The Phoenix and the Carpet..............................................................................................................................1

Edith Nesbit.............................................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER 1. THE EGG.........................................................................................................................2

CHAPTER 2. THE TOPLESS TOWER...............................................................................................12

CHAPTER 3. THE QUEEN COOK ......................................................................................................22

CHAPTER 4. TWO BAZAARS...........................................................................................................34

CHAPTER 5. THE TEMPLE ................................................................................................................45

CHAPTER 6. DOING GOOD ...............................................................................................................57

CHAPTER 7. MEWS FROM PERSIA.................................................................................................65

CHAPTER 8. THE CATS, THE COW, AND THE BURGLAR ..........................................................74

CHAPTER 9. THE BURGLAR'S BRIDE............................................................................................82

CHAPTER 10. THE HOLE IN THE CARPET .....................................................................................91

CHAPTER 11. THE BEGINNING OF THE END.............................................................................101

CHAPTER 12. THE END OF THE END...........................................................................................109

It began with the day when it was almost the Fifth of November, and a doubt arose in some breastRobert's,

I fancyas to the quality of the fireworks laid in for the Guy Fawkes celebration.

'They were jolly cheap,' said whoever it was, and I think it was Robert, 'and suppose they didn't go off on the

'The ones _I_ got are all right,' Jane said; 'I know they are, because the man at the shop said they were worth

'Of course it isn't,' said Cyril; 'one word can't be grammar all by itself, so you needn't be so jolly clever.'

Anthea was rummaging in the cornerdrawers of her mind for a very disagreeable answer, when she

remembered what a wet day it was, and how the boys had been disappointed of that ride to London and back

on the top of the tram, which their mother had promised them as a reward for not having once forgotten, for

So Anthea only said, 'Don't be so jolly clever yourself, Squirrel. And the fireworks look all right, and you'll

have the eightpence that your tram fares didn't cost today, to buy something more with. You ought to get a

'But look here,' said Robert, 'really now, about the fireworks. We don't want to be disgraced before those kids

next door. They think because they wear red plush on Sundays no one else is any good.'

'I wouldn't wear plush if it was ever sounless it was black to be beheaded in, if I was Mary Queen of

Robert stuck steadily to his point. One great point about Robert is the steadiness with which he can stick.

'You young duffer,' said Cyril, 'fireworks are like postagestamps. You can only use them once.'

There was a blank silence. Then Cyril touched his forehead with his finger and shook his head.

'A little wrong here,' he said. 'I was always afraid of that with poor Robert. All that cleverness, you know, and

'Dry up,' said Robert, fiercely. 'Don't you see? You can't TEST seeds if you do them ALL. You just take a

few here and there, and if those grow you can feel pretty sure the others will bewhat do you call

it?Father told me"up to sample". Don't you think we ought to sample the fireworks? Just shut our eyes

'And Queen Anne is dead,' rejoined Robert. No one was in a very good temper. 'We needn't go out to do

them; we can just move back the table, and let them off on the old teatray we play toboggans with. I don't

know what YOU think, but _I_ think it's time we did something, and that would be really useful; because

then we shouldn't just HOPE the fireworks would make those Prossers sit upwe should KNOW.'

So the table was moved back. And then the hole in the carpet, that had been near the window till the carpet

was turned round, showed most awfully. But Anthea stole out on tiptoe, and got the tray when cook wasn't

Then all the fireworks were put on the table, and each of the four children shut its eyes very tight and put out

its hand and grasped something. Robert took a cracker, Cyril and Anthea had Roman candles; but Jane's fat

paw closed on the gem of the whole collection, the Jackinthebox that had cost two shillings, and one at

least of the partyI will not say which, because it was sorry afterwardsdeclared that Jane had done it on

purpose. Nobody was pleased. For the worst of it was that these four children, with a very proper dislike of

anything even faintly bordering on the sneakish, had a law, unalterable as those of the Medes and Persians,

that one had to stand by the results of a tossup, or a drawing of lots, or any other appeal to chance, however

'You know jolly well you can't,' said Cyril, bitterly. 'It's settled. It's Medium and Persian. You've done it, and

you'll have to stand by itand us too, worse luck. Never mind. YOU'LL have your pocketmoney before the

Fifth. Anyway, we'll have the Jackinthebox LAST, and get the most out of it we can.'

So the cracker and the Roman candles were lighted, and they were all that could be expected for the money;

but when it came to the Jackinthebox it simply sat in the tray and laughed at them, as Cyril said. They

tried to light it with paper and they tried to light it with matches; they tried to light it with Vesuvian fusees

from the pocket of father's secondbest overcoat that was hanging in the hall. And then Anthea slipped away

to the cupboard under the stairs where the brooms and dustpans were kept, and the rosiny firelighters that

smell so nice and like the woods where pinetrees grow, and the old newspapers and the beeswax and

turpentine, and the horrid an stiff dark rags that are used for cleaning brass and furniture, and the paraffin for

the lamps. She came back with a little pot that had once cost sevenpencehalfpenny when it was full of

redcurrant jelly; but the jelly had been all eaten long ago, and now Anthea had filled the jar with paraffin.

She came in, and she threw the paraffin over the tray just at the moment when Cyril was trying with the

twentythird match to light the Jackinthebox. The Jackinthebox did not catch fire any more than

usual, but the paraffin acted quite differently, and in an instant a hot flash of flame leapt up and burnt off

Cyril's eyelashes, and scorched the faces of all four before they could spring back. They backed, in four

instantaneous bounds, as far as they could, which was to the wall, and the pillar of fire reached from floor to

The flame was spreading out under the ceiling like the rose of fire in Mr Rider Haggard's exciting story about

Allan Quatermain. Robert and Cyril saw that no time was to be lost. They turned up the edges of the carpet,

and kicked them over the tray. This cut off the column of fire, and it disappeared and there was nothing left

All hands now rushed to the rescue, and the paraffin fire was only a bundle of trampled carpet, when

suddenly a sharp crack beneath their feet made the amateur firemen start back. Another crackthe carpet

moved as if it had had a cat wrapped in it; the Jackinthebox had at last allowed itself to be lighted, and it

Robert, with the air of one doing the only possible thing, rushed to the window and opened it. Anthea

screamed, Jane burst into tears, and Cyril turned the table wrong way up on top of the carpet heap. But the

firework went on, banging and bursting and spluttering even underneath the table.

Next moment mother rushed in, attracted by the howls of Anthea, and in a few moments the firework desisted

and there was a dead silence, and the children stood looking at each other's black faces, and, out of the

The fact that the nursery carpet was ruined occasioned but little surprise, nor was any one really astonished

that bed should prove the immediate end of the adventure. It has been said that all roads lead to Rome; this

may be true, but at any rate, in early youth I am quite sure that many roads lead to BED, and stop thereor

The rest of the fireworks were confiscated, and mother was not pleased when father let them off himself in

the back garden, though he said, 'Well, how else can you get rid of them, my dear?'

You see, father had forgotten that the children were in disgrace, and that their bedroom windows looked out

on to the back garden. So that they all saw the fireworks most beautifully, and admired the skill with which

Next day all was forgotten and forgiven; only the nursery had to be deeply cleaned (like springcleaning),

And mother went out; and just at teatime next day a man came with a rolledup carpet, and father paid him,

'If the carpet isn't in good condition, you know, I shall expect you to change it.' And the man replied

'There ain't a thread gone in it nowhere, mum. It's a bargain, if ever there was one, and I'm more'n 'arf sorry I

let it go at the price; but we can't resist the lydies, can we, sir?' and he winked at father and went away.

Then the carpet was put down in the nursery, and sure enough there wasn't a hole in it anywhere.

As the last fold was unrolled something hard and loudsounding bumped out of it and trundled along the

nursery floor. All the children scrambled for it, and Cyril got it. He took it to the gas. It was shaped like an

egg, very yellow and shiny, halftransparent, and it had an odd sort of light in it that changed as you held it in

different ways. It was as though it was an egg with a yolk of pale fire that just showed through the stone.

And of course mother said no; they must take it back to the man who had brought the carpet, because she had

So she told them where the shop was, and it was in the Kentish Town Road, not far from the hotel that is

called the Bull and Gate. It was a poky little shop, and the man was arranging furniture outside on the

pavement very cunningly, so that the more broken parts should show as little as possible. And directly he saw

the children he knew them again, and he began at once, without giving them a chance to speak.

'No you don't' he cried loudly; 'I ain't agoin' to take back no carpets, so don't you make no bloomin' errer. A

'We don't want you to take it back,' said Cyril; 'but we found something in it.'

'It must have got into it up at your place, then,' said the man, with indignant promptness, 'for there ain't

'Oh, if it's MOTHS,' said the man, 'that's easy cured with borax. But I expect it was only an odd one. I tell you

the carpet's good through and through. It hadn't got no moths when it left my 'andsnot so much as an hegg.'

'Clear out, I say!' he shouted, 'or I'll call for the police. A nice thing for customers to 'ear you acoming 'ere

acharging me with finding things in goods what I sells. 'Ere, be off, afore I sends you off with a flea in your

The children fled, and they think, and their father thinks, that they couldn't have done anything else. Mother

'The man certainly didn't know the egg was there when he brought the carpet,' said he, 'any more than your

So the egg was put on the mantelpiece, where it quite brightened up the dingy nursery. The nursery was

dingy, because it was a basement room, and its windows looked out on a stone area with a rockery made of

clinkers facing the windows. Nothing grew in the rockery except London pride and snails.

The room had been described in the house agent's list as a 'convenient breakfastroom in basement,' and in

the daytime it was rather dark. This did not matter so much in the evenings when the gas was alight, but then

it was in the evening that the blackbeetles got so sociable, and used to come out of the low cupboards on each

side of the fireplace where their homes were, and try to make friends with the children. At least, I suppose

On the Fifth of November father and mother went to the theatre, and the children were not happy, because the

'No more playing with fire, thank you,' was father's answer, when they asked him.

When the baby had been put to bed the children sat sadly round the fire in the nursery.

'Let's talk about the Psammead,' said Anthea, who generally tried to give the conversation a cheerful turn.

'What's the good of TALKING?' said Cyril. 'What I want is for something to happen. It's awfully stuffy for a

chap not to be allowed out in the evenings. There's simply nothing to do when you've got through your

Last holidays, indeed, offered something to think offor they had been spent in the country at a white house

between a sandpit and a gravelpit, and things had happened. The children had found a Psammead, or

sandfairy, and it had let them have anything they wished forjust exactly anything, with no bother about

its not being really for their good, or anything like that. And if you want to know what kind of things they

wished for, and how their wishes turned out you can read it all in a book called Five Children and It (It was

the Psammead). If you've not read it, perhaps I ought to tell you that the fifth child was the baby brother, who

was called the Lamb, because the first thing he ever said was 'Baa!' and that the other children were not

particularly handsome, nor were they extra clever, nor extraordinarily good. But they were not bad sorts on

'I don't want to think about the pleasures of memory,' said Cyril; 'I want some more things to happen.'

'We're very much luckier than any one else, as it is,' said Jane. 'Why, no one else ever found a Psammead. We

'Why shouldn't we GO ON being, though?' Cyril asked'lucky, I mean, not grateful. Why's it all got to

'Perhaps something will happen,' said Anthea, comfortably. 'Do you know, sometimes I think we are the sort

'It's like that in history,' said Jane: 'some kings are full of interesting things, and othersnothing ever

happens to them, except their being born and crowned and buried, and sometimes not that.'

'I think Panther's right,' said Cyril: 'I think we are the sort of people things do happen to. I have a sort of

feeling things would happen right enough if we could only give them a shove. It just wants something to start

'I wish they taught magic at school,' Jane sighed. 'I believe if we could do a little magic it might make

'I wonder how you begin?' Robert looked round the room, but he got no ideas from the faded green curtains,

or the drab Venetian blinds, or the worn brown oilcloth on the floor. Even the new carpet suggested nothing,

though its pattern was a very wonderful one, and always seemed as though it were just going to make you

'I could begin right enough,' said Anthea; 'I've read lots about it. But I believe it's wrong in the Bible.'

'It's only wrong in the Bible because people wanted to hurt other people. I don't see how things can be wrong

unless they hurt somebody, and we don't want to hurt anybody; and what's more, we jolly well couldn't if we

tried. Let's get the Ingoldsby Legends. There's a thing about Abracadabra there,' said Cyril, yawning. 'We

may as well play at magic. Let's be Knights Templars. They were awfully gone on magic. They used to work

'Well, that's all right,' said Robert, unkindly; 'you can play the goat right enough, and Jane knows how to be a

So they traced strange figures on the linoleum, where the hearthrug had kept it clean. They traced them with

chalk that Robert had nicked from the top of the mathematical master's desk at school. You know, of course,

that it is stealing to take a new stick of chalk, but it is not wrong to take a broken piece, so long as you only

take one. (I do not know the reason of this rule, nor who made it.) And they chanted all the gloomiest songs

they could think of. And, of course, nothing happened. So then Anthea said, 'I'm sure a magic fire ought to be

'I don't know any sweetsmelling wood, except cedar,' said Robert; 'but I've got some ends of cedarwood

And they did. It certainly smelt very strong. And they burned lumps of camphor out of the big chest. It was

very bright, and made a horrid black smoke, which looked very magical. But still nothing happened. Then

they got some clean teacloths from the dresser drawer in the kitchen, and waved them over the magic

chalktracings, and sang 'The Hymn of the Moravian Nuns at Bethlehem', which is very impressive. And still

nothing happened. So they waved more and more wildly, and Robert's teacloth caught the golden egg and

whisked it off the mantelpiece, and it fell into the fender and rolled under the grate.

And every one instantly fell down flat on its front to look under the grate, and there lay the egg, glowing in a

'It's not smashed, anyhow,' said Robert, and he put his hand under the grate and picked up the egg. But the

egg was much hotter than any one would have believed it could possibly get in such a short time, and Robert

had to drop it with a cry of 'Bother!' It fell on the top bar of the grate, and bounced right into the glowing

'The tongs!' cried Anthea. But, alas, no one could remember where they were. Every one had forgotten that

the tongs had last been used to fish up the doll's teapot from the bottom of the water butt, where the Lamb

had dropped it. So the nursery tongs were resting between the waterbutt and the dustbin, and cook refused to

'Oh, stop,' cried Anthea. 'Look at it! Look! look! look! I do believe something IS going to happen!'

For the egg was now redhot, and inside it something was moving. Next moment there was a soft cracking

sound; the egg burst in two, and out of it came a flamecoloured bird. It rested a moment among the flames,

and as it rested there the four children could see it growing bigger and bigger under their eyes.

The bird rose in its nest of fire, stretched its wings, and flew out into the room. It flew round and round, and

round again, and where it passed the air was warm. Then it perched on the fender. The children looked at

each other. Then Cyril put out a hand towards the bird. It put its head on one side and looked up at him, as

you may have seen a parrot do when it is just going to speak, so that the children were hardly astonished at all

They looked at the bird, and it was certainly worth looking at. Its feathers were like gold. It was about as

large as a bantam, only its beak was not at all bantamshaped. 'I believe I know what it is,' said Robert. 'I've

He hurried away. A hasty dash and scramble among the papers on father's study table yielded, as the

sumbooks say, 'the desired result'. But when he came back into the room holding out a paper, and crying, 'I

say, look here,' the others all said 'Hush!' and he hushed obediently and instantly, for the bird was speaking.

The children were all choking with wonder and curiosityall except Robert. He held the paper in his hand,

And he opened and displayed a printed paper, at the head of which was a little picture of a bird sitting in a

'My fame has lived then for two thousand years,' it said. 'Allow me to look at my portrait.' It looked at the

'It's not a flattering likeness ... And what are these characters?' it asked, pointing to the printed part.

'Oh, that's all dullish; it's not much about YOU, you know,' said Cyril, with unconscious politeness; 'but

'Well, no,' said Cyril; 'in fact, I don't think I ever saw any portrait of you but that one, but I can read you

The Phoenix nodded, and Cyril went off and fetched Volume X of the old Encyclopedia, and on page 246 he

'Antiquity is quite correct,' said the Phoenix, 'but fabulouswell, do I look it?'

'Eagles are of different sizes,' said the Phoenix; 'it's not at all a good description.'

All the children were kneeling on the hearthrug, to be as near the Phoenix as possible.

'You'll boil your brains,' it said. 'Look out, I'm nearly cool now;' and with a whirr of golden wings it fluttered

from the fender to the table. It was so nearly cool that there was only a very faint smell of burning when it

'It's only a very little scorched,' said the Phoenix, apologetically; 'it will come out in the wash. Please go on

'The size of an eagle,' Cyril went on, 'its head finely crested with a beautiful plumage, its neck covered with

feathers of a gold colour, and the rest of its body purple; only the tail white, and the eyes sparkling like stars.

They say that it lives about five hundred years in the wilderness, and when advanced in age it builds itself a

pile of sweet wood and aromatic gums, fires it with the wafting of its wings, and thus burns itself; and that

from its ashes arises a worm, which in time grows up to be a Phoenix. Hence the Phoenicians gave'

'Never mind what they gave,' said the Phoenix, ruffling its golden feathers. 'They never gave much, anyway;

they always were people who gave nothing for nothing. That book ought to be destroyed. It's most inaccurate.

The rest of my body was never purple, and as for mytailwell, I simply ask you, IS it white?'

'No, and it never was,' said the Phoenix. 'And that about the worm is just a vulgar insult. The Phoenix has an

egg, like all respectable birds. It makes a pilethat part's all rightand it lays its egg, and it burns itself; and

it goes to sleep and wakes up in its egg, and comes out and goes on living again, and so on for ever and ever.

'Ah, that's my lifesecret,' said the Phoenix. 'I couldn't tell it to any one who wasn't really sympathetic. I've

always been a misunderstood bird. You can tell that by what they say about the worm. I might tell YOU,' it

went on, looking at Robert with eyes that were indeed starry. 'You put me on the fire' Robert looked

'The rest of us made the fire of sweetscented woods and gums, though,' said Cyril.

'Andand it was an accident my putting you on the fire,' said Robert, telling the truth with some difficulty,

for he did not know how the Phoenix might take it. It took it in the most unexpected manner.

'Your candid avowal,' it said, 'removes my last scruple. I will tell you my story.'

'Why?' it asked, puffing out the golden feathers, 'do you wish me to stay here?'

'Because,' said every one at once, and then stopped short; only Jane added after a pause, 'you are the most

beautiful person we've ever seen.' 'You are a sensible child,' said the Phoenix, 'and I will NOT vanish or

anything sudden. And I will tell you my tale. I had resided, as your book says, for many thousand years in the

wilderness, which is a large, quiet place with very little really good society, and I was becoming weary of the

monotony of my existence. But I acquired the habit of laying my egg and burning myself every five hundred

'I doubt,' said the bird, gravely, 'whether even bitter aloes (the aloe, by the way, has a bad habit of its own,

which it might well cure before seeking to cure others; I allude to its indolent practice of flowering but once a

century), I doubt whether even bitter aloes could have cured ME. But I WAS cured. I awoke one morning

from a feverish dreamit was getting near the time for me to lay that tiresome fire and lay that tedious egg

upon itand I saw two people, a man and a woman. They were sitting on a carpetand when I accosted

them civilly they narrated to me their lifestory, which, as you have not yet heard it, I will now proceed to

relate. They were a prince and princess, and the story of their parents was one which I am sure you will like

to hear. In early youth the mother of the princess happened to hear the story of a certain enchanter, and in that

'Oh, please don't,' said Anthea. 'I can't understand all these beginnings of stories, and you seem to be getting

deeper and deeper in them every minute. Do tell us your OWN story. That's what we really want to hear.'

