“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 Poppins, come up here!” said Michael. “Think of something funny and come up here.”
“Come, Mary Poppins, come up here,” said Jane. “Please come up here! Think of something funny!”
“Oh, she can do it even if she does not think of funny things,” said Mr. Wigg.
“Well, it is all very silly,” said Mary Poppins. “But I see that you cannot come down.”
And to the great surprise of Jane and Michael, she put her hands down at her sides and without a laugh, without even a smile, she flew up through the air and sat down near Jane.
“That’s right, Mary,” said Mr. Wigg. “Now we can have tea. Oh! I didn’t think of it! We are here and the table is down there on the floor. Quick! We must think of something serious. Something sad, very sad, and then we shall get down.”
They began thinking. They thought and thought, but could not think of anything serious.
“Mary,” said Mr. Wigg, “can’t you do something? We want our tea.”
Jane and Michael could not believe their eyes. The table, with the cups, and bread and butter, and biscuits and chocolates and cake, flew up through the air and stopped near them. Now they were sitting round the table!
“Good girl!” said Mr. Wigg. He smiled. “Usually people begin with bread and butter,” he said to Jane and Michael. “But it is my birthday today. Let’s begin with the Cake!”
And he cut a large piece of cake for everybody.
And they had very nice tea with cake, biscuits and chocolates, and talked and laughed all the time.
“IT IS TIME TO GO HOME.” It was Mary Poppins’s voice. It was the first sad thought32 of the afternoon, and suddenly the Laughing Gas went out of them, and they came down on the floor.
“Well, it’s a pity that it is time for you to go home,” said Mr. Wigg. “It was a very pleasant afternoon, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, very pleasant,” said Michael sadly.
“Very, very pleasant,” said Jane and kissed Mr. Wigg’s cheek. “We shall never forget it.”
1. Practice the pronunciation of the following words.
2. Agree or disagree.
1. Mary Poppins put her hat straight before a shop window.
2. Today she was wearing a brown coat with black buttons and a grey hat.
3. The door opened, and they saw a very fat lady.
4. Jane, Michael and Mary Poppins went upstairs.
5. There was a bright fire in the fireplace, and in the centre of the room there was a small table with flowers in a beautiful vase.
6. Jane and Michael looked round the room and saw a round fat man in the corner.
7. They wanted to be polite and tried not to laugh, but they could do nothing.
8.