questions, we will go Back Home.”

      Mary Poppins put her hat straight17 before a shop window. She liked to look at herself in shop windows18. Today she was wearing a blue coat with silver buttons and a blue hat. She thought that she looked very smart.

      “Come along19,” she said. They turned the corner and went up to Number Three, Robertson Road. Mary Poppins rang the door bell.

      The door opened, and they saw a very thin lady.

      “Is he at home?” said Michael.

      “How do you do, Mrs. Wigg,” said Jane politely.

      “Mrs. Wigg!” said the thin lady angrily. Her voice was even thinner than she herself. “How can you call me Mrs. Wigg? No, thank you! I am Miss Persimmon20 and I am proud of it! Mrs. Wigg, indeed! Go upstairs and to the first door on the landing.” And she went away along the corridor.

      Jane, Michael and Mary Poppins went upstairs. Mary Poppins knocked at the door.

      “Come in! Come in! And welcome21!” said a loud and merry voice from the room.

      Mary Poppins opened the door, and they went in. They saw a large room. There was a bright fire in the fireplace, and in the centre of the room there was a very large table with four cups, bread and butter, biscuits, chocolates and a very large cake.

      “I am very glad to see you,” said a voice. Jane and Michael looked round the room, but saw nobody. Then they saw that Mary Poppins was looking at the ceiling. They looked at the ceiling, too, and to their surprise22 they saw a round, fat man, who was hanging in the air.

      Mr. Wigg smiled at the children. “My dear,” he said to Mary Poppins, “it is my Birthday today.”

      “Oh,” said Mary Poppins.

      Mr. Wigg looked at the children again.

      “I see you are surprised,” he said. “I think I must explain to you why I am here. You see, I am a very merry man and like to laugh very much. Everything seems funny to me. And I can laugh at everything that I see.”

      And Mr. Wigg began to shake with laughter23.

      “Uncle Albert!” said Mary Poppins, and Mr. Wigg stopped laughing.

      “Oh, I am sorry, my dear,” he said to Mary Poppins. “I won’t laugh – if I can.” He turned to the children. “You see,” he said, “when my birthday comes on Friday, it always happens to me.”

      “But why —” began Jane.

      “But how —” began Michael.

      “If my birthday comes on Friday and I laugh on that day, I become filled with Laughing Gas24. The Laughing Gas is very light, and when it fills me25 I simply cannot stand on the ground. As soon as26 I begin laughing, or even smiling, I fly up like a balloon. And I can get down only if I think about something serious.” Mr. Wigg began laughing again, but then he looked at Mary Poppins and stopped.

      “It is strange, of course,” he said, “but very pleasant. Does it ever happen to you?27 ” he asked Jane and Michael.

      Jane and Michael shook their heads.

      “One day,” said Mr. Wigg, “I went to the Circus and I laughed so much that I flew up to the ceiling and could not get down until midnight, and then, of course, at twelve o’clock I suddenly fell down. Because, you see, it was already Saturday and not my birthday. It’s strange, isn’t it? And funny, isn’t it? And now it is Friday again and my birthday, and you two and Mary have come to visit me, and it is very nice. Oh, don’t make me laugh28, please, don’t make me laugh —”

      And Mr. Wigg began laughing and shaking under the ceiling again, and could not stop.

      He looked so funny, that Jane and Michael began laughing, too. They wanted to be polite and tried not to laugh, but they could do nothing. They laughed more and more, and soon they fell down and were rolling and rolling on the floor, and could not stop laughing.

      “Really!” said Mary Poppins. “Really, such behaviour!”

      “I can’t help it29, I can’t help it,” cried Michael, and he was still rolling on the floor. “It is so funny. Oh, Jane, isn’t it funny?”

      Then a very strange thing happened. Jane and Michael became very light and flew up in the air! The next moment they were hanging under the ceiling near Mr. Wigg.

      “Hello!” said Mr. Wigg. “It’s very nice of you. You saw that I could not come down to you, so you came up to me!

      It’s really very, very nice of you.” And all the three of them began laughing again.

      “I say,” said Mr. Wigg to the children when they stopped laughing, “there are no chairs here, but I think you can sit on the air. Look at me, I am sitting.”

      And indeed, Mr. Wigg was sitting on the air. Jane and Michael tried to sit down, too, and found that they also could sit on the air and that it was very comfortable.

      Mr. Wigg looked down at Mary Poppins. “I see you don’t like it, my dear,” he said. “I am very sorry. But you see that I can’t help it.”

      Mary Poppins looked very serious. “Well, I must say,” she said, “I have never seen such a sight30. And at your age31, Uncle —”

      “Mary Poppins, Mary

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