'Well,' said the Phoenix, seeming on the whole rather flattered, 'to cut about seventy long stories short

(though _I_ had to listen to them allbut to be sure in the wilderness there is plenty of time), this prince and

princess were so fond of each other that they did not want any one else, and the enchanterdon't be alarmed,

I won't go into his historyhad given them a magic carpet (you've heard of a magic carpet?), and they had

just sat on it and told it to take them right away from every oneand it had brought them to the wilderness.

And as they meant to stay there they had no further use for the carpet, so they gave it to me. That was indeed

'I don't see what you wanted with a carpet,' said Jane, 'when you've got those lovely wings.'

'They ARE nice wings, aren't they?' said the Phoenix, simpering and spreading them out. 'Well, I got the

prince to lay out the carpet, and I laid my egg on it; then I said to the carpet, "Now, my excellent carpet,

prove your worth. Take that egg somewhere where it can't be hatched for two thousand years, and where,

when that time's up, some one will light a fire of sweet wood and aromatic gums, and put the egg in to

hatch;" and you see it's all come out exactly as I said. The words were no sooner out of my beak than egg and

carpet disappeared. The royal lovers assisted to arrange my pile, and soothed my last moments. I burnt myself

'But the carpet,' said Robert, 'the magic carpet that takes you anywhere you wish. What became of that?'

'Oh, THAT?' said the Phoenix, carelessly'I should say that that is the carpet. I remember the pattern

It pointed as it spoke to the floor, where lay the carpet which mother had bought in the Kentish Town Road

'Wish yourself there,' said the Phoenix, in a hurried whisper, 'and then wish the carpet back in its place.'

No sooner said than done. It made one a little giddy, certainly, and a little breathless; but when things seemed

'I shall sleep on the cornice above your curtains,' it said. 'Please don't mention me to your kinsfolk.'

'Not much good,' said Robert, 'they'd never believe us. I say,' he called through the halfopen door to the

girls; 'talk about adventures and things happening. We ought to be able to get some fun out of a magic carpet

'Children,' said father, on the stairs, 'go to sleep at once. What do you mean by talking at this time of night?'

No answer was expected to this question, but under the bedclothes Cyril murmured one.

'You'll get something else if father comes in and catches you,' said Cyril. 'Shut up, I tell you.'

Robert shut up. But he knew as well as you do that the adventures of that carpet and that Phoenix were only

Father and mother had not the least idea of what had happened in their absence. This is often the case, even

The next morningbut I am sure you would rather wait till the next chapter before you hear about THAT.

The children had seen the Phoenixegg hatched in the flames in their own nursery grate, and had heard from

it how the carpet on their own nursery floor was really the wishing carpet, which would take them anywhere

they chose. The carpet had transported them to bed just at the right moment, and the Phoenix had gone to

'Excuse me,' said a gentle voice, and a courteous beak opened, very kindly and delicately, the right eye of

Cyril. 'I hear the slaves below preparing food. Awaken! A word of explanation and arrangement ... I do wish

The Phoenix stopped speaking and fluttered away crossly to the cornicepole; for Cyril had hit out, as boys

do when they are awakened suddenly, and the Phoenix was not used to boys, and his feelings, if not his

'Sorry,' said Cyril, coming awake all in a minute. 'Do come back! What was it you were saying? Something

'The carpet is as real as it ever was,' said the Phoenix, rather contemptuously; 'but, of course, a carpet's only a

'Yes, indeed,' said Cyril, 'I see it is. Oh, what luck! Wake up, Bobs! There's jolly well something to wake up

'I've been reflecting,' said the Phoenix, 'during the silent watches of the night, and I could not avoid the

conclusion that you were quite insufficiently astonished at my appearance yesterday. The ancients were

'And if we had,' said Anthea, who had come in in her nightie when she heard the silvery voice of the Phoenix,

'You see,' said Anthea, wrapping herself in the boys' counterpane, for the morning was chill, 'we've had

things happen to us before;' and she told the story of the Psammead, or sandfairy.

'Ah yes,' said the Phoenix; 'Psammeads were rare, even in my time. I remember I used to be called the

Psammead of the Desert. I was always having compliments paid me; I can't think why.'

'Oh, dear me, no,' said the Phoenix, contemptuously, 'at leastbut I hear footsteps approaching. I hasten to

I think I said that this day was Saturday. It was also cook's birthday, and mother had allowed her and Eliza to

go to the Crystal Palace with a party of friends, so Jane and Anthea of course had to help to make beds and to

wash up the breakfast cups, and little things like that. Robert and Cyril intended to spend the morning in

'I must have an hour or two's quiet,' it said, 'I really must. My nerves will give way unless I can get a little

rest. You must remember it's two thousand years since I had any conversationI'm out of practice, and I

must take care of myself. I've often been told that mine is a valuable life.' So it nestled down inside an old

hatbox of father's, which had been brought down from the boxroom some days before, when a helmet was

suddenly needed for a game of tournaments, with its golden head under its golden wing, and went to sleep.

So then Robert and Cyril moved the table back and were going to sit on the carpet and wish themselves

'They'll be all the morning,' said Robert, impatiently. And then a thing inside him, which tiresome books

Cyril's 'inward monitor' happened to say the same thing at the same moment, so the boys went and helped to

wash up the teacups, and to dust the drawingroom. Robert was so interested that he proposed to clean the

front doorstepsa thing he had never been allowed to do. Nor was he allowed to do it on this occasion. One

When all the housework was finished, the girls dressed the happy, wriggling baby in his blue highwayman

coat and threecornered hat, and kept him amused while mother changed her dress and got ready to take him

over to granny's. Mother always went to granny's every Saturday, and generally some of the children went

with her; but today they were to keep house. And their hearts were full of joyous and delightful feelings every

time they remembered that the house they would have to keep had a Phoenix in it, AND a wishing carpet.

You can always keep the Lamb good and happy for quite a long time if you play the Noah's Ark game with

him. It is quite simple. He just sits on your lap and tells you what animal he is, and then you say the little

Of course, some of the animals, like the zebra and the tiger, haven't got any poetry, because they are so

Then came the eel, and the Lamb was tickled till he wriggled exactly like a real one:

Perhaps you didn't know that a snig was a baby eel? It is, though, and the Lamb knew it.

It is a very baby game, and, of course, the rhymes are only meant for very, very small peoplenot for people

By the time the Lamb had been a baby lion and a baby weazel, and a baby rabbit and a baby rat, mother was

ready; and she and the Lamb, having been kissed by everybody and hugged as thoroughly as it is possible to

be when you're dressed for outofdoors, were seen to the tram by the boys. When the boys came back,

They locked the front door and they locked the back door, and they fastened all the windows. They moved

'We must show it a LITTLE attention,' she said kindly. 'We'll give it tealeaves next time. Carpets like

Then every one put on its outdoor things, because as Cyril said, they didn't know where they might be

going, and it makes people stare if you go out of doors in November in pinafores and without hats.

Then Robert gently awoke the Phoenix, who yawned and stretched itself, and allowed Robert to lift it on to

the middle of the carpet, where it instantly went to sleep again with its crested head tucked under its golden

'Where shall we go?' was of course the question, and it was warmly discussed. Anthea wanted to go to Japan.

'Not in November, silly,' said Cyril; and the discussion got warmer and warmer, and still nothing was settled.

'I vote we let the Phoenix decide,' said Robert, at last. So they stroked it till it woke. 'We want to go

So they did; and the next moment the world seemed to spin upside down, and when it was right way up again

Out of doorsthis is a feeble way to express where they were. They were out ofout of the earth, or off it.

In fact, they were floating steadily, safely, splendidly, in the crisp clear air, with the pale bright blue of the

sky above them, and far down below the pale bright sundiamonded waves of the sea. The carpet had

stiffened itself somehow, so that it was square and firm like a raft, and it steered itself so beautifully and kept

on its way so flat and fearless that no one was at all afraid of tumbling off. In front of them lay land.

'The coast of France,' said the Phoenix, waking up and pointing with its wing. 'Where do you wish to go? I

should always keep one wish, of coursefor emergenciesotherwise you may get into an emergency from

'I tell you what,' said Cyril: 'let's let the thing go on and on, and when we see a place we really want to stop

'It's like trains,' said Anthea, as they swept over the lowlying coastline and held a steady course above

orderly fields and straight roads bordered with poplar trees'like express trains, only in trains you never can

see anything because of grownups wanting the windows shut; and then they breathe on them, and it's like

'It's like tobogganing,' said Robert, 'so fast and smooth, only there's no doormat to stop short onit goes on

'You darling Phoenix,' said Jane, 'it's all your doing. Oh, look at that ducky little church and the women with

'OH!' said Cyril, summing up all the rapture that was in every heart. 'Look at it alllook at itand think of

Every one looked and every one thought. And the glorious, gliding, smooth, steady rush went on, and they

looked down on strange and beautiful things, and held their breath and let it go in deep sighs, and said 'Oh!'

It was Jane who suddenly said, 'I wish we'd brought that jam tart and cold mutton with us. It would have been

The jam tart and cold mutton were, however, far away, sitting quietly in the larder of the house in Camden

Town which the children were supposed to be keeping. A mouse was at that moment tasting the outside of

the raspberry jam part of the tart (she had nibbled a sort of gulf, or bay, through the pastry edge) to see

whether it was the sort of dinner she could ask her little mousehusband to sit down to. She had had a very

'We'll stop as soon as we see a nice place,' said Anthea. 'I've got threepence, and you boys have the fourpence

each that your trams didn't cost the other day, so we can buy things to eat. I expect the Phoenix can speak

The carpet was sailing along over rocks and rivers and trees and towns and farms and fields. It reminded

everybody of a certain time when all of them had had wings, and had flown up to the top of a church tower,

and had had a feast there of chicken and tongue and new bread and sodawater. And this again reminded

them how hungry they were. And just as they were all being reminded of this very strongly indeed, they saw

ahead of them some ruined walls on a hill, and strong and upright, and really, to look at, as good as newa

'The top of that's just the exactly same size as the carpet,' said Jane. '_I_ think it would be good to go to the

top of that, because then none of the Abbywhat'sitsnamesI mean nativeswould be able to take the

carpet away even if they wanted to. And some of us could go out and get things to eatbuy them honestly, I

'I think it would be better if we went' Anthea was beginning; but Jane suddenly clenched her hands.

'I don't see why I should never do anything I want, just because I'm the youngest. I wish the carpet would fit

The carpet made a disconcerting bound, and next moment it was hovering above the square top of the tower.

Then slowly and carefully it began to sink under them. It was like a lift going down with you at the Army and

'I don't think we ought to wish things without all agreeing to them first,' said Robert, huffishly. 'Hullo! What

For unexpectedly and greyly something was coming up all round the four sides of the carpet. It was as if a

wall were being built by magic quickness. It was a foot highit was two feet highthree, four, five. It was

'We're dropping into the tower,' she screamed. 'THERE WASN'T ANY TOP TO IT. So the carpet's going to

'We ought to haveHullo! an owl's nest.' He put his knee on a jutting smooth piece of grey stone, and

reached his hand into a deep window slitbroad to the inside of the tower, and narrowing like a funnel to the

'Look sharp!' cried every one, but Robert did not look sharp enough. By the time he had drawn his hand out

of the owl's nestthere were no eggs therethe carpet had sunk eight feet below him.

But Robert couldn't turn round all in a minute into a jumping position. He wriggled and twisted and got on to

the broad ledge, and by the time he was ready to jump the walls of the tower had risen up thirty feet above the

others, who were still sinking with the carpet, and Robert found himself in the embrasure of a window; alone,

for even the owls were not at home that day. The wall was smoothish; there was no climbing up, and as for

climbing downRobert hid his face in his hands, and squirmed back and back from the giddy verge, until

the back part of him was wedged quite tight in the narrowest part of the window slit.

He was safe now, of course, but the outside part of his window was like a frame to a picture of part of the

other side of the tower. It was very pretty, with moss growing between the stones and little shiny gems; but

between him and it there was the width of the tower, and nothing in it but empty air. The situation was

terrible. Robert saw in a flash that the carpet was likely to bring them into just the same sort of tight places

And the othersimagine their feelings as the carpet sank slowly and steadily to the very bottom of the tower,

leaving Robert clinging to the wall. Robert did not even try to imagine their feelingshe had quite enough to

As soon as the carpet came to a stop on the ground at the bottom of the inside of the tower it suddenly lost

that raftlike stiffness which had been such a comfort during the journey from Camden Town to the topless

tower, and spread itself limply over the loose stones and little earthy mounds at the bottom of the tower, just

exactly like any ordinary carpet. Also it shrank suddenly, so that it seemed to draw away from under their

feet, and they stepped quickly off the edges and stood on the firm ground, while the carpet drew itself in till it

was its proper size, and no longer fitted exactly into the inside of the tower, but left quite a big space all

Then across the carpet they looked at each other, and then every chin was tilted up and every eye sought

'You always do,' said Cyril, briefly. 'Look here, we can't leave Robert up there. I wish the carpet would fetch

The carpet seemed to awake from a dream and pull itself together. It stiffened itself briskly and floated up

between the four walls of the tower. The children below craned their heads back, and nearly broke their necks

in doing it. The carpet rose and rose. It hung poised darkly above them for an anxious moment or two; then it

dropped down again, threw itself on the uneven floor of the tower, and as it did so it tumbled Robert out on

'Oh, glory!' said Robert, 'that was a squeak. You don't know how I felt. I say, I've had about enough for a bit.

Let's wish ourselves at home again and have a go at that jam tart and mutton. We can go out again

'Righto!' said every one, for the adventure had shaken the nerves of all. So they all got on to the carpet again,

And lo and behold, they were no more at home than before. The carpet never moved. The Phoenix had taken

'No,' said the Phoenix, looking about it at the high dark walls of the tower. 'No; I quite see that.'

'I did tell you, you know,' said the Phoenix, 'only you are so fond of listening to the music of your own

'I haven't any idea,' replied the Phoenix, kindly. 'Can I fly out and get you any little thing?'

'It isn't necessary. Birds always take what they want. It is not regarded as stealing, except in the case of

The children were glad to find they had been right in supposing this to be the case, on the day when they had

'Yes; let the Phoenix get us something to eat, anyway,' Robert urged' ('If it will be so kind you mean,'

corrected Anthea, in a whisper); 'if it will be so kind, and we can be thinking while it's gone.'

So the Phoenix fluttered up through the grey space of the tower and vanished at the top, and it was not till it

It was not a pleasant thought, and though Anthea at once said, 'Of course it will come back; I'm certain it's a

bird of its word,' a further gloom was cast by the idea. For, curiously enough, there was no door to the tower,

and all the windows were far, far too high to be reached by the most adventurous climber. It was cold, too,

The children waited in a sad and hungry silence, and got little stiff necks with holding their little heads back

to look up the inside of the tall grey tower, to see if the Phoenix were coming.

At last it came. It looked very big as it fluttered down between the walls, and as it neared them the children

saw that its bigness was caused by a basket of boiled chestnuts which it carried in one claw. In the other it

held a piece of bread. And in its beak was a very large pear. The pear was juicy, and as good as a very small

drink. When the meal was over every one felt better, and the question of how to get home was discussed

without any disagreeableness. But no one could think of any way out of the difficulty, or even out of the

tower; for the Phoenix, though its beak and claws had fortunately been strong enough to carry food for them,

was plainly not equal to flying through the air with four wellnourished children.

'We must stay here, I suppose,' said Robert at last, 'and shout out every now and then, and some one will hear

us and bring ropes and ladders, and rescue us like out of mines; and they'll get up a subscription to send us

'Yes; but we shan't be home before mother is, and then father'll take away the carpet and say it's dangerous or

And every one else said 'Shut up,' except Anthea, who suddenly awoke the Phoenix and said

'I will help you as far as lies in my power,' said the Phoenix, at once. 'What is it you want now?'

'Where we livewhere we slept last nightwhere the altar is that your egg was hatched on.'

'Oh, there!' said the Phoenix. 'Well, I'll do my best.' It fluttered on to the carpet and walked up and down for a

'I CAN help you,' it said. 'I am almost sure I can help you. Unless I am grossly deceived I can help you. You

won't mind my leaving you for an hour or two?' and without waiting for a reply it soared up through the

'Now,' said Cyril, firmly, 'it said an hour or two. But I've read about captives and people shut up in dungeons

and catacombs and things awaiting release, and I know each moment is an eternity. Those people always do

something to pass the desperate moments. It's no use our trying to tame spiders, because we shan't have time.'

'I say, talking of stones,' said Robert, 'you see that heap of stones against the wall over in that corner. Well,

I'm certain there's a hole in the wall thereand I believe it's a door. Yes, look herethe stones are round

He had walked over to the heap as he spoke and climbed up to itdislodged the top stone of the heap and

Next moment every one was helping to pull down the heap of stones, and very soon every one threw off its

He was going to add 'if anything happens to the Phoenix,' but he didn't for fear of frightening Jane. He was

The arched hole in the wall grew larger and larger. It was very, very black, even compared with the sort of

twilight at the bottom of the tower; it grew larger because the children kept pulling off the stones and

throwing them down into another heap. The stones must have been there a very long time, for they were

covered with moss, and some of them were stuck together by it. So it was fairly hard work, as Robert pointed

When the hole reached to about halfway between the top of the arch and the tower, Robert and Cyril let

themselves down cautiously on the inside, and lit matches. How thankful they felt then that they had a

sensible father, who did not forbid them to carry matches, as some boys' fathers do. The father of Robert and

Cyril only insisted on the matches being of the kind that strike only on the box.

'It's not a door, it's a sort of tunnel,' Robert cried to the girls, after the first match had flared up, flickered, and

They did, amid deep excitement. And now the stone heap was almost goneand before them the girls saw

the dark archway leading to unknown things. All doubts and fears as to getting home were forgotten in this

'I say,' cried Anthea, suddenly, 'come out! There's always bad air in places that have been shut up. It makes

your torches go out, and then you die. It's called firedamp, I believe. Come out, I tell you.'

The urgency of her tone actually brought the boys outand then every one took up its jacket and fanned the

dark arch with it, so as to make the air fresh inside. When Anthea thought the air inside 'must be freshened by

The girls followed, and Robert came last, because Jane refused to tail the procession lest 'something' should

come in after her, and catch at her from behind. Cyril advanced cautiously, lighting match after match, and

'It's a vaulting roof,' he said, 'and it's all stoneall right, Panther, don't keep pulling at my jacket! The air

must be all right because of the matches, silly, and there arelook outthere are steps down.'

'Oh, don't let's go any farther,' said Jane, in an agony of reluctance (a very painful thing, by the way, to be in).

'I'm sure there are snakes, or dens of lions, or something. Do let's go back, and come some other time, with

'Let me get in front of you, then,' said the stern voice of Robert, from behind. 'This is exactly the place for

So, very slowly and carefully, the children went down the stepsthere were seventeen of themand at the

bottom of the steps were more passages branching four ways, and a sort of low arch on the righthand side

made Cyril wonder what it could be, for it was too low to be the beginning of another passage.

'There's SOMETHING,' he said, and reached out his hand. It touched something that felt more like a damp

And it was; for even as Anthea cried, 'Oh, hurry up, Squirrelfetch it out!' Cyril pulled out a rotting canvas

bagabout as big as the paper ones the greengrocer gives you with Barcelona nuts in for sixpence.

As he pulled the rotten bag gave way, and the gold coins ran and span and jumped and bumped and chinked

I wonder what you would say if you suddenly came upon a buried treasure? What Cyril said was, 'Oh,

botherI've burnt my fingers!' and as he spoke he dropped the match. 'AND IT WAS THE LAST!' he

'Don't,' said Anthea, 'don't, Pussyyou'll exhaust the air if you cry. We can get out all right.'

'Yes,' said Jane, through her sobs, 'and find the Phoenix has come back and gone away againbecause it

Every one stood quite stillonly Anthea cuddled Jane up to her and tried to wipe her eyes in the dark.

