of coloured paper hung in the windows, and on the shelves were shabby little boxes of Sherbet, old Liquorice Sticks, and very withered, very hard Apples-on-a-stick. There was a small dark doorway between the windows, and through this Mary Poppins propelled the perambulator while Jane and Michael followed at her heels.
Inside the shop they could dimly see the glass-topped counter that ran round three sides of it. And in a case under the glass were rows and rows of dark, dry gingerbread, each slab so studded with gilt stars that the shop itself seemed to be faintly lit by them. Jane and Michael glanced round to find out what kind of a person was to serve them, and were very surprised when Mary Poppins called out:
“Fannie! Annie! Where are you?” Her voice seemed to echo back to them from each dark wall of the shop.
And as she called, two of the largest people the children had even seen rose from behind the counter and shook hands with Mary Poppins. The huge women then leant down over the counter and said, “How de do?” in voices as large as themselves, and shook hands with Jane and Michael.
“How do you do, Miss—?” Michael paused, wondering which of the large ladies was which.
“Fannie’s my name,” said one of them. “My rheumatism is about the same; thank you for asking.” She spoke very mournfully, as though she were unused to such a courteous greeting.
“It’s a lovely day—” began Jane politely to the other sister, who kept Jane’s hand imprisoned for almost a minute in her huge clasp.
“I’m Annie,” she informed them miserably. “And handsome is as handsome does.”
Jane and Michael thought that both the sisters had a very odd way of expressing themselves, but they had not time to be surprised for long, for Miss Fannie and Miss Annie were reaching out their long arms to the perambulator. Each shook hands solemnly with one of the Twins, who were so astonished that they began to cry.
“Now, now, now, now! What’s this, what’s this?” A high, thin, crackly little voice came from the back of the shop. At the sound of it the expression on the faces of Miss Fannie and Miss Annie, sad before, became even sadder. They seemed frightened and ill at ease, and somehow Jane and Michael realized that the two huge sisters were wishing that they were much smaller and less conspicuous.
“What’s all this I hear?” cried the curious high little voice, coming nearer. And presently, round the corner of the glass case, the owner of it appeared. She was as small as her voice and as crackly, and to the children she seemed to be older than anything in the world, with her wispy hair and her stick-like legs and her wizened, wrinkled little face. But in spite of this she ran towards them as lightly and as gaily as though she were still a young girl.
“Now, now, now – well, I do declare! Bless me if it isn’t Mary Poppins, with John and Barbara Banks. What – Jane and Michael, too? Well, isn’t this a nice surprise for me? I assure you I haven’t been so surprised since Christopher Columbus discovered America – truly I haven’t!”
She smiled delightedly as she came to greet them, and her feet made little dancing movements inside the tiny elastic-sided boots. She ran to the perambulator and rocked it gently, crooking her thin, twisted, old fingers at John and Barbara until they stopped crying and began to laugh.
“That’s better!” she said, cackling gaily. Then she did a very odd thing. She broke off two of her fingers and gave one each to John and Barbara. And the oddest part of it was that in the space left by the broken-off fingers two new ones grew at once. Jane and Michael clearly saw it happen.
“Only Barley-sugar – can’t possibly hurt ’em,” the old lady said to Mary Poppins.
“Anything you give them, Mrs Corry, could only do them good,” said Mary Poppins with most surprising courtesy.
“What a pity,” Michael couldn’t help saying, “they weren’t Peppermint Bars.”
“Well, they are, sometimes,” said Mrs Corry gleefully, “and very good they taste, too. I often nibble ’em myself, if I can’t sleep at night. Splendid for the digestion.”
“What will they be next time?” asked Jane, looking at Mrs Corry’s fingers with interest.
“Aha!” said Mrs Corry. “That’s just the question. I never know from day to day what they will be. I take the chance, my dear, as I heard William the Conqueror say to his Mother when she advised him not to go conquering England.”
“You must be very old!” said Jane, sighing enviously, and wondering if she would ever be able to remember what Mrs Corry remembered.
Mrs Corry flung back her wispy little head and shrieked with laughter.
“Old!” she said. “Why, I’m quite a chicken compared to my Grandmother. Now, there’s an old woman if you like. Still, I go back a good way. I remember the time when they were making this world, anyway, and I was well out of my teens then. My goodness, that was a to-do, I can tell you!”
She broke off suddenly, screwing up her little eyes at the children.
“But, deary me – here am I running on and on and you not being served! I suppose, my dear” – she turned to Mary Poppins, whom she appeared to know very well – “I suppose you’ve all come for some Gingerbread?”
“That’s right, Mrs Corry,” said Mary Poppins politely.
“Good. Have Fannie and Annie given you any?” She looked at Jane and Michael as she said this.
Jane shook her head. Two hushed voices came from behind the counter.
“No, Mother,” said Miss Fannie meekly.
“We were just going to, Mother—” began Miss Annie in a frightened whisper.
At that Mrs Corry drew herself up to her full height and regarded her gigantic daughters furiously. Then she said in a soft, fierce, terrifying voice:
“Just going to? Oh, indeed! That is very interesting. And who, may I ask, Annie, gave you permission to give away my gingerbread—?”
“Nobody, Mother. And I didn’t give it away. I only thought—”
“You only thought! That is very kind of you. But I will thank you not to think. I can do all the thinking that is necessary here!” said Mrs Corry in her soft, terrible voice. Then she burst into a harsh cackle of laughter.
“Look at her! Just look at her! Cowardy-custard! Cry-baby!” she shrieked, pointing her knotty finger at her daughter.
Jane and Michael turned and saw a large tear coursing down Miss Annie’s huge, sad face, but they did not like to say anything, for, in spite of her tininess, Mrs Corry made them feel rather small and frightened. But as soon as Mrs Corry looked the other way Jane seized the opportunity to offer Miss Annie her handkerchief. The huge tear completely drenched it, and Miss Annie, with a grateful look, wrung it out before she returned it to Jane.
“And you, Fannie – did you think, too, I wonder?”The high little voice was now directed at the other daughter.
“No, Mother,” said Miss Fannie trembling.
“Humph! Just as well for you! Open that case!”
With frightened, fumbling fingers, Miss Fannie opened the glass case.
“Now, my darlings,” said Mrs Corry in quite a different voice. She smiled and beckoned so sweetly to Jane and Michael that they were ashamed of having been frightened of her, and felt that she must be very nice after all. “Won’t you come and take your pick, my lambs? It’s a special recipe today – one I got from Alfred the Great. He was a very good cook, I remember, though he did once burn the cakes. How many?”
Jane and Michael looked at Mary Poppins.
“Four each,” she said. “That’s twelve. One dozen.”