Chapter 13
"Oh, Fraulein, Marta, you're back!" The children all yelled as soon as Maria
and Marta appeared at the front door. The captain heard all the noise and
went to investigate. He was delighted to see his daughter and lovely fraulein
at the door. Fraulein Maria and Marta greeted them. "Hi!" Marta said,
cheerfully. "What did you guys do while we were gone? We went shopping,
and went out for lunch. Oh, and we ran into a friend of Maria's. What's her name again?" Marta turned to Maria. "Mary Poppins" Maria answered, grinning. "I haven't seen her in so long, so I thought that if it was alright with you, captain, "She said turning to the captain. "to bring her over for dinner sometime?" The captain nodded understandingly. "Of course! Any friend of yours is welcome in this family." He replied reassuringly. Maria looked relieved and grateful. "Thank you sir." Turning to the children again, she said, "Now, how about we go to the nursery, and you can all tell me about your day." The children agreed. Just before they left, the captain remembered something. "OH, Fraulein, children, your puppet show has arrived." "Oh thank you, Captain." Maria said, grinning. "Uh, where is it now?" Chuckling, the Captain said, "Inside the ballroom." Without another word, the children and their governess sped to the ballroom where their puppet show was waiting. The captain shook his head in amusement, but followed. When he arrived at the doorway, he saw that his children and Maria were rummaging through the box with the puppets. "Look, Fraulein Maria! We could use these for the goats." Gretl said excitedly. She held up in her hand a puppet in the form of a goat. Fraulein Maria smiled, and said, "Yes, Gretl. We can. Now, everyone! We must start practicing. We can probably perform it in about 3 weeks time. Shall we start?" Maria's question was answered by the loud voices of the children saying, "YEA!" "Well, let's get to work!" Maria said brightly. "Now, as I said a couple days ago, the little ones are going to be dealing with the background scenes. Marta, Gretl, I will show you what you'll need to do later. Right now, you two can help me organize everything ok?" Both girls nodded, feeling proud that they were given such a good responsibility. The Captain had been listening this whole time, and at the looks of his young daughters' faces, he couldn't help but laugh. Maria heard this, as the children did. "FATHER!" The children yelped. "This is a surprise! Go away!" "You never told me that!" The Captain said defensively. Maria came to his defense. "That's true, children. We never did tell him." The Captain looked at her gratefully. What a woman! She's sweet, thoughtful, loving towards the children, too bad she'll have to leave in September! His thoughts were interrupted by his children apologizing to him. He smiled lovingly at them and said, "it's ok. I'll go now." With that, he left. Fraulein Maria continued. "Liesl, Frederick, Louisa, Brigitta, you five will deal with the actual puppets. So, just to make things easier, I'll divide the parts." She paused, searching the children's faces for objection. AS she went through each face, to her relief she didn't find any. She continued. "Brigitta, you will be playing the baby goat, and I have a special solo for you, since I know that you want to practice singing. This will be a great opportunity for you. Frederick, you will play the lonely goatherd, and one of those soldiers over there. Liesl, you will play one of the soldiers, the female goat, and the girl. Louisa, I'll need you to fill in the rest, ok? Is that ok with everyone?" To her relief, everyone nodded, though Louisa looked a little reluctant. "Good. Now then, it looks like it's nearly dinner, so we should get ready for it. Everyone, to your rooms!" The children needed no urging. They rushed to their rooms, and got ready. When they got ready, they went downstairs to the dining room, where their father was waiting. "Good evening, children!" The captain said cheerfully. "Evening, father!" The children responded excitedly. "Wait till you see our puppet show! It's going to be amazing." Gretl said smugly. Laughing, the Captain went over to his daughter and gave her a hug. "Oh, I'm sure it is, darling. I'm sure it is."