'Come, let's get on out,' said Robert; but that was not so easy, for no one could remember exactly which way

they had come. It is very difficult to remember things in the dark, unless you have matches with you, and then

Every one had come to agree with Jane's constant wishand despair was making the darkness blacker than

ever, when quite suddenly the floor seemed to tip upand a strong sensation of being in a whirling lift came

upon every one. All eyes were closedone's eyes always are in the dark, don't you think? When the whirling

They were in their own dingy breakfastroom at home, and oh, how light and bright and safe and pleasant

and altogether delightful it seemed after that dark underground tunnel! The carpet lay on the floor, looking as

calm as though it had never been for an excursion in its life. On the mantelpiece stood the Phoenix, waiting

'But how DID you do it?' they asked, when every one had thanked the Phoenix again and again.

'I found that out from the carpet; these wishing creatures always know all about each otherthey're so

'No,' said the Phoenix, thoughtfully, 'it didn't speak, but I gathered my information from something in its

it was not till after the cold mutton and the jam tart, as well as the tea and breadandbutter, that any one

found time to regret the golden treasure which had been left scattered on the floor of the underground

passage, and which, indeed, no one had thought of till now, since the moment when Cyril burnt his fingers at

'What owls and goats we were!' said Robert. 'Look how we've always wanted treasureand now'

'Never mind,' said Anthea, trying as usual to make the best of it. 'We'll go back again and get it all, and then

More than a quarter of an hour passed most agreeably in arranging what presents should be given to whom,

and, when the claims of generosity had been satisfied, the talk ran for fifty minutes on what they would buy

It was Cyril who broke in on Robert's almost too technical account of the motorcar on which he meant to go

'There!' he said. 'Dry up. It's no good. We can't ever go back. We don't know where it is.'

'Excuse me,' said the bird, with an air of wounded dignity, 'I do SO HATE to seem to interfere, but surely you

It was on a Saturday that the children made their first glorious journey on the wishing carpet. Unless you are

too young to read at all, you will know that the next day must have been Sunday.

Sunday at 18, Camden Terrace, Camden Town, was always a very pretty day. Father always brought home

flowers on Saturday, so that the breakfasttable was extra beautiful. In November, of course, the flowers

were chrysanthemums, yellow and coppery coloured. Then there were always sausages on toast for breakfast,

and these are rapture, after six days of Kentish Town Road eggs at fourteen a shilling.

On this particular Sunday there were fowls for dinner, a kind of food that is generally kept for birthdays and

grand occasions, and there was an angel pudding, when rice and milk and oranges and white icing do their

After dinner father was very sleepy indeed, because he had been working hard all the week; but he did not

yield to the voice that said, 'Go and have an hour's rest.' He nursed the Lamb, who had a horrid cough that

'Come along, kiddies; I've got a ripping book from the library, called The Golden Age, and I'll read it to you.'

Mother settled herself on the drawingroom sofa, and said she could listen quite nicely with her eyes shut.

The Lamb snugged into the 'armchair corner' of daddy's arm, and the others got into a happy heap on the

hearthrug. At first, of course, there were too many feet and knees and shoulders and elbows, but real

comfort was actually settling down on them, and the Phoenix and the carpet were put away on the back top

shelf of their minds (beautiful things that could be taken out and played with later), when a surly solid knock

came at the drawingroom door. It opened an angry inch, and the cook's voice said, 'Please, m', may I speak

Mother looked at father with a desperate expression. Then she put her pretty sparkly Sunday shoes down

'As good fish in the sea,' said father, cheerfully, and it was not till much later that the children understood

Mother went out into the passage, which is called 'the hall', where the umbrellastand is, and the picture of

the 'Monarch of the Glen' in a yellow shining frame, with brown spots on the Monarch from the damp in the

house before last, and there was cook, very red and damp in the face, and with a clean apron tied on all

crooked over the dirty one that she had dished up those dear delightful chickens in. She stood there and she

seemed to get redder and damper, and she twisted the corner of her apron round her fingers, and she said very

'If you please ma'am, I should wish to leave at my day month.' Mother leaned against the hatstand. The

children could see her looking pale through the crack of the door, because she had been very kind to the cook,

and had given her a holiday only the day before, and it seemed so very unkind of the cook to want to go like

'It's them children,' the cook replied, and somehow the children all felt that they had known it from the first.

They did not remember having done anything extra wrong, but it is so frightfully easy to displease a cook.

'It's them children: there's that there new carpet in their room, covered thick with mud, both sides, beastly

yellow mud, and sakes alive knows where they got it. And all that muck to clean up on a Sunday! It's not my

place, and it's not my intentions, so I don't deceive you, ma'am, and but for them limbs, which they is if ever

there was, it's not a bad place, though I says it, and I wouldn't wish to leave, but'

'I'm very sorry,' said mother, gently. 'I will speak to the children. And you had better think it over, and if you

Next day mother had a quiet talk with cook, and cook said she didn't mind if she stayed on a bit, just to see.

But meantime the question of the muddy carpet had been gone into thoroughly by father and mother. Jane's

candid explanation that the mud had come from the bottom of a foreign tower where there was buried

treasure was received with such chilling disbelief that the others limited their defence to an expression of

sorrow, and of a determination 'not to do it again'. But father said (and mother agreed with him, because

mothers have to agree with fathers, and not because it was her own idea) that children who coated a carpet on

both sides with thick mud, and when they were asked for an explanation could only talk silly nonsensethat

meant Jane's truthful statementwere not fit to have a carpet at all, and, indeed, SHOULDN'T have one for a

So the carpet was brushed (with tealeaves, too) which was the only comfort Anthea could think of) and

folded up and put away in the cupboard at the top of the stairs, and daddy put the key in his trousers pocket.

But, as it happened, they hadn't. The Phoenix was nowhere to be found, and everything had suddenly settled

down from the rosy wild beauty of magic happenings to the common damp brownness of ordinary November

life in Camden Townand there was the nursery floor all bare boards in the middle and brown oilcloth

round the outside, and the bareness and yellowness of the middle floor showed up the blackbeetles with

terrible distinctness, when the poor things came out in the evening, as usual, to try to make friends with the

The Sunday ended in gloom, which even junket for supper in the blue Dresden bowl could hardly lighten at

all. Next day the Lamb's cough was worse. It certainly seemed very whoopy, and the doctor came in his

Every one tried to bear up under the weight of the sorrow which it was to know that the wishing carpet was

locked up and the Phoenix mislaid. A good deal of time was spent in looking for the Phoenix.

'It's a bird of its word,' said Anthea. 'I'm sure it's not deserted us. But you know it had a most awfully long fly

from wherever it was to near Rochester and back, and I expect the poor thing's feeling tired out and wants

No one could be expected to feel very kindly towards the cook, since it was entirely through her making such

'She might have told us,' said Jane, 'and Panther and I would have cleaned it with tealeaves.'

'I shan't say what I think about her,' said Anthea, primly, 'because it would be evil speaking, lying, and

'It's not lying to say she's a disagreeable pig, and a beastly bluenosed Bozwoz,' said Cyril, who had read The

Eyes of Light, and intended to talk like Tony as soon as he could teach Robert to talk like Paul.

And all the children, even Anthea, agreed that even if she wasn't a bluenosed Bozwoz, they wished cook

But I ask you to believe that they didn't do all the things on purpose which so annoyed the cook during the

following week, though I daresay the things would not have happened if the cook had been a favourite. This

is a mystery. Explain it if you can. The things that had happened were as follows:

Monday.Liquorice put on to boil with aniseed balls in a saucepan. Anthea did this, because she thought it

would be good for the Lamb's cough. The whole thing forgotten, and bottom of saucepan burned out. It was

Tuesday.A dead mouse found in pantry. Fishslice taken to dig grave with. By regrettable accident

Wednesday.Chopped suet left on kitchen table. Robert added chopped soap, but he says he thought the

Thursday.Broke the kitchen window by falling against it during a perfectly fair game of bandits in the

Friday.Stopped up grating of kitchen sink with putty and filled sink with water to make a lake to sail paper

boats in. Went away and left the tap running. Kitchen hearthrug and cook's shoes ruined.

On Saturday the carpet was restored. There had been plenty of time during the week to decide where it should

Mother had gone over to granny's, and had not taken the Lamb because he had a bad cough, which, cook

'But we'll take him out, a ducky darling,' said Anthea. 'We'll take him somewhere where you can't have

whoopingcough. Don't be so silly, Robert. If he DOES talk about it no one'll take any notice. He's always

So they dressed the Lamb and themselves in outofdoors clothes, and the Lamb chuckled and coughed, and

laughed and coughed again, poor dear, and all the chairs and tables were moved off the carpet by the boys,

while Jane nursed the Lamb, and Anthea rushed through the house in one last wild hunt for the missing

'It's no use waiting for it,' she said, reappearing breathless in the breakfastroom. 'But I know it hasn't

Every one fell on its knees and looked up, and there was the Phoenix perched on a crossbar of wood that ran

across under the table, and had once supported a drawer, in the happy days before the drawer had been used

as a boat, and its bottom unfortunately trodden out by Raggett's Really Reliable School Boots on the feet of

'I've been here all the time,' said the Phoenix, yawning politely behind its claw. 'If you wanted me you should

have recited the ode of invocation; it's seven thousand lines long, and written in very pure and beautiful

'Oh, come along, do,' said Robert, holding out his hand. 'Come along, good old Phoenix.'

'Good old BEAUTIFUL Phoenix, then. Come along, come along,' said Robert, impatiently, with his hand still

'This amiable youth,' it said to the others, 'has miraculously been able to put the whole meaning of the seven

thousand lines of Greek invocation into one English hexametera little misplaced some of the wordsbut

'Well, now then,' said Robert, stepping back on to the carpet with the golden Phoenix on his wrist.

'You look like the king's falconer,' said Jane, sitting down on the carpet with the baby on her lap.

'We shall have to get back before dinner,' said Cyril, 'or cook will blow the gaff.'

'She' Robert was beginning, when the door burst open and the cook, fierce and furious, came in like a

whirlwind and stood on the corner of the carpet, with a broken basin in one hand and a threat in the other,

'Look 'ere!' she cried, 'my only basin; and what the powers am I to make the beefsteak and kidney pudding in

that your ma ordered for your dinners? You don't deserve no dinners, so yer don't.'

'I'm awfully sorry, cook,' said Anthea gently; 'it was my fault, and I forgot to tell you about it. It got broken

when we were telling our fortunes with melted lead, you know, and I meant to tell you.'

'Meant to tell me,' replied the cook; she was red with anger, and really I don't wonder'meant to tell! Well,

_I_ mean to tell, too. I've held my tongue this week through, because the missus she said to me quiet like,

"We mustn't expect old heads on young shoulders," but now I shan't hold it no longer. There was the soap

you put in our pudding, and me and Eliza never so much as breathed it to your mathough well we

mightand the saucepan, and the fishslice, andMy gracious cats alive! what 'ave you got that blessed

'We aren't going to take him out,' said Anthea; 'at least' She stopped short, for though they weren't going to

take him out in the Kentish Town Road, they certainly intended to take him elsewhere. But not at all where

'Out!' said the cook, 'that I'll take care you don't;' and she snatched the Lamb from the lap of Jane, while

Anthea and Robert caught her by the skirts and apron. 'Look here,' said Cyril, in stern desperation, 'will you

go away, and make your pudding in a piedish, or a flowerpot, or a hotwater can, or something?'

'Not me,' said the cook, briefly; 'and leave this precious poppet for you to give his deathercold to.'

' Late yourself the little popseywopsey,' said the cook, with angry tenderness. 'They shan't take it out, no

more they shan't. AndWhere did you get that there yellow fowl?' She pointed to the Phoenix.

Even Anthea saw that unless the cook lost her situation the loss would be theirs.

'I wish,' she said suddenly, 'we were on a sunny southern shore, where there can't be any whoopingcough.'

She said it through the frightened howls of the Lamb, and the sturdy scoldings of the cook, and instantly the

giddygoroundandfallinglift feeling swept over the whole party, and the cook sat down flat on the

carpet, holding the screaming Lamb tight to her stout printcovered self, and calling on St Bridget to help

The moment the tipsytopsyturvy feeling stopped, the cook opened her eyes, gave one sounding screech

and shut them again, and Anthea took the opportunity to get the desperately howling Lamb into her own

'It's all right,' she said; 'own Panther's got you. Look at the trees, and the sand, and the shells, and the great

It certainly was; for the trusty carpet had laid itself out on a southern shore that was sunny and no mistake, as

Robert remarked. The greenest of green slopes led up to glorious groves where palmtrees and all the tropical

flowers and fruits that you read of in Westward Ho! and Fair Play were growing in rich profusion. Between

the green, green slope and the blue, blue sea lay a stretch of sand that looked like a carpet of jewelled cloth of

gold, for it was not greyish as our northern sand is, but yellow and changingopalcoloured like sunshine

and rainbows. And at the very moment when the wild, whirling, blinding, deafening, tumbling

upsidedownness of the carpetmoving stopped, the children had the happiness of seeing three large live

turtles waddle down to the edge of the sea and disappear in the water. And it was hotter than you can possibly

Every one without an instant's hesitation tore off its LondoninNovember outdoor clothes, and Anthea took

off the Lamb's highwayman blue coat and his threecornered hat, and then his jersey, and then the Lamb

himself suddenly slipped out of his little blue tight breeches and stood up happy and hot in his little white

'I'm sure it's much warmer than the seaside in the summer,' said Anthea. 'Mother always lets us go barefoot

So the Lamb's shoes and socks and gaiters came off, and he stood digging his happy naked pink toes into the

'I'm a little white duckdickie,' said he'a little white duckdickie what swims,' and splashed quacking into

The cook suddenly opened her eyes and screamed, shut them, screamed again, opened her eyes once more

Well, it's the best I ever dreamed. I'll look it up in the dreambook tomorrow. Seaside and trees and a carpet

'It's REAL, I tell you,' Robert said, stamping his foot. 'I'm not going to tell you how it's done, because that's

our secret.' He winked heavily at each of the others in turn. 'But you wouldn't go away and make that

'I do that, and no mistake,' said the cook unexpectedly; 'and it being a dream it don't matter what I say; and I

WILL say, if it's my last word, that of all the aggravating little varmints' 'Calm yourself, my good woman,'

'Good woman, indeed,' said the cook; 'good woman yourself' Then she saw who it was that had spoken. 'Well,

if I ever,' said she; 'this is something like a dream! Yellow fowls atalking and all! I've heard of such, but

'Well, then,' said Cyril, impatiently, 'sit here and see the day now. It's a jolly fine day. Here, you othersa

council!' They walked along the shore till they were out of earshot of the cook, who still sat gazing about her

'Look here,' said Cyril, 'we must roll the carpet up and hide it, so that we can get at it at any moment. The

Lamb can be getting rid of his whoopingcough all the morning, and we can look about; and if the savages

on this island are cannibals, we'll hook it, and take her back. And if not, we'll LEAVE HER HERE.'

'Is that being kind to servants and animals, like the clergyman said?' asked Jane.

'Wellanyway,' said Anthea, 'the safest thing is to leave the carpet there with her sitting on it. Perhaps it'll be

a lesson to her, and anyway, if she thinks it's a dream it won't matter what she says when she gets home.'

So the extra coats and hats and mufflers were piled on the carpet. Cyril shouldered the well and happy Lamb,

the Phoenix perched on Robert's wrist, and 'the party of explorers prepared to enter the interior'.

The grassy slope was smooth, but under the trees there were tangled creepers with bright, strangeshaped

'We ought to have an explorer's axe,' said Robert. 'I shall ask father to give me one for Christmas.'

There were curtains of creepers with scented blossoms hanging from the trees, and brilliant birds darted about

'Now, tell me honestly,' said the Phoenix, 'are there any birds here handsomer than I am? Don't be afraid of

'I was never a vain bird,' said the Phoenix, 'but I own that you confirm my own impression. I will take a

flight.' It circled in the air for a moment, and, returning to Robert's wrist, went on, 'There is a path to the left.'

And there was. So now the children went on through the wood more quickly and comfortably, the girls

picking flowers and the Lamb inviting the 'pretty dickies' to observe that he himself was a 'little white

The path turned and twisted, and, always threading their way amid a tangle of flowers, the children suddenly

passed a corner and found themselves in a forest clearing, where there were a lot of pointed hutsthe huts,

The boldest heart beat more quickly. Suppose they WERE cannibals. It was a long way back to the carpet.

'Hadn't we better go back?' said Jane. 'Go NOW,' she said, and her voice trembled a little. 'Suppose they eat

'Nonsense, Pussy,' said Cyril, firmly. 'Look, there's a goat tied up. That shows they don't eat PEOPLE.'

It was while they stood hesitating on the edge of the clearing that a tall man suddenly came out of one of the

huts. He had hardly any clothes, and his body all over was a dark and beautiful coppery colourjust like the

chrysanthemums father had brought home on Saturday. In his hand he held a spear. The whites of his eyes

and the white of his teeth were the only light things about him, except that where the sun shone on his shiny

brown body it looked white, too. If you will look carefully at the next shiny savage you meet with next to

nothing on, you will see at onceif the sun happens to be shining at the timethat I am right about this.

The savage looked at the children. Concealment was impossible. He uttered a shout that was more like 'Oo

goggery bagwag' than anything else the children had ever heard, and at once brown coppery people leapt out

of every hut, and swarmed like ants about the clearing. There was no time for discussion, and no one wanted

to discuss anything, anyhow. Whether these coppery people were cannibals or not now seemed to matter very

Without an instant's hesitation the four children turned and ran back along the forest path; the only pause was

Anthea's. She stood back to let Cyril pass, because he was carrying the Lamb, who screamed with delight.

(He had not whoopingcoughed a single once since the carpet landed him on the island.)

'Geeup, Squirrel; geegee,' he shouted, and Cyril did geeup. The path was a shorter cut to the beach than

the creepercovered way by which they had come, and almost directly they saw through the trees the shining

They did stick to it; they tore down the sandsthey could hear behind them as they ran the patter of feet

The sands were golden and opalcolouredand BARE. There were wreaths of tropic seaweed, there were

rich tropic shells of the kind you would not buy in the Kentish Town Road under at least fifteen pence a pair.

There were turtles basking lumpily on the water's edgebut no cook, no clothes, and no carpet.

'On, on! Into the sea!' gasped Cyril. 'They MUST hate water. I'veheardsavages alwaysdirty.'

Their feet were splashing in the warm shallows before his breathless words were ended. The calm

babywaves were easy to go through. It is warm work running for your life in the tropics, and the coolness of

the water was delicious. They were up to their armpits now, and Jane was up to her chin.

The children turned; and there, a little to the west was a heada head they knew, with a crooked cap upon it.

For some reason or other the savages had stopped at the water's edge and were all talking at the top of their

voices, and all were pointing coppercoloured fingers, stiff with interest and excitement, at the head of the

'What on earth did you come out here for?' Robert shouted; 'and where on earth's the carpet?'

'It's not on earth, bless you,' replied the cook, happily; 'it's UNDER MEin the water. I got a bit warm

setting there in the sun, and I just says, "I wish I was in a cold bath"just like thatand next minute here I

Every one at once saw how extremely fortunate it was that the carpet had had the sense to take the cook to the

nearest and largest baththe sea, and how terrible it would have been if the carpet had taken itself and her to

'Excuse me,' said the Phoenix's soft voice, breaking in on the general sigh of relief, 'but I think these brown

'Toto eat?' whispered Jane, as well as she could through the water which the plunging Lamb was dashing

'Hardly,' rejoined the bird. 'Who wants cooks to EAT? Cooks are ENGAGED, not eaten. They wish to engage

'It's as easy as kissing your claw,' replied the bird. 'I speak and understand ALL languages, even that of your

cook, which is difficult and unpleasing. It's quite easy, when you know how it's done. It just comes to you. I

should advise you to beach the carpet and land the cargothe cook, I mean. You can take my word for it, the

It is impossible not to take the word of a Phoenix when it tells you to. So the children at once got hold of the

corners of the carpet, and, pulling it from under the cook, towed it slowly in through the shallowing water,

and at last spread it on the sand. The cook, who had followed, instantly sat down on it, and at once the

coppercoloured natives, now strangely humble, formed a ring round the carpet, and fell on their faces on the

rainbowandgold sand. The tallest savage spoke in this position, which must have been very awkward for

him; and Jane noticed that it took him quite a long time to get the sand out of his mouth afterwards.

'He says,' the Phoenix remarked after some time, 'that they wish to engage your cook permanently.'

'Without a character?' asked Anthea, who had heard her mother speak of such things.

'They do not wish to engage her as cook, but as queen; and queens need not have characters.'

Every one laughed at the idea of the cook's being engaged as queen; they could not help it.

'I do not advise laughter,' warned the Phoenix, ruffling out his golden feathers, which were extremely wet.

'And it's not their own choice. It seems that there is an ancient prophecy of this coppercoloured tribe that a

great queen should some day arise out of the sea with a white crown on her head, andandwell, you see!

It pointed its claw at cook's cap; and a very dirty cap it was, because it was the end of the week.

'That's the white crown,' it said; 'at least, it's nearly whitevery white indeed compared to the colour THEY

Cyril addressed the cook. 'Look here!' said he, 'these brown people want you to be their queen. They're only

savages, and they don't know any better. Now would you really like to stay? or, if you'll promise not to be so

jolly aggravating at home, and not to tell any one a word about today, we'll take you back to Camden Town.'

'No, you don't,' said the cook, in firm, undoubting tones. 'I've always wanted to be the Queen, God bless her!

and I always thought what a good one I should make; and now I'm going to. IF it's only in a dream, it's well

worth while. And I don't go back to that nasty underground kitchen, and me blamed for everything; that I

don't, not till the dream's finished and I wake up with that nasty bell a rangtanging in my earsso I tell

'Are you SURE,' Anthea anxiously asked the Phoenix, 'that she will be quite safe here?'

'She will find the nest of a queen a very precious and soft thing,' said the bird, solemnly.

'Thereyou hear,' said Cyril. 'You're in for a precious soft thing, so mind you're a good queen, cook. It's

Some of the cook's coppercoloured subjects now advanced from the forest with long garlands of beautiful

flowers, white and sweetscented, and hung them respectfully round the neck of their new sovereign.

'What! all them lovely bokays for me!' exclaimed the enraptured cook. 'Well, this here is something LIKE a

She sat up very straight on the carpet, and the coppercoloured ones, themselves wreathed in garlands of the

gayest flowers, madly stuck parrot feathers in their hair and began to dance. It was a dance such as you have

never seen; it made the children feel almost sure that the cook was right, and that they were all in a dream.

Small, strangeshaped drums were beaten, oddsounding songs were sung, and the dance got faster and

faster and odder and odder, till at last all the dancers fell on the sand tired out.

'Brayvo!' she cried, 'brayvo! It's better than the Albert Edward Musichall in the Kentish Town Road. Go it

But the Phoenix would not translate this request into the coppercoloured language; and when the savages

had recovered their breath, they implored their queen to leave her white escort and come with them to their

'Wellso long!' said the cook, getting heavily on to her feet, when the Phoenix had translated this request.

'No more kitchens and attics for me, thank you. I'm off to my royal palace, I am; and I only wish this here

She picked up the ends of the garlands that trailed round her feet, and the children had one last glimpse of her

striped stockings and worn elasticside boots before she disappeared into the shadow of the forest,

'WELL!' said Cyril, 'I suppose she's all right, but they don't seem to count us for much, one way or the other.'

'Oh,' said the Phoenix, 'they think you're merely dreams. The prophecy said that the queen would arise from

the waves with a white crown and surrounded by white dreamchildren. That's about what they think YOU

'There won't be any dinner, with no cook and no puddingbasin,' Anthea reminded him; 'but there's always

The Lamb was furiously unwishful to be dressed in his warm clothes again, but Anthea and Jane managed it,

A sound of uncouth singing still came from beyond the trees where the coppercoloured natives were

crooning songs of admiration and respect to their whitecrowned queen. Then Anthea said 'Home,' just as

duchesses and other people do to their coachmen, and the intelligent carpet in one whirling moment laid itself

down in its proper place on the nursery floor. And at that very moment Eliza opened the door and said

'Cook's gone! I can't find her anywhere, and there's no dinner ready. She hasn't taken her box nor yet her

outdoor things. She just ran out to see the time, I shouldn't wonderthe kitchen clock never did give her

satisfactionand she's got run over or fell down in a fit as likely as not. You'll have to put up with the cold

bacon for your dinners; and what on earth you've got your outdoor things on for I don't know. And then I'll

But nobody ever knew anything about the cook any more, except the children, and, later, one other person.

Mother was so upset at losing the cook, and so anxious about her, that Anthea felt most miserable, as though

she had done something very wrong indeed. She woke several times in the night, and at last decided that she

would ask the Phoenix to let her tell her mother all about it. But there was no opportunity to do this next day,

because the Phoenix, as usual, had gone to sleep in some outoftheway spot, after asking, as a special

The Lamb never whoopingcoughed once all that Sunday, and mother and father said what good medicine it

was that the doctor had given him. But the children knew that it was the southern shore where you can't have

whoopingcough that had cured him. The Lamb babbled of coloured sand and water, but no one took any

It was on Monday morning, very early indeed, that Anthea woke and suddenly made up her mind. She crept

downstairs in her nightgown (it was very chilly), sat down on the carpet, and with a beating heart wished

herself on the sunny shore where you can't have whoopingcough, and next moment there she was.

The sand was splendidly warm. She could feel it at once, even through the carpet. She folded the carpet, and

put it over her shoulders like a shawl, for she was determined not to be parted from it for a single instant, no

Then trembling a little, and trying to keep up her courage by saying over and over, 'It is my DUTY, it IS my

The cook was dressed in a white robe; she had no shoes and stockings and no cap and she was sitting under a

screen of palmleaves, for it was afternoon in the island, and blazing hot. She wore a flower wreath on her

'They've got the cap put away,' she said. 'They seem to think a lot of it. Never saw one before, I expect.'

'Are you happy?' asked Anthea, panting; the sight of the cook as queen quite took her breath away.

'I believe you, my dear,' said the cook, heartily. 'Nothing to do unless you want to. But I'm getting rested now.

Tomorrow I'm going to start cleaning out my hut, if the dream keeps on, and I shall teach them cooking; they

'Lor' love a duck, yes!' the happy cookqueen replied; 'it's quite easy to pick up. I always thought I should be

quick at foreign languages. I've taught them to understand "dinner," and "I want a drink," and "You leave me

'Not me, miss; except if you'd only go away. I'm afraid of me waking up with that bell agoing if you keep on

stopping here atalking to me. Long as this here dream keeps up I'm as happy as a queen.'

She hurried into the wood, threw herself on the ground, and said 'Home'and there she was, rolled in the

'SHE'S all right, anyhow,' said Anthea, and went back to bed. 'I'm glad somebody's pleased. But mother will

Mother was really a great dear. She was pretty and she was loving, and most frightfully good when you were

ill, and always kind, and almost always just. That is, she was just when she understood things. But of course

she did not always understand things. No one understands everything, and mothers are not angels, though a

good many of them come pretty near it. The children knew that mother always WANTED to do what was

best for them, even if she was not clever enough to know exactly what was the best. That was why all of

them, but much more particularly Anthea, felt rather uncomfortable at keeping the great secret from her of the

wishing carpet and the Phoenix. And Anthea, whose inside mind was made so that she was able to be much

more uncomfortable than the others, had decided that she MUST tell her mother the truth, however little

'Then I shall have done what's right,' said she to the Phoenix; 'and if she doesn't believe me it won't be my

'Not in the least,' said the golden bird. 'And she won't, so you're quite safe.'

Anthea chose a time when she was doing her homelessonsthey were Algebra and Latin, German, English,

and Euclidand she asked her mother whether she might come and do them in the drawingroom'so as to

be quiet,' she said to her mother; and to herself she said, 'And that's not the real reason. I hope I shan't grow

Mother said, 'Of course, dearie,' and Anthea started swimming through a sea of x's and y's and z's. Mother

'Do you, dear?' said mother. 'Well, I wouldn't take her back after the way she has behaved.'

'It's not her fault,' said Anthea. 'May I tell you about it from the beginning?'

Mother laid down her pen, and her nice face had a resigned expression. As you know, a resigned expression

'It's like this,' said Anthea, in a hurry: 'that egg, you know, that came in the carpet; we put it in the fire and it

'A very nice game, darling,' said mother, taking up her pen. 'Now do be quiet. I've got a lot of letters to write.

'But, mother,' said Anthea, when mother put down the pen to lick an envelope, 'the carpet takes us wherever

'I wish it would take you where you could get a few nice Eastern things for my bazaar,' said mother. 'I

'Well, dear,' said mother, a little impatiently, for she had taken up her pen again.

'The carpet took us to a place where you couldn't have whoopingcough, and the Lamb hasn't whooped since,

and we took cook because she was so tiresome, and then she would stay and be queen of the savages. They

'Darling one,' said mother, 'you know I love to hear the things you make upbut I am most awfully busy.'

'You shouldn't say that, my sweet,' said mother, gently. And then Anthea knew it was hopeless.

'I've got a cold,' said mother, 'and daddy's anxious about it, and the Lamb's cough.'

'I wish I could think so,' mother replied. 'And daddy's got to go to Scotland. I do hope you'll be good

'On Saturday,' said mother, 'at the schools. Oh, don't talk any more, there's a treasure! My head's going round,

Mother and the Lamb went away, and father went away, and there was a new cook who looked so like a

frightened rabbit that no one had the heart to do anything to frighten her any more than seemed natural to her.

The Phoenix begged to be excused. It said it wanted a week's rest, and asked that it might not be disturbed.

So that when Wednesday afternoon brought an unexpected holiday, and every one decided to go somewhere

on the carpet, the journey had to be undertaken without the Phoenix. They were debarred from any carpet

excursions in the evening by a sudden promise to mother, exacted in the agitation of parting, that they would

not be out after six at night, except on Saturday, when they were to go to the bazaar, and were pledged to put

on their best clothes, to wash themselves to the uttermost, and to clean their nailsnot with scissors, which

are scratchy and bad, but with flatsharpened ends of wooden matches, which do no harm to any one's nails.

But every one was agreed that if they appeared suddenly in Bournemouth it would frighten mother out of her

wits, if not into a fit. So they sat on the carpet, and thought and thought and thought till they almost began to

'Look here,' said Cyril, 'I know. Please carpet, take us somewhere where we can see the Lamb and mother and

And the next moment they found themselves recovering from the upsidedown movementand there they

were sitting on the carpet, and the carpet was laid out over another thick soft carpet of brown pineneedles.

There were green pinetrees overhead, and a swift clear little stream was running as fast as ever it could

between steep banksand there, sitting on the pineneedle carpet, was mother, without her hat; and the sun

was shining brightly, although it was Novemberand there was the Lamb, as jolly as jolly and not whooping

'The carpet's deceived us,' said Robert, gloomily; 'mother will see us directly she turns her head.'

But to the girls it was not larks at all. It was horrible to have mother looking straight at them, and her face

'I don't like it,' said Jane. 'Mother never looked at us like that before. Just as if she didn't love usas if we

were somebody else's children, and not very nice ones eitheras if she didn't care whether she saw us or

But at this moment the Lamb saw them, and plunged towards the carpet, shrieking, 'Panty, own Pantyan'

Anthea caught him and kissed him, so did Jane; they could not help ithe looked such a darling, with his

blue threecornered hat all on one side, and his precious face all dirtyquite in the old familiar way.

It was a delicious moment. Even the boys thumped their baby brother joyously on the back.

Then Anthea glanced at motherand mother's face was a pale seagreen colour, and she was staring at the

Lamb as if she thought he had gone mad. And, indeed, that was exactly what she did think.

'My Lamb, my precious! Come to mother,' she cried, and jumped up and ran to the baby.

She was so quick that the invisible children had to leap back, or she would have felt them; and to feel what

you can't see is the worst sort of ghostfeeling. Mother picked up the Lamb and hurried away from the

'Let's go home,' said Jane, after a miserable silence. 'It feels just exactly as if mother didn't love us.'

But they couldn't bear to go home till they had seen mother meet another lady, and knew that she was safe.

You cannot leave your mother to go green in the face in a distant pinewood, far from all human aid, and then

When mother seemed safe the children returned to the carpet, and said 'Home'and home they went.

'I don't care about being invisible myself,' said Cyril, 'at least, not with my own family. It would be different

And now the thoughts of all four dwelt fondly on the dear greenish face of mother.

'I wish she hadn't gone away,' said Jane; 'the house is simply beastly without her.'

'I think we ought to do what she said,' Anthea put in. 'I saw something in a book the other day about the

'That means when they've departed farther off,' said Cyril. 'India's coral or Greenland's icy, don't you know;

'She SAID'Anthea was very much inclined to cry'she said, "Get Indian things for my bazaar;" but I

'Let's get them all the same,' said Robert. 'We'll go the first thing on Saturday morning.'

There was no finding the Phoenix, so they sat on the beautiful wishing carpet, and said

'We want Indian things for mother's bazaar. Will you please take us where people will give us heaps of Indian

The docile carpet swirled their senses away, and restored them on the outskirts of a gleaming white Indian

town. They knew it was Indian at once, by the shape of the domes and roofs; and besides, a man went by on

an elephant, and two English soldiers went along the road, talking like in Mr Kipling's booksso after that

no one could have any doubt as to where they were. They rolled up the carpet and Robert carried it, and they

It was very warm, and once more they had to take off their LondoninNovember coats, and carry them on

The streets were narrow and strange, and the clothes of the people in the streets were stranger and the talk of

'I can't understand a word,' said Cyril. 'How on earth are we to ask for things for our bazaar?'

'And they're poor people, too,' said Jane; 'I'm sure they are. What we want is a rajah or something.'

Robert was beginning to unroll the carpet, but the others stopped him, imploring him not to waste a wish.

'We asked the carpet to take us where we could get Indian things for bazaars,' said Anthea, 'and it will.'

Just as she finished speaking a very brown gentleman in a turban came up to them and bowed deeply. He

'My ranee, she think you very nice childs. She asks do you lose yourselves, and do you desire to sell carpet?

They followed the stranger, who seemed to have a great many more teeth in his smile than are usual, and he

led them through crooked streets to the ranee's palace. I am not going to describe the ranee's palace, because I

really have never seen the palace of a ranee, and Mr Kipling has. So you can read about it in his books. But I

The old ranee sat on a lowcushioned seat, and there were a lot of other ladies with herall in trousers and

veils, and sparkling with tinsel and gold and jewels. And the brown, turbaned gentleman stood behind a sort

of carved screen, and interpreted what the children said and what the queen said. And when the queen asked

And Jane briefly said why, and the interpreter interpreted. The queen spoke, and then the interpreter said

'My mistress says it is a good story, and you tell it all through without thought of time.'

And they had to. It made a long story, especially as it had all to be told twiceonce by Cyril and once by the

interpreter. Cyril rather enjoyed himself. He warmed to his work, and told the tale of the Phoenix and the

Carpet, and the Lone Tower, and the QueenCook, in language that grew insensibly more and more Arabian

Nightsy, and the ranee and her ladies listened to the interpreter, and rolled about on their fat cushions with

When the story was ended she spoke, and the interpreter explained that she had said, 'Little one, thou art a

heavenborn teller of tales,' and she threw him a string of turquoises from round her neck.

'Thank her very, very much; but I would much rather she gave me some of the cheap things in the bazaar.

Tell her I want them to sell again, and give the money to buy clothes for poor people who haven't any.'

'Tell him he has my leave to sell my gift and clothe the naked with its price,' said the queen, when this was

But Cyril said very firmly, 'No, thank you. The things have got to be sold today at our bazaar, and no one

would buy a turquoise necklace at an English bazaar. They'd think it was sham, or else they'd want to know

So then the queen sent out for little pretty things, and her servants piled the carpet with them.

But Anthea said, 'If the queen will lend us a comb and let us wash our hands and faces, she shall see a magic

thing. We and the carpet and all these brass trays and pots and carved things and stuffs and things will just

The queen clapped her hands at this idea, and lent the children a sandalwood comb inlaid with ivory

lotusflowers. And they washed their faces and hands in silver basins. Then Cyril made a very polite farewell

And of course they were. And the queen and her ladies were left with their mouths open, gazing at the bare

'That is magic, if ever magic was!' said the queen, delighted with the incident; which, indeed, has given the

Cyril's stories had taken some time, so had the meal of strange sweet foods that they had had while the little

pretty things were being bought, and the gas in the schoolroom was already lighted. Outside, the winter dusk

'I'm glad we got washed in India,' said Cyril. 'We should have been awfully late if we'd had to go home and

'Besides,' Robert said, 'it's much warmer washing in India. I shouldn't mind it so much if we lived there.'

The thoughtful carpet had dumped the children down in a dusky space behind the point where the corners of

two stalls met. The floor was littered with string and brown paper, and baskets and boxes were heaped along

The children crept out under a stall covered with all sorts of tablecovers and mats and things, embroidered

beautifully by idle ladies with no real work to do. They got out at the end, displacing a sideboardcloth

adorned with a tasteful pattern of blue geraniums. The girls got out unobserved, so did Cyril; but Robert, as

he cautiously emerged, was actually walked on by Mrs Biddle, who kept the stall. Her large, solid foot stood

firmly on the small, solid hand of Robert and who can blame Robert if he DID yell a little?

A crowd instantly collected. Yells are very unusual at bazaars, and every one was intensely interested. It was

several seconds before the three free children could make Mrs Biddle understand that what she was walking

on was not a schoolroom floor, or even, as she presently supposed, a dropped pincushion, but the living

hand of a suffering child. When she became aware that she really had hurt him, she grew very angry indeed.

When people have hurt other people by accident, the one who does the hurting is always much the angriest. I

'I'm very sorry, I'm sure,' said Mrs Biddle; but she spoke more in anger than in sorrow. 'Come out! whatever

'Such nasty, prying ways,' said Mrs Biddle, 'will never make you successful in life. There's nothing there but

'She doesn't mean to be; but there ARE some nice things there, all the same,' said Cyril; who suddenly felt

how impossible it was to inform the listening crowd that all the treasures piled on the carpet were mother's

contributions to the bazaar. No one would believe it; and if they did, and wrote to thank mother, she would

thinkwell, goodness only knew what she would think. The other three children felt the same.

'I should like to see them,' said a very nice lady, whose friends had disappointed her, and who hoped that

She looked inquiringly at Robert, who said, 'With pleasure, don't mention it,' and dived back under Mrs

'I wonder you encourage such behaviour,' said Mrs Biddle. 'I always speak my mind, as you know, Miss

Peasmarsh; and, I must say, I am surprised.' She turned to the crowd. 'There is no entertainment here,' she

said sternly. 'A very naughty little boy has accidentally hurt himself, but only slightly. Will you please

disperse? It will only encourage him in naughtiness if he finds himself the centre of attraction.'

The crowd slowly dispersed. Anthea, speechless with fury, heard a nice curate say, 'Poor little beggar!' and

Then Robert wriggled out from under the stall with some Benares brass and some inlaid sandalwood boxes.

'Excuse me,' said Mrs Biddle, with fierce politeness, 'these objects are deposited behind MY stall. Some

unknown donor who does good by stealth, and would blush if he could hear you claim the things. Of course

'My stall touches yours at the corner,' said poor Miss Peasmarsh, timidly, 'and my cousin did promise'

The children sidled away from the unequal contest and mingled with the crowd. Their feelings were too deep

'And after all our trouble! I'm hoarse with gassing to that trousered lady in India.'

It was Anthea who said, in a hurried undertone, 'She isn't very nice, and Miss Peasmarsh is pretty and nice

it was a long crawl, under three stalls, but Anthea did it. A large piece of pale blue paper lay among the

She folded it to a square and wrote upon it, licking the pencil at every word to make it mark quite blackly:

'All these Indian things are for pretty, nice Miss Peasmarsh's stall.' She thought of adding, 'There is nothing

for Mrs Biddle;' but she saw that this might lead to suspicion, so she wrote hastily: 'From an unknown donna,'

So that when Mrs Biddle appealed to the bazaar committee, and the corner of the stall was lifted and shifted,

so that stout clergymen and heavy ladies could get to the corner without creeping under stalls, the blue paper

was discovered, and all the splendid, shining Indian things were given over to Miss Peasmarsh, and she sold

'I don't understand about that blue paper,' said Mrs Biddle. 'It looks to me like the work of a lunatic. And

Anthea and Jane begged Miss Peasmarsh to let them help her to sell the things, because it was their brother

who had announced the good news that the things had come. Miss Peasmarsh was very willing, for now her

stall, that had been SO neglected, was surrounded by people who wanted to buy, and she was glad to be

helped. The children noted that Mrs Biddle had not more to do in the way of selling than she could manage

quite well. I hope they were not gladfor you should forgive your enemies, even if they walk on your hands

and then say it is all your naughty fault. But I am afraid they were not so sorry as they ought to have been.

It took some time to arrange the things on the stall. The carpet was spread over it, and the dark colours

showed up the brass and silver and ivory things. It was a happy and busy afternoon, and when Miss

Peasmarsh and the girls had sold every single one of the little pretty things from the Indian bazaar, far, far

away, Anthea and Jane went off with the boys to fish in the fishpond, and dive into the branpie, and hear the

cardboard band, and the phonograph, and the chorus of singing birds that was done behind a screen with glass

They had a beautiful tea, suddenly presented to them by the nice curate, and Miss Peasmarsh joined them

before they had had more than three cakes each. It was a merry party, and the curate was extremely pleasant

'We ought to get back to the stall,' said Anthea, when no one could possibly eat any more, and the curate was

'There's nothing to go back for,' said Miss Peasmarsh gaily; 'thanks to you dear children we've sold

'Oh,' said Miss Peasmarsh, radiantly, 'don't bother about the carpet. I've sold even that. Mrs Biddle gave me

'Why,' said Jane, 'her servants don't HAVE carpets. We had cook from her, and she told us so.'

'No scandal about Queen Elizabeth, if YOU please,' said the curate, cheerfully; and Miss Peasmarsh laughed,

and looked at him as though she had never dreamed that any one COULD be so amusing. But the others were

struck dumb. How could they say, 'The carpet is ours!' For who brings carpets to bazaars?

The children were now thoroughly wretched. But I am glad to say that their wretchedness did not make them

forget their manners, as it does sometimes, even with grownup people, who ought to know ever so much

They said, 'Thank you very much for the jolly tea,' and 'Thanks for being so jolly,' and 'Thanks awfully for

giving us such a jolly time;' for the curate had stood fishponds, and branpies, and phonographs, and the

chorus of singing birds, and had stood them like a man. The girls hugged Miss Peasmarsh, and as they went

'Jolly little kids, yes, but what aboutyou will let it be directly after Easter. Ah, do say you will'

And Jane ran back and said, before Anthea could drag her away, 'What are you going to do after Easter?'

'Thank you,' said the curate, 'but I'm afraid I can't wait for that. I must go to the Fortunate Islands before they

'I've always thought I should marry a bishop,' said Jane: 'his aprons would come in so useful. Wouldn't YOU

As it was Robert's hand that Mrs Biddle had walked on, it was decided that he had better not recall the

incident to her mind, and so make her angry again. Anthea and Jane had helped to sell things at the rival stall,

A hasty council of four decided that Mrs Biddle would hate Cyril less than she would hate the others, so the

'Mrs Biddle, WE meant to have that carpet. Would you sell it to us? We would give you'

There was that in her tone which showed Cyril, all too plainly, the hopelessness of persuasion. He found the

'It's no use; she's like a lioness robbed of its puppies. We must watch where it goesand Anthea, I don't

care what you say. It's our own carpet. It wouldn't be burglary. It would be a sort of forlorn hope rescue

The children still wandered among the gay crowdbut there was no pleasure there for them any more. The

chorus of singing birds sounded just like glass tubes being blown through water, and the phonograph simply

made a horrid noise, so that you could hardly hear yourself speak. And the people were buying things they

couldn't possibly want, and it all seemed very stupid. And Mrs Biddle had bought the wishing carpet for ten

shillings. And the whole of life was sad and grey and dusty, and smelt of slight gas escapes, and hot people,

They found a corner within sight of the carpet, and there they waited miserably, till it was far beyond their

proper bedtime. And when it was ten the people who had bought things went away, but the people who had

'And to jaw about it,' said Robert. 'I'll never go to another bazaar as long as ever I live. My hand is swollen as

So they went. And then they waited on the pavement under the gas lamp, where ragged children had been

standing all the evening to listen to the band, and their feet slipped about in the greasy mud till Mrs Biddle

came out and was driven away in a cab with the many things she hadn't sold, and the few things she had

boughtamong others the carpet. The other stallholders left their things at the school till Monday morning,

but Mrs Biddle was afraid some one would steal some of them, so she took them in a cab.

The children, now too desperate to care for mud or appearances, hung on behind the cab till it reached Mrs

Biddle's house. When she and the carpet had gone in and the door was shut Anthea said

'Don't let's burgleI mean do daring and dashing rescue actstill we've given her a chance. Let's ring and

The others hated to do this, but at last they agreed, on condition that Anthea would not make any silly fuss

So they knocked and rang, and a scaredlooking parlourmaid opened the front door. While they were asking

for Mrs Biddle they saw her. She was in the diningroom, and she had already pushed back the table and

Anthea walked straight past the uncomfortable parlourmaid, and the others followed her. Mrs Biddle had her

back to them, and was smoothing down the carpet with the same boot that had trampled on the hand of

Robert. So that they were all in the room, and Cyril, with great presence of mind, had shut the room door

'Who is it, Jane?' she asked in a sour voice; and then turning suddenly, she saw who it was. Once more her

face grew violeta deep, dark violet. 'You wicked daring little things!' she cried, 'how dare you come here?

'Don't be angry,' said Anthea, soothingly, 'we only wanted to ask you to let us have the carpet. We have quite

Mrs Biddle actually stamped that booted foot of hers. 'You rude, barefaced child!' she said.

'No go,' Robert whispered back, 'she'd be there too, and raving mad as likely as not. Horrid thing, I hate her!'

'I wish Mrs Biddle was in an angelic good temper,' cried Anthea, suddenly. 'It's worth trying,' she said to

Mrs Biddle's face grew from purple to violet, and from violet to mauve, and from mauve to pink. Then she

'Why, so I am!' she said, 'what a funny idea! Why shouldn't I be in a good temper, my dears.'

Once more the carpet had done its work, and not on Mrs Biddle alone. The children felt suddenly good and

'You're a jolly good sort,' said Cyril. 'I see that now. I'm sorry we vexed you at the bazaar today.'

'Not another word,' said the changed Mrs Biddle. 'Of course you shall have the carpet, my dears, if you've

taken such a fancy to it. No, no; I won't have more than the ten shillings I paid.'

'It does seem hard to ask you for it after you bought it at the bazaar,' said Anthea; 'but it really IS our nursery

'Did it really, now? How vexing!' said Mrs Biddle, kindly. 'Well, my dears, I can very well give the extra ten

shillings; so you take your carpet and we'll say no more about it. Have a piece of cake before you go! I'm so

'Not at all,' said Mrs Biddle, heartily. 'I'm delighted to be able to give any little pleasure to you dear children.'

And she helped them to roll up the carpet, and the boys carried it away between them.

'You ARE a dear,' said Anthea, and she and Mrs Biddle kissed each other heartily.

'Yes,' said Robert, 'and the odd part is that you feel just as if it was REALher being so jolly, I meanand

'Perhaps it IS real,' said Anthea, 'only it was covered up with crossness and tiredness and things, and the

'I hope it'll keep them away,' said Jane; 'she isn't ugly at all when she laughs.'

The carpet has done many wonders in its day; but the case of Mrs Biddle is, I think, the most wonderful. For

from that day she was never anything like so disagreeable as she was before, and she sent a lovely silver

teapot and a kind letter to Miss Peasmarsh when the pretty lady married the nice curate; just after Easter it

'I wish we could find the Phoenix,' said Jane. 'It's much better company than the carpet.'

'No, I'm not; only the carpet never says anything, and it's so helpless. It doesn't seem able to take care of

itself. It gets sold, and taken into the sea, and things like that. You wouldn't catch the Phoenix getting sold.'

It was two days after the bazaar. Every one was a little crosssome days are like that, usually Mondays, by

'I shouldn't wonder if your precious Phoenix had gone off for good,' said Cyril; 'and I don't know that I blame

'The Phoenix hasn't goneI'm sure it hasn't,' said Anthea. 'I'll have another look for it.'

Anthea looked under tables and chairs, and in boxes and baskets, in mother's workbag and father's

portmanteau, but still the Phoenix showed not so much as the tip of one shining feather.

Then suddenly Robert remembered how the whole of the Greek invocation song of seven thousand lines had

been condensed by him into one English hexameter, so he stood on the carpet and chanted

and almost at once there was a rustle of wings down the kitchen stairs, and the Phoenix sailed in on wide gold

'Not EVERYWHERE,' replied the bird, 'because you did not look in the place where I was. Confess that that

'WHAT hallowed spot?' asked Cyril, a little impatiently, for time was hastening on, and the wishing carpet

'The spot,' said the Phoenix, 'which I hallowed by my golden presence was the Lutron.'

'I'm sure you weren't,' said Jane. 'I looked there three times and moved all the towels.'

'I was concealed,' said the Phoenix, 'on the summit of a metal columnenchanted, I should judge, for it felt

warm to my golden toes, as though the glorious sun of the desert shone ever upon it.'

'Oh, you mean the cylinder,' said Cyril: 'it HAS rather a comforting feel, this weather. And now where shall

And then, of course, the usual discussion broke out as to where they should go and what they should do. And

'I think the diamond mines of Golconda would be nice,' said Anthea; 'don't you agree, Jane?'

'No, I don't,' retorted Jane, 'I don't agree with you. I don't agree with anybody.'

'If you cannot agree among yourselves, I fear I shall have to leave you,' it said.

'If I were you,' said the bird, thoughtfully, 'I should give the carpet a rest. Besides, you'll lose the use of your

legs if you go everywhere by carpet. Can't you take me out and explain your ugly city to me?'

'We will if it clears up,' said Robert, without enthusiasm. 'Just look at the rain. And why should we give the

'Are you greedy and grasping, and heartless and selfish?' asked the bird, sharply.

'Well then!' said the Phoenix. 'And as to the rainwell, I am not fond of rain myself. If the sun knew _I_ was

herehe's very fond of shining on me because I look so bright and golden. He always says I repay a little

'That's quite wrong; and if you say it in that sort of dull way, I can quite understand the rain not taking any

'You should always speak politely to people when you want them to do things, and especially when it's going

'I was obliged to put in "lovely",' said the Phoenix, modestly, 'to make the line long enough.'

'There are plenty of nasty words just that length,' said Jane; but every one else said 'Hush!' And then they

opened the window and shouted the seven lines as loud as they could, and the Phoenix said all the words with

them, except 'lovely', and when they came to that it looked down and coughed bashfully.

'There's true politeness,' said the Phoenix, and the next moment it was perched on the windowledge, opening

and shutting its radiant wings and flapping out its golden feathers in such a flood of glorious sunshine as you

sometimes have at sunset in autumn time. People said afterwards that there had not been such sunshine in

'And now,' said the bird, 'we will go out into the city, and you shall take me to see one of my temples.'

'I don't see how you CAN find anything out from it,' said Jane: 'it never speaks.'

'All the same, you can pick up things from a carpet,' said the bird; 'I've seen YOU do it. And I have picked up

several pieces of information in this way. That papyrus on which you showed me my pictureI understand

that it bears on it the name of the street of your city in which my finest temple stands, with my image graved

'You mean the fire insurance office,' said Robert. 'It's not really a temple, and they don't'

'Excuse me,' said the Phoenix, coldly, 'you are wholly misinformed. It IS a temple, and they do.'

'Don't let's waste the sunshine,' said Anthea; 'we might argue as we go along, to save time.'

So the Phoenix consented to make itself a nest in the breast of Robert's Norfolk jacket, and they all went out

into the splendid sunshine. The best way to the temple of the Phoenix seemed to be to take the tram, and on

the top of it the children talked, while the Phoenix now and then put out a wary beak, cocked a cautious eye,

It was a delicious ride, and the children felt how lucky they were to have had the money to pay for it. They

went with the tram as far as it went, and when it did not go any farther they stopped too, and got off. The tram

stops at the end of the Gray's Inn Road, and it was Cyril who thought that one might well find a short cut to

the Phoenix Office through the little streets and courts that lie tightly packed between Fetter Lane and

Ludgate Circus. Of course, he was quite mistaken, as Robert told him at the time, and afterwards Robert did

not forbear to remind his brother how he had said so. The streets there were small and stuffy and ugly, and

crowded with printers' boys and binders' girls coming out from work; and these stared so hard at the pretty

red coats and caps of the sisters that they wished they had gone some other way. And the printers and binders

made very personal remarks, advising Jane to get her hair cut, and inquiring where Anthea had bought that

hat. Jane and Anthea scorned to reply, and Cyril and Robert found that they were hardly a match for the

rough crowd. They could think of nothing nasty enough to say. They turned a corner sharply, and then

Anthea pulled Jane into an archway, and then inside a door; Cyril and Robert quickly followed, and the

'It was a bit thick; but it's partly you girls' fault, coming out in those flashy coats.'

'We thought we ought to, when we were going out with the Phoenix,' said Jane; and the bird said, 'Quite right,

And at the same instant a dirty hand reached through the grim balustrade of the staircase beside them and

'I say, Urb, blowed if this ain't our Poll parrot what we lost. Thank you very much, lidy, for bringin' 'im home

The four turned swiftly. Two large and ragged boys were crouched amid the dark shadows of the stairs. They

were much larger than Robert and Cyril, and one of them had snatched the Phoenix away and was holding it

'Good arternoon, and thankin' you,' the boy went on, with maddening mockery. 'Sorry I can't give yer

tuppence for yer troublebut I've 'ad to spend my fortune advertising for my vallyable bird in all the

'It's other parties as'll have the Beak on to 'em presently,' said Ike, darkly, 'if they come atrying to lay claims

on my Poll parrot. You just shut up, Urb. Now then, you four little gells, get out er this.'

There was a squawkthe most birdlike noise any one had ever heard from the Phoenixand a fluttering,

'There now, you've been and gone and strook my Poll parrot right in the fevversstrook 'im something

Robert stamped with fury. Cyril felt himself growing pale with rage, and with the effort of screwing up his

brain to make it clever enough to think of some way of being even with those boys. Anthea and Jane were as

'You better!' said he who was named Urb. 'Say, Ike, you twist the bloomin' pigeon's neck; he ain't worth

'I won't hurt it,' said Ike; 'I'm 'shamed of you, Urb, for to think of such a thing. Arf a shiner, miss, and the bird

'Look out, Ike,' said Urb, 'you'll throttle the jokerand I see at wunst 'e was wuth 'is weight in flimsies.'00

'Hearken, O Eikonoclastes, despiser of sacred imagesand thou, Urbanus, dweller in the sordid city. Forbear

'They must ha' got all this up, case the Polly got pinched,' said Ike. 'Lor' lumme, the artfulness of them young

'I say, slosh 'em in the geseech and get clear off with the swag's wot I say,' urged Herbert.

'Forbear,' repeated the Phoenix, sternly. 'Who pinched the click off of the old bloke in Aldermanbury?' it

'Stow it,' said Ike. 'You! ugh! yah!leave go of me. Bash him off, Urb; 'e'll have my bloomin' eyes outer my

There were howls, a scuffle, a flutter; Ike and Urb fled up the stairs, and the Phoenix swept out through the

doorway. The children followed and the Phoenix settled on Robert, 'like a butterfly on a rose,' as Anthea said

afterwards, and wriggled into the breast of his Norfolk jacket, 'like an eel into mud,' as Cyril later said.

'Why ever didn't you burn him? You could have, couldn't you?' asked Robert, when the hurried flight through

'I could have, of course,' said the bird, 'but I didn't think it would be dignified to allow myself to get warm

about a little thing like that. The Fates, after all, have not been illiberal to me. I have a good many friends

These happenings had somewhat shaken the adventurous temper of the children, and the Phoenix had to exert

Presently the children came to a great house in Lombard Street, and there, on each side of the door, was the

image of the Phoenix carved in stone, and set forth on shining brass were the words

'_I_ don't know,' said Robert; he was beginning to feel shy, and that always made him rather cross.

'Oh, yes, you do,' Cyril contradicted. 'When people's houses are burnt down the Phoenix gives them new

'The house, then, like the Phoenix, rises from its ashes? Well have my priests dealt with the sons of men!'

'The sons of men pay, you know,' said Anthea; 'but it's only a little every year.'

'That is to maintain my priests,' said the bird, 'who, in the hour of affliction, heal sorrows and rebuild houses.

Lead on; inquire for the High Priest. I will not break upon them too suddenly in all my glory. Noble and

honourdeserving are they who make as nought the evil deeds of the lamefooted and unpleasing

'I don't know what you're talking about, and I wish you wouldn't muddle us with new names. Fire just

happens. Nobody does itnot as a deed, you know,' Cyril explained. 'If they did the Phoenix wouldn't help

them, because its a crime to set fire to things. Arsenic, or something they call it, because it's as bad as

'Ask for the High Priest,' said the Phoenix. 'Say that you have a secret to unfold that concerns my worship,

So the children went in, all four of them, though they didn't like it, and stood in a large and beautiful hall

adorned with Doulton tiles, like a large and beautiful bath with no water in it, and stately pillars supporting

the roof. An unpleasing representation of the Phoenix in brown pottery disfigured one wall. There were

counters and desks of mahogany and brass, and clerks bent over the desks and walked behind the counters.

An attentive clerk in decent black, who controlled his mouth but not his eyebrows, now came towards them.

He leaned forward on the counter, and the children thought he was going to say, 'What can I have the

pleasure of showing you?' like in a draper's; instead of which the young man said

'Perhaps it's Mr Blank' (not for worlds would I give the name). 'He's a Masonic High Priest, you know.'

A porter was sent away to look for Mr Asterisk (I cannot give his name), and the children were left there to

look on and be looked on by all the gentlemen at the mahogany desks. Anthea and Jane thought that they

The porter returned with the news that Mr Dot Dash Dot (I dare not reveal his name) was out, but that Mr

Here a really delightful gentleman appeared. He had a beard and a kind and merry eye, and each one of the

four knew at once that this was a man who had kiddies of his own and could understand what you were

'What is it?' he asked. 'Mr'he named the name which I will never reveal'is out. Can I do anything?'

'I beg your pardon,' said the nice gentleman, who thought it was Robert who had spoken.

'We have something to tell you,' said Cyril, 'but'he glanced at the porter, who was lingering much nearer

'Come upstairs then,' he said, and led the way up a wide and beautiful staircase. Anthea says the stairs were of

white marble, but I am not sure. On the cornerpost of the stairs, at the top, was a beautiful image of the

Phoenix in dark metal, and on the wall at each side was a flat sort of image of it.

The nice gentleman led them into a room where the chairs, and even the tables, were covered with reddish

'Now,' said Cyril, firmly, 'I know you'll be awfully surprised, and you'll think it's not true and we are lunatics;

but we aren't, and it is. Robert's got something inside his Norfolkthat's Robert, he's my young brother.

Now don't be upset and have a fit or anything sir. Of course, I know when you called your shop the "Phoenix"

you never thought there was one; but there isand Robert's got it buttoned up against his chest!'

'If it's an old curio in the form of a Phoenix, I dare say the Board' said the nice gentleman, as Robert began

'My goodness gracious!' said the gentleman, as the Phoenix, with one last wriggle that melted into a flutter,

got out of its nest in the breast of Robert and stood up on the leathercovered table.

'What an extraordinarily fine bird!' he went on. 'I don't think I ever saw one just like it.'

'I should think not,' said the Phoenix, with pardonable pride. And the gentleman jumped.

'I am,' said the bird, simply, 'the Head of your House, and I have come to my temple to receive your homage.

I am no parrot'its beak curved scornfully'I am the one and only Phoenix, and I demand the homage of

'In the absence of our manager,' the gentleman began, exactly as though he were addressing a valued

customer'in the absence of our manager, I might perhaps be ableWhat am I saying?' He turned pale, and

passed his hand across his brow. 'My dears,' he said, 'the weather is unusually warm for the time of year, and

I don't feel quite myself. Do you know, for a moment I really thought that that remarkable bird of yours had

'Yes, sir, of course, sir. You take it in your hand, sir,' said the porter, sympathetically, and reached out his

'Of course you are, sir,' said the porter. 'I see that the first minute, directly I got my breath, sir.'

'That will do,' said the gentleman. 'Ask Mr Wilson and Mr Sterry to step up here for a moment, please.'

Mr Sterry and Mr Wilson were in their turn overcome by amazementquickly followed by conviction. To

the surprise of the children every one in the office took the Phoenix at its word, and after the first shock of

surprise it seemed to be perfectly natural to every one that the Phoenix should be alive, and that, passing

'We ought to have some sort of ceremony,' said the nicest gentleman, anxiously. 'There isn't time to summon

the directors and shareholderswe might do that tomorrow, perhaps. Yes, the boardroom would be best. I

shouldn't like it to feel we hadn't done everything in our power to show our appreciation of its condescension

The children could hardly believe their ears, for they had never thought that any one but themselves would

believe in the Phoenix. And yet every one did; all the men in the office were brought in by twos and threes,

and the moment the Phoenix opened its beak it convinced the cleverest of them, as well as those who were

not so clever. Cyril wondered how the story would look in the papers next day. He seemed to see the posters

'Excuse our leaving you a moment,' said the nice gentleman, and he went away with the others; and through

the halfclosed door the children could hear the sound of many boots on stairs, the hum of excited voices

explaining, suggesting, arguing, the thumpy drag of heavy furniture being moved about.

The Phoenix strutted up and down the leathercovered table, looking over its shoulder at its pretty back.

'Everything is preparedwe have done our best at so short a notice; the meetingthe ceremonywill be in

the boardroom. Will the Honourable Phoenix walkit is only a few stepsor would it like to bewould

'My Robert will bear me to the boardroom, if that be the unlovely name of my temple's inmost court,'

So they all followed the gentleman. There was a big table in the boardroom, but it had been pushed right up

under the long windows at one side, and chairs were arranged in rows across the roomlike those you have

at schools when there is a magic lantern on 'Our Eastern Empire', or on 'The Way We Do in the Navy'. The

doors were of carved wood, very beautiful, with a carved Phoenix above. Anthea noticed that the chairs in the

front rows were of the kind that her mother so loved to ask the price of in old furniture shops, and never could

buy, because the price was always nearly twenty pounds each. On the mantelpiece were some heavy bronze

candlesticks and a clock, and on the top of the clock was another image of the Phoenix.

'Remove that effigy,' said the Phoenix to the gentlemen who were there, and it was hastily taken down. Then

the Phoenix fluttered to the middle of the mantelpiece and stood there, looking more golden than ever. Then

every one in the house and the office came infrom the cashier to the women who cooked the clerks'

dinners in the beautiful kitchen at the top of the house. And every one bowed to the Phoenix and then sat

'I don't notice any incense,' it said, with an injured sniff. A hurried consultation ended in plates being fetched

from the kitchen. Brown sugar, sealingwax, and tobacco were placed on these, and something from a square

bottle was poured over it all. Then a match was applied. It was the only incense that was handy in the

'We have met here today,' said the gentleman again, 'on an occasion unparalleled in the annals of this office.

'I was coming to that. Our respected Phoenix, the Head of this ancient House, has at length done us the

honour to come among us. I think I may say, gentlemen, that we are not insensible to this honour, and that we

welcome with no uncertain voice one whom we have so long desired to see in our midst.'

Several of the younger clerks thought of saying 'Hear, hear,' but they feared it might seem disrespectful to the

'I will not take up your time,' the speaker went on, 'by recapitulating the advantages to be derived from a

proper use of our system of fire insurance. I know, and you know, gentlemen, that our aim has ever been to

be worthy of that eminent bird whose name we bear, and who now adorns our mantelpiece with his presence.

The cheers rose, deafening. When they had died away the Phoenix was asked to say a few words.

It expressed in graceful phrases the pleasure it felt in finding itself at last in its own temple.

'And,' it went on, 'You must not think me wanting in appreciation of your very hearty and cordial reception

when I ask that an ode may be recited or a choric song sung. It is what I have always been accustomed to.'

The four children, dumb witnesses of this wonderful scene, glanced a little nervously across the foam of

white faces above the sea of black coats. It seemed to them that the Phoenix was really asking a little too

'Time presses,' said the Phoenix, 'and the original ode of invocation is long, as well as being Greek; and,

besides, it's no use invoking me when here I am; but is there not a song in your own tongue for a great day

'That one is NOT my favourite,' interrupted the Phoenix, 'and I think you've forgotten part of it.'

And again arose the voices of all the clerks and employees and managers and secretaries and cooks

'I'm sure YOU'RE very kind,' said the Phoenix; 'and now we must be going. An thank you very much for a

very pleasant time. May you all prosper as you deserve to do, for I am sure a nicer, pleasanterspoken lot of

temple attendants I have never met, and never wish to meet. I wish you all goodday!'

It fluttered to the wrist of Robert and drew the four children from the room. The whole of the office staff

followed down the wide stairs and filed into their accustomed places, and the two most important officials

stood on the steps bowing till Robert had buttoned the golden bird in his Norfolk bosom, and it and he and

The two most important gentlemen looked at each other earnestly and strangely for a moment, and then

retreated to those sacred inner rooms, where they toil without ceasing for the good of the House.

And the moment they were all in their placesmanagers, secretaries, clerks, and portersthey all started,

and each looked cautiously round to see if any one was looking at him. For each thought that he had fallen

asleep for a few minutes, and had dreamed a very odd dream about the Phoenix and the boardroom. And, of

course, no one mentioned it to any one else, because going to sleep at your office is a thing you simply

The extraordinary confusion of the boardroom, with the remains of the incense in the plates, would have

shown them at once that the visit of the Phoenix had been no dream, but a radiant reality, but no one went

into the boardroom again that day; and next day, before the office was opened, it was all cleaned and put

nice and tidy by a lady whose business asking questions was not part of. That is why Cyril read the papers in

vain on the next day and the day after that; because no sensible person thinks his dreams worth putting in the

The Phoenix was very pleased, but it decided to write an ode for itself. It thought the ones it had heard at its

And when the children went to bed that night it was still trying to cut down the last line to the proper length

'We shan't be able to go anywhere on the carpet for a whole week, though,' said Robert.

It was breakfasttime, and mother's letter, telling them how they were all going for Christmas to their aunt's

at Lyndhurst, and how father and mother would meet them there, having been read by every one, lay on the

table, drinking hot baconfat with one corner and eating marmalade with the other.

'Yes, glad,' said Jane. 'I don't want any more things to happen just now. I feel like you do when you've been to

three parties in a weeklike we did at granny's onceand extras in between, toys and chocs and things like

that. I want everything to be just real, and no fancy things happening at all.' 'I don't like being obliged to keep

things from mother,' said Anthea. 'I don't know why, but it makes me feel selfish and mean.'

'If we could only get the mater to believe it, we might take her to the jolliest places,' said Cyril, thoughtfully.

'As it is, we've just got to be selfish and meanif it is thatbut I don't feel it is.'

'It's worse,' said Robert; 'if you knew it and didn't feel it, it wouldn't matter so much.'

'That's being a hardened criminal, father says,' put in Cyril, and he picked up mother's letter and wiped its

corners with his handkerchief, to whose colour a trifle of baconfat and marmalade made but little difference.

'We're going tomorrow, anyhow,' said Robert. 'Don't,' he added, with a goodboy expression on his

face'don't let's be ungrateful for our blessings; don't let's waste the day in saying how horrid it is to keep

secrets from mother, when we all know Anthea tried all she knew to give her the secret, and she wouldn't take

it. Let's get on the carpet and have a jolly good wish. You'll have time enough to repent of things all next

'Well, look here,' said Anthea. 'You know there's something about Christmas that makes you want to be

goodhowever little you wish it at other times. Couldn't we wish the carpet to take us somewhere where we

should have the chance to do some good and kind action? It would be an adventure just the same,' she

'I don't mind,' said Cyril. 'We shan't know where we're going, and that'll be exciting. No one knows what'll

'We might rescue a traveller buried in the snow, like St Bernard dogs, with barrels round our necks,' said

'Or we might arrive just in time to witness a will being signedmore tea, please,' said Robert, 'and we should

see the old man hide it away in the secret cupboard; and then, after long years, when the rightful heir was in

'Yes,' interrupted Anthea; 'or we might be taken to some freezing garret in a German town, where a poor little

'We haven't any German money,' interrupted Cyril, 'so THAT'S no go. What I should like would be getting

into the middle of a war and getting hold of secret intelligence and taking it to the general, and he would

When breakfast was cleared away, Anthea swept the carpet, and the children sat down on it, together with the

Phoenix, who had been especially invited, as a Christmas treat, to come with them and witness the good and

Every one closed its eyes, so as to feel the topsyturvy swirl of the carpet's movement as little as possible.

When the eyes were opened again the children found themselves on the carpet, and the carpet was in its

'Do you think it's worn out? The wishing part of it, I mean?' Robert anxiously asked the Phoenix.

'Oh! I see what it means,' said Robert, with deep disgust; 'it's like the end of a fairy story in a Sunday

'You mean it means we can do kind and good actions where we are? I see. I suppose it wants us to carry coals

for the cook or make clothes for the bare heathens. Well, I simply won't. And the last day and everything.

Look here!' Cyril spoke loudly and firmly. 'We want to go somewhere really interesting, where we have a

chance of doing something good and kind; we don't want to do it here, but somewhere else. See? Now, then.'

The obedient carpet started instantly, and the four children and one bird fell in a heap together, and as they

'Are you all there?' said Anthea, breathlessly, through the black dark. Every one owned that it was there.

'Where are we? Oh! how shivery and wet it is! Ugh!oh!I've put my hand in a puddle!'

'Has any one got any matches?' said Anthea, hopelessly. She felt sure that no one would have any.

It was then that Robert, with a radiant smile of triumph that was quite wasted in the darkness, where, of

course, no one could see anything, drew out of his pocket a box of matches, struck a match and lighted a

candletwo candles. And every one, with its mouth open, blinked at the sudden light.

'Well done Bobs,' said his sisters, and even Cyril's natural brotherly feelings could not check his admiration

'I've always carried them about ever since the lone tower day,' said Robert, with modest pride. 'I knew we

'Oh, yes,' said Cyril, with fine scorn. 'I found them the Sunday after, when I was feeling in your Norfolks for

the knife you borrowed off me. But I thought you'd only sneaked them for Chinese lanterns, or reading in bed

'Bobs,' said Anthea, suddenly, 'do you know where we are? This is the underground passage, and look

By this time the ten eyes had got used to the light of the candles, and no one could help seeing that Anthea

'It seems an odd place to do good and kind acts in, though,' said Jane. 'There's no one to do them to.'

'Don't you be too sure,' said Cyril; 'just round the next turning we might find a prisoner who has languished

here for years and years, and we could take him out on our carpet and restore him to his sorrowing friends.'

'Of course we could,' said Robert, standing up and holding the candle above his head to see further off; 'or we

might find the bones of a poor prisoner and take them to his friends to be buried properlythat's always a

'I know exactly where we shall find the bones, too,' Robert went on. 'You see that dark arch just along the

'If you don't stop going on like that,' said Jane, firmly, 'I shall scream, and then I'll faintso now then!'

'You girls will never be great writers,' he said bitterly. 'They just love to think of things in dungeons, and

Jane had opened her mouth to scream, but before she could decide how you began when you wanted to faint,

'Peace!' it said; 'there are no bones here except the small but useful sets that you have inside you. And you did

not invite me to come out with you to hear you talk about bones, but to see you do some good and kind

'No,' rejoined the bird. 'The only thing we can do here, it seems, is to try to frighten our little sisters.'

'He didn't, really, and I'm not so VERY little,' said Jane, rather ungratefully.

Robert was silent. It was Cyril who suggested that perhaps they had better take the money and go.

'That wouldn't be a kind act, except to ourselves; and it wouldn't be good, whatever way you look at it,' said

'We might take it and spend it all on benefits to the poor and aged,' said Cyril.

'I don't know,' said Cyril. They were all standing up now. 'Stealing is taking things that belong to some one

'That's right,' said Robert, with ironical approval; 'stand here all day arguing while the candles burn out.

'Let's get out, then,' said Anthea. 'We can argue as we go.' So they rolled up the carpet and went. But when

they had crept along to the place where the passage led into the topless tower they found the way blocked by

'Everything has two ends,' said the Phoenix, softly; 'even a quarrel or a secret passage.'

So they turned round and went back, and Robert was made to go first with one of the candles, because he was

The passage was long, and there were arches and steps and turnings and dark alcoves that the girls did not

Suddenly he staggered heavily back on to the following feet of Jane, and everybody screamed, 'Oh! what is

'I've only bashed my head in,' said Robert, when he had groaned for some time; 'that's all. Don't mention it; I

like it. The stairs just go right slap into the ceiling, and it's a stone ceiling. You can't do good and kind actions

'Stairs aren't made to lead just to pavingstones as a general rule,' said the Phoenix. 'Put your shoulder to the

But Cyril had pushed past him to the top stair, and was already shoving his hardest against the stone above.

'If it's a trapdoor' said Cyril. And he stopped shoving and began to feel about with his hands.

By a happy chance Cyril had in his pocket the oilcan of his father's bicycle; he put the carpet down at the

foot of the stairs, and he lay on his back, with his head on the top step and his feet straggling down among his

young relations, and he oiled the bolt till the drops of rust and oil fell down on his face. One even went into

his mouthopen, as he panted with the exertion of keeping up this unnatural position. Then he tried again,

but still the bolt would not move. So now he tied his handkerchiefthe one with the baconfat and

marmalade on itto the bolt, and Robert's handkerchief to that, in a reef knot, which cannot come undone

however much you pull, and, indeed, gets tighter and tighter the more you pull it. This must not be confused

with a granny knot, which comes undone if you look at it. And then he and Robert pulled, and the girls put

their arms round their brothers and pulled too, and suddenly the bolt gave way with a rusty scrunch, and they

all rolled together to the bottom of the stairsall but the Phoenix, which had taken to its wings when the

Nobody was hurt much, because the rolledup carpet broke their fall; and now, indeed, the shoulders of the

boys were used to some purpose, for the stone allowed them to heave it up. They felt it give; dust fell freely

'Now, then,' cried Robert, forgetting his head and his temper, 'push all together. One, two, three!'

The stone was heaved up. It swung up on a creaking, unwilling hinge, and showed a growing oblong of

dazzling daylight; and it fell back with a bang against something that kept it upright. Every one climbed out,

but there was not room for every one to stand comfortably in the little paved house where they found

themselves, so when the Phoenix had fluttered up from the darkness they let the stone down, and it closed

You can have no idea how dusty and dirty the children were. Fortunately there was no one to see them but

each other. The place they were in was a little shrine, built on the side of a road that went winding up through

yellowgreen fields to the topless tower. Below them were fields and orchards, all bare boughs and brown

furrows, and little houses and gardens. The shrine was a kind of tiny chapel with no front walljust a place

for people to stop and rest in and wish to be good. So the Phoenix told them. There was an image that had

once been brightly coloured, but the rain and snow had beaten in through the open front of the shrine, and the

poor image was dull and weatherstained. Under it was written: 'St Jean de Luz. Priez pour nous.' It was a

sad little place, very neglected and lonely, and yet it was nice, Anthea thought, that poor travellers should

come to this little resthouse in the hurry and worry of their journeyings and be quiet for a few minutes, and

think about being good. The thought of St Jean de Luzwho had, no doubt, in his time, been very good and

'Tell us,' she said to the Phoenix, 'what is the good and kind action the carpet brought us here to do?'

'I think it would be kind to find the owners of the treasure and tell them about it,' said Cyril.

'I should go to the first house and ask the name of the owner of the castle,' said the golden bird, and really the

They dusted each other as well as they could and went down the road. A little way on they found a tiny

spring, bubbling out of the hillside and falling into a rough stone basin surrounded by draggled hart'stongue

ferns, now hardly green at all. Here the children washed their hands and faces and dried them on their

pockethandkerchiefs, which always, on these occasions, seem unnaturally small. Cyril's and Robert's

handkerchiefs, indeed, rather undid the effects of the wash. But in spite of this the party certainly looked

The first house they came to was a little white house with green shutters and a slate roof. It stood in a prim

little garden, and down each side of the neat path were large stone vases for flowers to grow in; but all the

Along one side of the house was a sort of wide veranda, built of poles and trelliswork, and a vine crawled

all over it. It was wider than our English verandas, and Anthea thought it must look lovely when the green

leaves and the grapes were there; but now there were only dry, reddishbrown stalks and stems, with a few

The children walked up to the front door. It was green and narrow. A chain with a handle hung beside it, and

joined itself quite openly to a rusty bell that hung under the porch. Cyril had pulled the bell and its noisy

At this moment the door opened. A very tall, lean lady, with pale ringlets like whiteybrown paper or oak

shavings, stood before them. She had an ugly grey dress and a black silk apron. Her eyes were small and grey

She addressed the party in something that sounded like a foreign language, and ended with something which

'What does she say?' Robert asked, looking down into the hollow of his jacket, where the Phoenix was

nestling. But before the Phoenix could answer, the whiteybrown lady's face was lighted up by a most

'Youyou arrre frrrom the England!' she cried. 'I love so much the England. Mais entrezentrez donc

tous! Enter, thenenter all. One essuyes his feet on the carpet.' She pointed to the mat.

So they all went in, wiping their feet on a very clean mat, and putting the carpet in a safe corner of the

'The most beautiful days of my life,' said the lady, as she shut the door, 'did pass themselves in England. And

This warm welcome embarrassed every one, but most the boys, for the floor of the hall was of such very

clean red and white tiles, and the floor of the sittingroom so very shinylike a black lookingglassthat

There was a wood fire, very small and very bright, on the hearthneat little logs laid on brass firedogs.

Some portraits of powdered ladies and gentlemen hung in oval frames on the pale walls. There were silver

candlesticks on the mantelpiece, and there were chairs and a table, very slim and polite, with slender legs.

The room was extremely bare, but with a bright foreign bareness that was very cheerful, in an odd way of its

own. At the end of the polished table a very unEnglish little boy sat on a footstool in a highbacked,

uncomfortablelooking chair. He wore black velvet, and the kind of collarall frills and lacey that Robert

would rather have died than wear; but then the little French boy was much younger than Robert.

'Oh, how pretty!' said every one. But no one meant the little French boy, with the velvety short

What every one admired was a little, little Christmastree, very green, and standing in a very red little

flowerpot, and hung round with very bright little things made of tinsel and coloured paper. There were tiny

'But yesis it not that it is genteel?' said the lady. 'Sit down you then, and let us see.'

The children sat down in a row on the stiff chairs against the wall, and the lady lighted a long, slim red taper

at the wood flame, and then she drew the curtains and lit the little candles, and when they were all lighted the

little French boy suddenly shouted, 'Bravo, ma tante! Oh, que c'est gentil,' and the English children shouted

Then there was a struggle in the breast of Robert, and out fluttered the Phoenixspread his gold wings, flew

'Ah! catch it, then,' cried the lady; 'it will itself burnyour genteel parrakeet!'

And the little French boy clapped his clean and tidy hands; but the lady was so anxious that the Phoenix

And the Phoenix replied, this time in English, 'Why are you sad so near Christmastime?'

The children looked at it with one gasp of horror and surprise, for the youngest of them knew that it is far

from manners to notice that strangers have been crying, and much worse to ask them the reason of their tears.

And, of course, the lady began to cry again, very much indeed, after calling the Phoenix a bird without a

heart; and she could not find her handkerchief, so Anthea offered hers, which was still very damp and no use

at all. She also hugged the lady, and this seemed to be of more use than the handkerchief, so that presently the

lady stopped crying, and found her own handkerchief and dried her eyes, and called Anthea a cherished

'I am sorry we came just when you were so sad,' said Anthea, 'but we really only wanted to ask you whose

'Oh, my little angel,' said the poor lady, sniffing, 'today and for hundreds of years the castle is to us, to our

family. Tomorrow it must that I sell it to some strangersand my little Henri, who ignores all, he will not

have never the lands paternal. But what will you? His father, my brotherMr the Marquishas spent much

of money, and it the must, despite the sentiments of familial respect, that I admit that my sainted father he

'How would you feel if you found a lot of moneyhundreds and thousands of gold pieces?' asked Cyril.

'Ah! one has already recounted to you the legend?' she said. 'It is true that one says that it is long time; oh! but

long time, one of our ancestors has hid a treasureof gold, and of gold, and of goldenough to enrich my

little Henri for the life. But all that, my children, it is but the accounts of fays'

'She means fairy stories,' whispered the Phoenix to Robert. 'Tell her what you have found.'

So Robert told, while Anthea and Jane hugged the lady for fear she should faint for joy, like people in books,

'It's no use explaining how we got in,' said Robert, when he had told of the finding of the treasure, 'because

you would find it a little difficult to understand, and much more difficult to believe. But we can show you

The lady looked doubtfully at Robert as she absently returned the hugs of the girls.

'No, he's not making it up,' said Anthea; 'it's true, TRUE, TRUE!and we are so glad.'

'You would not be capable to torment an old woman?' she said; 'and it is not possible that it be a dream.'

His tone of studied politeness seemed to convince more than the raptures of the others.

'If I do not dream,' she said, 'Henri come to Manonand youyou shall come all with me to Mr the Curate.

Manon was a wrinkled old woman with a red and yellow handkerchief twisted round her head. She took

Henri, who was already sleepy with the excitement of his Christmastree and his visitors, and when the lady

had put on a stiff black cape and a wonderful black silk bonnet and a pair of black wooden clogs over her

black cashmere houseboots, the whole party went down the road to a little white housevery like the one

they had leftwhere an old priest, with a good face, welcomed them with a politeness so great that it hid his

The lady, with her French waving hands and her shrugging French shoulders and her trembling French

speech, told the story. And now the priest, who knew no English, shrugged HIS shoulders and waved HIS

'He thinks,' whispered the Phoenix, 'that her troubles have turned her brain. What a pity you know no French!'

'I do know a lot of French,' whispered Robert, indignantly; 'but it's all about the pencil of the gardener's son

'Say "C'est vrai, monsieur. Venez donc voir,"' said the Phoenix; and then Robert earned the undying respect

The priest was disappointed when he found that Robert's French began and ended with these useful words;

but, at any rate, he saw that if the lady was mad she was not the only one, and he put on a big beavery hat,

and got a candle and matches and a spade, and they all went up the hill to the wayside shrine of St John of

So they prised the stone up with a corner of the spade, and Robert did go first, and they all followed and

found the golden treasure exactly as they had left it. And every one was flushed with the joy of performing

Then the lady and the priest clasped hands and wept for joy, as French people do, and knelt down and

touched the money, and talked very fast and both together, and the lady embraced all the children three times

each, and called them 'little garden angels,' and then she and the priest shook each other by both hands again,

and talked, and talked, and talked, faster and more Frenchy than you would have believed possible. And the

So the children crept away, and out through the little shrine, and the lady and the priest were so tearfully,

The 'garden angels' ran down the hill to the lady's little house, where they had left the carpet on the veranda,

and they spread it out and said 'Home,' and no one saw them disappear, except little Henri, who had flattened

his nose into a white button against the windowglass, and when he tried to tell his aunt she thought he had

'It is much the best thing we've done,' said Anthea, when they talked it over at teatime. 'In the future we'll

When you hear that the four children found themselves at Waterloo Station quite untakencareof, and with

no one to meet them, it may make you think that their parents were neither kind nor careful. But if you think

this you will be wrong. The fact is, mother arranged with Aunt Emma that she was to meet the children at

Waterloo, when they went back from their Christmas holiday at Lyndhurst. The train was fixed, but not the

day. Then mother wrote to Aunt Emma, giving her careful instructions about the day and the hour, and about

luggage and cabs and things, and gave the letter to Robert to post. But the hounds happened to meet near

Rufus Stone that morning, and what is more, on the way to the meet they met Robert, and Robert met them,

and instantly forgot all about posting Aunt Emma's letter, and never thought of it again until he and the others

had wandered three times up and down the platform at Waterloowhich makes six in alland had bumped

against old gentlemen, and stared in the faces of ladies, and been shoved by people in a hurry, and

'byyourleaved' by porters with trucks, and were quite, quite sure that Aunt Emma was not there. Then

suddenly the true truth of what he had forgotten to do came home to Robert, and he said, 'Oh, crikey!' and

stood still with his mouth open, and let a porter with a Gladstone bag in each hand and a bundle of umbrellas

under one arm blunder heavily into him, and never so much as said, 'Where are you shoving to now?' or,

'Look out where you're going, can't you?' The heavier bag smote him at the knee, and he staggered, but he

When the others understood what was the matter I think they told Robert what they thought of him.

'Yes,' said Cyril, 'and precious pleased those Jevonses would be to see us and our traps.'

Aunt Emma, indeed, was staying with some Jevonsesvery prim people. They were middleaged and wore

very smart blouses, and they were fond of matinees and shopping, and they did not care about children.

'Yes, she would, but she'd think it was not right to show she was pleased, because it's Bob's fault we're not

met. Don't I know the sort of thing?' said Cyril. 'Besides, we've no tin. No; we've got enough for a growler

among us, but not enough for tickets to the New Forest. We must just go home. They won't be so savage

when they find we've really got home all right. You know auntie was only going to take us home in a cab.'

'Aunt Emma would be out to a dead cert,' said Robert. 'Those Jevonses go to the theatre every afternoon, I

believe. Besides, there's the Phoenix at home, AND the carpet. I votes we call a fourwheeled cabman.'

A fourwheeled cabman was calledhis cab was one of the oldfashioned kind with straw in the

bottomand he was asked by Anthea to drive them very carefully to their address. This he did, and the price

he asked for doing so was exactly the value of the gold coin grandpapa had given Cyril for Christmas. This

cast a gloom; but Cyril would never have stooped to argue about a cab fare, for fear the cabman should

think he was not accustomed to take cabs whenever he wanted them. For a reason that was something like

this he told the cabman to put the luggage on the steps, and waited till the wheels of the growler had grittily

'You see,' he said, with his hand on the handle, 'we don't want cook and Eliza asking us before HIM how it is

Here he rang the bell; and the moment its answering clang was heard, every one felt that it would be some

time before that bell was answered. The sound of a bell is quite different, somehow, when there is anyone

'Too late,' said Anthea, 'it must be past five. I expect Eliza's gone to post a letter, and cook's gone to see the

Cyril rang again. And the bell did its best to inform the listening children that there was really no one human

in the house. They rang again and listened intently. The hearts of all sank low. It is a terrible thing to be

'I expect they've left the gas on once too often, and the draught blew it out, and they're suffocated in their

'And be taken up for trying to be burglarsno, thank you,' said Cyril. 'I heard father read out of the paper

about a young man who got into his own mother's house, and they got him made a burglar only the other day.'

'I only hope the gas hasn't hurt the Phoenix,' said Anthea. 'It said it wanted to stay in the bathroom cupboard,

and I thought it would be all right, because the servants never clean that out. But if it's gone and got out and

been choked by gasAnd besides, directly we open the door we shall be choked, too. I KNEW we ought to

'Shut up,' said her brother, briefly. 'There's some one rattling the latch inside.' Every one listened with all its

The latch rattled, and clicked. Then the flap of the letterbox lifted itselfevery one saw it by the flickering

light of the gaslamp that shone through the leafless limetree by the gatea golden eye seemed to wink at

'It's the Phoenix,' said every one, in a voice so joyous, and so full of relief, as to be a sort of whispered shout.

'Hush!' said the voice from the letterbox slit. 'Your slaves have gone amerrymaking. The latch of this

portal is too stiff for my beak. But at the sidethe little window above the shelf whereon your bread liesit

The children crept round to the pantry window. It is at the side of the house, and there is a green gate labelled

'Tradesmen's Entrance', which is always kept bolted. But if you get one foot on the fence between you and

next door, and one on the handle of the gate, you are over before you know where you are. This, at least, was

the experience of Cyril and Robert, and even, if the truth must be told, of Anthea and Jane. So in almost no

time all four were in the narrow gravelled passage that runs between that house and the next.

Then Robert made a back, and Cyril hoisted himself up and got his knickerbockered knee on the concrete

windowsill. He dived into the pantry head first, as one dives into water, and his legs waved in the air as he

went, just as your legs do when you are first beginning to learn to dive. The soles of his bootssquarish

'No, you don't,' said Jane firmly. 'I'm not going to be left outside here with just Anthea, and have something

A light had sprung awake in the pantry. Cyril always said the Phoenix turned the gas on with its beak, and

lighted it with a waft of its wing; but he was excited at the time, and perhaps he really did it himself with

matches, and then forgot all about it. He let the others in by the back door. And when it had been bolted again

the children went all over the house and lighted every single gasjet they could find. For they couldn't help

feeling that this was just the dark dreary winter's evening when an armed burglar might easily be expected to

appear at any moment. There is nothing like light when you are afraid of burglarsor of anything else, for

And when all the gasjets were lighted it was quite clear that the Phoenix had made no mistake, and that

Eliza and cook were really out, and that there was no one in the house except the four children, and the

Phoenix, and the carpet, and the blackbeetles who lived in the cupboards on each side of the nursery

fireplace. These last were very pleased that the children had come home again, especially when Anthea had

lighted the nursery fire. But, as usual, the children treated the loving little blackbeetles with coldness and

I wonder whether you know how to light a fire? I don't mean how to strike a match and set fire to the corners

of the paper in a fire someone has laid ready, but how to lay and light a fire all by yourself. I will tell you how

Anthea did it, and if ever you have to light one yourself you may remember how it is done. First, she raked

out the ashes of the fire that had burned there a week agofor Eliza had actually never done this, though she

had had plenty of time. In doing this Anthea knocked her knuckle and made it bleed. Then she laid the largest

and handsomest cinders in the bottom of the grate. Then she took a sheet of old newspaper (you ought never

to light a fire with today's newspaperit will not burn well, and there are other reasons against it), and tore

it into four quarters, and screwed each of these into a loose ball, and put them on the cinders; then she got a

bundle of wood and broke the string, and stuck the sticks in so that their front ends rested on the bars, and the

back ends on the back of the paper balls. In doing this she cut her finger slightly with the string, and when she

broke it, two of the sticks jumped up and hit her on the cheek. Then she put more cinders and some bits of

coalno dust. She put most of that on her hands, but there seemed to be enough left for her face. Then she

lighted the edges of the paper balls, and waited till she heard the fizzcrackcrackfizz of the wood as it

began to burn. Then she went and washed her hands and face under the tap in the back kitchen.

Of course, you need not bark your knuckles, or cut your finger, or bruise your cheek with wood, or black

yourself all over; but otherwise, this is a very good way to light a fire in London. In the real country fires are

While Anthea was delighting the poor little blackbeetles with the cheerful blaze, Jane had set the table forI

was going to say tea, but the meal of which I am speaking was not exactly tea. Let us call it a teaish meal.

There was tea, certainly, for Anthea's fire blazed and crackled so kindly that it really seemed to be

affectionately inviting the kettle to come and sit upon its lap. So the kettle was brought and tea made. But no

milk could be foundso every one had six lumps of sugar to each cup instead. The things to eat, on the other

hand, were nicer than usual. The boys looked about very carefully, and found in the pantry some cold tongue,

bread, butter, cheese, and part of a cold puddingvery much nicer than cook ever made when they were at

home. And in the kitchen cupboard was half a Christmassy cake, a pot of strawberry jam, and about a pound

of mixed candied fruit, with soft crumbly slabs of delicious sugar in each cup of lemon, orange, or citron.

The Phoenix perched on Robert's chair, and listened kindly and politely to all they had to tell it about their

visit to Lyndhurst, and underneath the table, by just stretching a toe down rather far, the faithful carpet could

'Your slaves will not return tonight,' said the Phoenix. 'They sleep under the roof of the cook's stepmother's

aunt, who is, I gather, hostess to a large party tonight in honour of her husband's cousin's sisterinlaw's

'I don't think they ought to have gone without leave,' said Anthea, 'however many relations they have, or

'It's not our business about the leave,' said Cyril, firmly, 'but I simply won't wash up for them. We got it, and

we'll clear it away; and then we'll go somewhere on the carpet. It's not often we get a chance of being out all

night. We can go right away to the other side of the equator, to the tropical climes, and see the sun rise over

'Right you are,' said Robert. 'I always did want to see the Southern Cross and the stars as big as gaslamps.'

'DON'T go,' said Anthea, very earnestly, 'because I COULDN'T. I'm SURE mother wouldn't like us to leave

'I know you would,' said Anthea gratefully, 'but even with you I'd much rather not.'

'Well,' said Cyril, trying to be kind and amiable, 'I don't want you to do anything you think's wrong, BUT'

'I'm quite sure. Sometimes you just think a thing's wrong, and sometimes you KNOW. And this is a KNOW

'When it is, as you say, a "know time", there is no more to be said. And your noble brothers would never

'I myself,' the Phoenix went on, 'am willing to help in any way possible. I will go personallyeither by

carpet or on the wingand fetch you anything you can think of to amuse you during the evening. In order to

waste no time I could go while you wash up.Why,' it went on in a musing voice, 'does one wash up teacups

'You couldn't wash stairs up, you know,' said Anthea, 'unless you began at the bottom and went up feet first

'I don't,' said Cyril, briefly. 'I should hate the look of her elasticside boots sticking up.'

'This is mere trifling,' said the Phoenix. 'Come, decide what I shall fetch for you. I can get you anything you

But of course they couldn't decide. Many things were suggesteda rockinghorse, jewelled chessmen, an

elephant, a bicycle, a motorcar, books with pictures, musical instruments, and many other things. But a

musical instrument is agreeable only to the player, unless he has learned to play it really well; books are not

sociable, bicycles cannot be ridden without going out of doors, and the same is true of motorcars and

elephants. Only two people can play chess at once with one set of chessmen (and anyway it's very much too

much like lessons for a game), and only one can ride on a rockinghorse. Suddenly, in the midst of the

discussion, the Phoenix spread its wings and fluttered to the floor, and from there it spoke.

'I gather,' it said, 'from the carpet, that it wants you to let it go to its old home, where it was born and brought

up, and it will return within the hour laden with a number of the most beautiful and delightful products of its

'I didn't gather. But since you can't agree, and time is passing, and the teathings are not washed downI

'I votes we do,' said Robert. 'It'll stop all this jaw, anyway. And it's not bad to have surprises. Perhaps it's a

'Nonsense,' Robert urged, 'it said beautiful and delightful, and towels and baths aren't THAT, however good

they may be for you. Let it go. I suppose it won't give us the slip,' he added, pushing back his chair and

'Hush!' said the Phoenix; 'how can you? Don't trample on its feelings just because it's only a carpet.'

'But how can it do itunless one of us is on it to do the wishing?' asked Robert. He spoke with a rising hope

that it MIGHT be necessary for one to go and why not Robert? But the Phoenix quickly threw cold water on

So a leaf was torn from Anthea's arithmetic book, and on it Cyril wrote in large roundhand the following:

'Writing down, please,' said the Phoenix; 'the carpet can't read a paper whose back is turned to it, any more

It was pinned fast, and the table and chairs having been moved, the carpet simply and suddenly vanished,

rather like a patch of water on a hearth under a fierce fire. The edges got smaller and smaller, and then it

'It may take it some time to collect the beautiful and delightful things,' said the Phoenix. 'I should wash upI

So they did. There was plenty of hot water left in the kettle, and every one helpedeven the Phoenix, who

took up cups by their handles with its clever claws and dipped them in the hot water, and then stood them on

the table ready for Anthea to dry them. But the bird was rather slow, because, as it said, though it was not

above any sort of honest work, messing about with dishwater was not exactly what it had been brought up

to. Everything was nicely washed up, and dried, and put in its proper place, and the dishcloth washed and

hung on the edge of the copper to dry, and the teacloth was hung on the line that goes across the scullery. (If

you are a duchess's child, or a king's, or a person of high social position's child, you will perhaps not know

the difference between a dishcloth and a teacloth; but in that case your nurse has been better instructed

than you, and she will tell you all about it.) And just as eight hands and one pair of claws were being dried on

the rollertowel behind the scullery door there came a strange sound from the other side of the kitchen

wallthe side where the nursery was. It was a very strange sound, indeedmost odd, and unlike any other

sounds the children had ever heard. At least, they had heard sounds as much like it as a toy engine's whistle is

'But what has it brought with it?' asked Jane. 'It sounds like Leviathan, that great beast.'

'It couldn't have been made in India, and have brought elephants? Even baby ones would be rather awful in

that room,' said Cyril. 'I vote we take it in turns to squint through the keyhole.'

They didin the order of their ages. The Phoenix, being the eldest by some thousands of years, was entitled

'Excuse me,' it said, ruffling its golden feathers and sneezing softly; 'looking through keyholes always gives

'It's a zoological garden of some sort, I bet,' said Robert, when he had taken his turn. And the soft rustling,

'No, he didn't. He said tigers were giant cats. It's not at all the same thing.'

'It's no use sending the carpet to fetch precious things for you if you're afraid to look at them when they

The gas had been left full on after tea, and everything in the room could be plainly seen by the ten eyes at the

door. At least, not everything, for though the carpet was there it was invisible, because it was completely

covered by the hundred and ninetynine beautiful objects which it had brought from its birthplace.

Yet it was now plain that it was so, for the beautiful objects which it had brought back were catsPersian

cats, grey Persian cats, and there were, as I have said, 199 of them, and they were sitting on the carpet as

close as they could get to each other. But the moment the children entered the room the cats rose and

stretched, and spread and overflowed from the carpet to the floor, and in an instant the floor was a sea of

moving, mewing pussishness, and the children with one accord climbed to the table, and gathered up their

legs, and the people next door knocked on the walland, indeed, no wonder, for the mews were Persian and

'We haven't anything to feed them with,' said Anthea in despair, and she stroked the nearest Persian back.

She had to shout this entreaty, for the mews were growing deafening, 'and it would take pounds' and pounds'

'And valuable,' said Anthea, hastily. 'We can sell them for lots and lots of money.'

'Why not send the carpet to get food for them?' suggested the Phoenix, and its golden voice came harsh and

cracked with the effort it had to be make to be heard above the increasing fierceness of the Persian mews.

So it was written that the carpet should bring food for 199 Persian cats, and the paper was pinned to the

The carpet seemed to gather itself together, and the cats dropped off it, as raindrops do from your mackintosh

Unless you have had onehundred and ninetynine wellgrown Persian cats in one small room, all hungry,

and all saying so in unmistakable mews, you can form but a poor idea of the noise that now deafened the

children and the Phoenix. The cats did not seem to have been at all properly brought up. They seemed to have

no idea of its being a mistake in manners to ask for meals in a strange houselet alone to howl for

themand they mewed, and they mewed, and they mewed, and they mewed, till the children poked their

fingers into their ears and waited in silent agony, wondering why the whole of Camden Town did not come

knocking at the door to ask what was the matter, and only hoping that the food for the cats would come

before the neighbours didand before all the secret of the carpet and the Phoenix had to be given away

The cats mewed and mewed and twisted their Persian forms in and out and unfolded their Persian tails, and

'So many cats,' it said, 'and they might not know I was the Phoenix. These accidents happen so quickly. It

And the Phoenix crept inonly just in time, for green eyes had glared, pink noses had sniffed, white

whiskers had twitched, and as Robert buttoned his coat he disappeared to the waist in a wave of eager grey

Persian fur. And on the instant the good carpet slapped itself down on the floor. And it was covered with

They hustled and crowded out of the door, and shut it, and locked it. Cyril, with great presence of mind, lit a

The mewing had ceased. Every one listened in breathless silence. We all know that cats eat ratsit is one of

the first things we read in our little brown reading books; but all those cats eating all those ratsit wouldn't

Suddenly Robert sniffed, in the silence of the dark kitchen, where the only candle was burning all on one

And as he spoke, a lantern flashed its light through the window of the kitchen, a face peered in, and a voice

Robert tiptoed to the window, and spoke through the pane that had been a little cracked since Cyril

accidentally knocked it with a walkingstick when he was playing at balancing it on his nose. (It was after

'What do you mean?' he said. 'There's no row. You listen; everything's as quiet as quiet.' And indeed it was.

'They're MUSKrats,' said the Phoenix. 'I suppose some cats eat thembut never Persian ones. What a

'Do go away,' said Robert, nervously. 'We're just going to bedthat's our bedroom candle; there isn't any

A wild chorus of mews drowned his words, and with the mews were mingled the shrieks of the muskrats.

What had happened? Had the cats tasted them before deciding that they disliked the flavour?

'Come in, then,' said Robert. 'It's your own look out. I advise you not. Wait a shake, and I'll undo the side

He undid the side gate, and the policeman, very cautiously, came in. And there in the kitchen, by the light of

one candle, with the mewing and the screaming going like a dozen steam sirens, twenty waiting on

motorcars, and half a hundred squeaking pumps, four agitated voices shouted to the policeman four mixed

The nursery was full of Persian cats and muskrats that had been brought there by the wishing carpet. The

cats were mewing and the muskrats were squeaking so that you could hardly hear yourself speak. In the

kitchen were the four children, one candle, a concealed Phoenix, and a very visible policeman.

'Now then, look here,' said the Policeman, very loudly, and he pointed his lantern at each child in turn, 'what's

the meaning of this here yelling and caterwauling. I tell you you've got a cat here, and some one's a

It was five to one, counting the Phoenix; but the policeman, who was one, was of unusually fine size, and the

five, including the Phoenix, were small. The mews and the squeaks grew softer, and in the comparative

'It's true. There are a few cats here. But we've not hurt them. It's quite the opposite. We've just fed them.'

'I daresay they're not REAL cats,' said Jane madly, perhaps they're only dreamcats.'

'If you understood anything except people who do murders and stealings and naughty things like that, I'd tell

you all about it,' said Robert; 'but I'm certain you don't. You're not meant to shove your oar into people's

private catkeepings. You're only supposed to interfere when people shout "murder" and "stop thief" in the

The policeman assured them that he should see about that; and at this point the Phoenix, who had been

making itself small on the potshelf under the dresser, among the saucepan lids and the fish kettle, walked

on tiptoed claws in a noiseless and modest manner, and left the room unnoticed by any one.

'Oh, don't be so horrid,' Anthea was saying, gently and earnestly. 'We LOVE catsdear pussysoft things.

And Jane answered that of course they wouldn't. And still the policeman seemed unmoved by their

'Now, look here,' he said, 'I'm agoing to see what's in that room beyond there, and'

His voice was drowned in a wild burst of mewing and squeaking. And as soon as it died down all four

children began to explain at once; and though the squeaking and mewing were not at their very loudest, yet

there was quite enough of both to make it very hard for the policeman to understand a single word of any of

'Stow it,' he said at last. 'I'm agoin' into the next room in the execution of my duty. I'm agoin' to use my

'It's tigers REALLY,' said Jane. 'Father said so. I wouldn't go in, if I were you.'

But the policeman was quite stony; nothing any one said seemed to make any difference to him. Some

policemen are like this, I believe. He strode down the passage, and in another moment he would have been in

the room with all the cats and all the rats (musk), but at that very instant a thin, sharp voice screamed from

And again the shrieks sounded shrilly and piercingly from the dark street outside.

'Come on,' said Robert. 'Come and look after cats while somebody's being killed outside.' For Robert had an

And he rushed out, and the children heard his boots going weightily along the pavement, and the screams also

going along, rather ahead of the policeman; and both the murderscreams and the policeman's boots faded

And then every one understood how cleverly the Phoenix had caught at what Robert had said about the real

work of a policeman being to look after murderers and thieves, and not after cats, and all hearts were filled

'But he'll come back,' said Anthea, mournfully, 'as soon as it finds the murderer is only a bright vision of a

'No he won't,' said the soft voice of the clever Phoenix, as it flew in. 'HE DOES NOT KNOW WHERE

YOUR HOUSE IS. I heard him own as much to a fellow mercenary. Oh! what a night we are having! Lock

the door, and let us rid ourselves of this intolerable smell of the perfume peculiar to the muskrat and to the

house of the trimmers of beards. If you'll excuse me, I will go to bed. I am worn out.'

It was Cyril who wrote the paper that told the carpet to take away the rats and bring milk, because there

seemed to be no doubt in any breast that, however Persian cats may be, they must like milk.

'Let's hope it won't be muskmilk,' said Anthea, in gloom, as she pinned the paper facedownwards on the

carpet. 'Is there such a thing as a muskcow?' she added anxiously, as the carpet shrivelled and vanished. 'I

do hope not. Perhaps really it WOULD have been wiser to let the carpet take the cats away. It's getting quite

'Oh, can't we?' was the bitter rejoinder of Robert, who had been fastening the side door. 'You might have

'Don't you see? We've jolly well GOT to keep the cats all nightoh, get down, you furry beasts!because

we've had three wishes out of the old carpet now, and we can't get any more till tomorrow.'

The liveliness of Persian mews alone prevented the occurrence of a dismal silence.

'Never mind,' she said. 'Do you know, I really do think they're quieting down a bit. Perhaps they heard us say

'They can't understand English,' said Jane. 'You forget they're Persian cats, Panther.'

'Well,' said Anthea, rather sharply, for she was tired and anxious, 'who told you "milk" wasn't Persian for

milk. Lots of English words are just the same in Frenchat least I know "miaw" is, and "croquet", and

"fiance". Oh, pussies, do be quiet! Let's stroke them as hard as we can with both hands, and perhaps they'll

So every one stroked grey fur till their hands were tired, and as soon as a cat had been stroked enough to

make it stop mewing it was pushed gently away, and another mewing mouser was approached by the hands

of the strokers. And the noise was really more than half purr when the carpet suddenly appeared in its proper

place, and on it, instead of rows of milkcans, or even of milkjugs, there was a COW. Not a Persian cow,

either, nor, most fortunately, a muskcow, if there is such a thing, but a smooth, sleek, duncoloured Jersey

cow, who blinked large soft eyes at the gaslight and mooed in an amiable if rather inquiring manner.

'Anyway, it can't run after me,' she said to herself 'There isn't room for it even to begin to run.'

The cow was perfectly placid. She behaved like a strayed duchess till some one brought a saucer for the milk,

and some one else tried to milk the cow into it. Milking is very difficult. You may think it is easy, but it is

not. All the children were by this time strung up to a pitch of heroism that would have been impossible to

them in their ordinary condition. Robert and Cyril held the cow by the horns; and Jane, when she was quite

sure that their end of the cow was quite secure, consented to stand by, ready to hold the cow by the tail should

occasion arise. Anthea, holding the saucer, now advanced towards the cow. She remembered to have heard

that cows, when milked by strangers, are susceptible to the soothing influence of the human voice. So,

clutching her saucer very tight, she sought for words to whose soothing influence the cow might be

susceptible. And her memory, troubled by the events of the night, which seemed to go on and on for ever and

ever, refused to help her with any form of words suitable to address a Jersey cow in.

'Poor pussy, then. Lie down, then, good dog, lie down!' was all that she could think of to say, and she said it.

And nobody laughed. The situation, full of grey mewing cats, was too serious for that. Then Anthea, with a

beating heart, tried to milk the cow. Next moment the cow had knocked the saucer out of her hand and

trampled on it with one foot, while with the other three she had walked on a foot each of Robert, Cyril, and

Jane burst into tears. 'Oh, how much too horrid everything is!' she cried. 'Come away. Let's go to bed and

leave the horrid cats with the hateful cow. Perhaps somebody will eat somebody else. And serve them right.'

They did not go to bed, but they had a shivering council in the drawingroom, which smelt of sootand,

indeed, a heap of this lay in the fender. There had been no fire in the room since mother went away, and all

the chairs and tables were in the wrong places, and the chrysanthemums were dead, and the water in the pot

nearly dried up. Anthea wrapped the embroidered woolly sofa blanket round Jane and herself, while Robert

and Cyril had a struggle, silent and brief, but fierce, for the larger share of the fur hearthrug.

'It is most truly awful,' said Anthea, 'and I am so tired. Let's let the cats loose.'

'And the cow, perhaps?' said Cyril. 'The police would find us at once. That cow would stand at the gate and

mewI mean mooto come in. And so would the cats. No; I see quite well what we've got to do. We must

put them in baskets and leave them on people's doorsteps, like orphan foundlings.'

'And there are nearly two hundred cats,' said Anthea, 'besides the cowand it would have to be a

differentsized basket for her; and then I don't know how you'd carry it, and you'd never find a doorstep big

'I'm with you,' said Robert. 'Don't fuss about the cow, Panther. It's simply GOT to stay the night, and I'm sure

I've read that the cow is a remunerating creature, and that means it will sit still and think for hours. The carpet

can take it away in the morning. And as for the baskets, we'll do them up in dusters, or pillowcases, or

His tone was full of contempt, but Jane and Anthea were too tired and desperate to care; even being 'out of it',

which at other times they could not have borne, now seemed quite a comfort. They snuggled down in the sofa

'Ah, he said, 'that's all women are fit forto keep safe and warm, while the men do the work and run dangers

It was warm under the blanket and the hearthrug, and Jane snuggled up close to her sister; and Anthea

cuddled Jane closely and kindly, and in a sort of dream they heard the rise of a wave of mewing as Robert

opened the door of the nursery. They heard the booted search for baskets in the back kitchen. They heard the

side door open and close, and they knew that each brother had gone out with at least one cat. Anthea's last

thought was that it would take at least all night to get rid of one hundred and ninetynine cats by twos. There

'I almost think we might keep the one cat over,' said Anthea. 'I don't seem to care for cats just now, but I

It was Jane who awoke with a start, to find Anthea still asleep. As, in the act of awakening, she kicked her

sister, she wondered idly why they should have gone to bed in their boots; but the next moment she

There was a sound of muffled, shuffled feet on the stairs. Like the heroine of the classic poem, Jane 'thought

it was the boys', and as she felt quite wide awake, and not nearly so tired as before, she crept gently from

Anthea's side and followed the footsteps. They went down into the basement; the cats, who seemed to have

fallen into the sleep of exhaustion, awoke at the sound of the approaching footsteps and mewed piteously.

Jane was at the foot of the stairs before she saw it was not her brothers whose coming had roused her and the

cats, but a burglar. She knew he was a burglar at once, because he wore a fur cap and a red and black

If you had been stood in jane's shoes you would no doubt have run away in them, appealing to the police and

neighbours with horrid screams. But Jane knew better. She had read a great many nice stories about burglars,

as well as some affecting pieces of poetry, and she knew that no burglar will ever hurt a little girl if he meets

her when burgling. Indeed, in all the cases Jane had read of, his burglarishness was almost at once forgotten

in the interest he felt in the little girl's artless prattle. So if Jane hesitated for a moment before addressing the

burglar, it was only because she could not at once think of any remark sufficiently prattling and artless to

make a beginning with. In the stories and the affecting poetry the child could never speak plainly, though it

always looked old enough to in the pictures. And Jane could not make up her mind to lisp and 'talk baby',

even to a burglar. And while she hesitated he softly opened the nursery door and went in.

Jane followedjust in time to see him sit down flat on the floor, scattering cats as a stone thrown into a pool

She closed the door softly and stood there, still wondering whether she COULD bring herself to say, 'What's

'It's a judgement,' he said, 'so help me bob if it ain't. Oh, 'ere's a thing to 'appen to a chap! Makes it come 'ome

to you, don't it neither? Cats an' cats an' cats. There couldn't be all them cats. Let alone the cow. If she ain't

the moral of the old man's Daisy. She's a dream out of when I was a ladI don't mind 'er so much. 'Ere,

'SHE'S all right,' he went on. 'Sort of company, too. Though them above knows how she got into this

downstairs parlour. But them catsoh, take 'em away, take 'em away! I'll chuck the 'ole showOh, take 'em

'Burglar,' said Jane, close behind him, and he started convulsively, and turned on her a blank face, whose pale

'Lor' lumme!' exclaimed the man; 'if 'ere ain't another on 'em. Are you real, miss, or something I'll wake up

'I am quite real,' said Jane, relieved to find that a lisp was not needed to make the burglar understand her.

'Then send for the police, send for the police, and I'll go quiet. If you ain't no realler than them cats, I'm done,

spunchuckout of time. Send for the police. I'll go quiet. One thing, there'd not be room for 'arf them cats in

He ran his fingers through his hair, which was short, and his eyes wandered wildly round the roomful of cats.

'Burglar,' said Jane, kindly and softly, 'if you didn't like cats, what did you come here for?'

'Send for the police,' was the unfortunate criminal's only reply. 'I'd rather you wouldhonest, I'd rather.'

'I daren't,' said Jane, 'and besides, I've no one to send. I hate the police. I wish he'd never been born.'

'You've a feeling 'art, miss,' said the burglar; 'but them cats is really a little bit too thick.'

'Look here,' said Jane, 'I won't call the police. And I am quite a real little girl, though I talk older than the kind

you've met before when you've been doing your burglings. And they are real catsand they want real

'Well, then,' said Janeand a thrill of joyful pride ran through her'perhaps you know how to milk cows?'

'Then,' said Jane, 'if you will ONLY milk oursyou don't know how we shall always love you.'

'If those cats only had a good long, wet, thirsty drink of milk,' Jane went on with eager persuasion, 'they'd lie

down and go to sleep as likely as not, and then the police won't come back. But if they go on mewing like this

This argument seemed to decide the criminal. Jane fetched the washbowl from the sink, and he spat on his

hands and prepared to milk the cow. At this instant boots were heard on the stairs.

'It's all up,' said the man, desperately, 'this 'ere's a plant. 'ERE'S the police.' He made as if to open the window

'It's all right, I tell you,' whispered Jane, in anguish. 'I'll say you're a friend of mine, or the good clergyman

called in, or my uncle, or ANYTHIINGonly do, do, do milk the cow. Oh, DON'T goohoh, thank

It was; and their entrance had awakened Anthea, who, with her brothers, now crowded through the doorway.

'This is a friend of mine,' said Jane; 'he's just called in, and he's going to milk the cow for us. ISN'T it good

She winked at the others, and though they did not understand they played up loyally.

'How do?' said Cyril, 'Very glad to meet you. Don't let us interrupt the milking.'

'I shall 'ave a 'ead and a 'arf in the morning, and no bloomin' error,' remarked the burglar; but he began to milk

Robert was winked at to stay and see that he did not leave off milking or try to escape, and the others went to

get things to put the milk in; for it was now spurting and foaming in the washbowl, and the cats had ceased

from mewing and were crowding round the cow, with expressions of hope and anticipation on their

'We can't get rid of any more cats,' said Cyril, as he and his sisters piled a tray high with saucers and

soupplates and platters and piedishes, 'the police nearly got us as it was. Not the same onea much

stronger sort. He thought it really was a foundling orphan we'd got. If it hadn't been for me throwing the two

bags of cat slap in his eye and hauling Robert over a railing, and lying like mice under a laurelbushWell,

it's jolly lucky I'm a good shot, that's all. He pranced off when he'd got the catbags off his facethought

The gentle samishness of the milk swishing into the handbowl seemed to have soothed the burglar very

much. He went on milking in a sort of happy dream, while the children got a cap and ladled the warm milk

out into the piedishes and plates, and platters and saucers, and set them down to the music of Persian purrs

'It makes me think of old times,' said the burglar, smearing his ragged coatcuff across his eyes'about the

apples in the orchard at home, and the rats at threshing time, and the rabbits and the ferrets, and how pretty it

'I wish you'd tell us how you came to choose our house for your burglaring tonight. I am awfully glad you

did. You have been so kind. I don't know what we should have done without you,' she added hastily. 'We all

'Well, it's my first job, and I didn't expect to be made so welcome, and that's the truth, young gents and ladies.

And I don't know but what it won't be my last. For this 'ere cow, she reminds me of my father, and I know

'Well, miss,' said the burglar, 'you know best 'ow you come by them cats, and why you don't like the police,

so I'll give myself away free, and trust to your noble 'earts. (You'd best bale out a bit, the pan's getting

fullish.) I was aselling oranges off of my barrowfor I ain't a burglar by trade, though you 'ave used the

name so freean' there was a lady bought three 'a'porth off me. An' while she was apickin' of them

outvery careful indeed, and I'm always glad when them sort gets a few overripe onesthere was two

other ladies talkin' over the fence. An' one on 'em said to the other on 'em just like this

"'I've told both gells to come, and they can doss in with M'ria and Jane, 'cause their boss and his missis is

miles away and the kids too. So they can just lock up the 'ouse and leave the gas aburning, so's no one won't

know, and get back bright an' early by 'leven o'clock. And we'll make a night of it, Mrs Prosser, so we will.

I'm just agoing to run out to pop the letter in the post." And then the lady what had chosen the three ha'porth

so careful, she said: "Lor, Mrs Wigson, I wonder at you, and your hands all over suds. This good gentleman'll

slip it into the post for yer, I'll be bound, seeing I'm a customer of his." So they give me the letter, and of

course I read the direction what was written on it afore I shoved it into the post. And then when I'd sold my

barrowful, I was agoin' 'ome with the chink in my pocket, and I'm blowed if some bloomin' thievin' beggar

didn't nick the lot whilst I was just awettin' of my whistle, for callin' of oranges is dry work. Nicked the

bloomin' lot 'e didand me with not a farden to take 'ome to my brother and his missus.'

'Horful indeed, miss, I believe yer,' the burglar rejoined, with deep feeling. 'You don't know her temper when

she's roused. An' I'm sure I 'ope you never may, neither. And I'd 'ad all my oranges off of 'em. So it came

back to me what was wrote on the ongverlope, and I says to myself, "Why not, seein' as I've been done

myself, and if they keeps two slaveys there must be some pickings?" An' so 'ere I am. But them cats, they've

'Look here,' said Cyril, 'these cats are very valuablevery indeed. And we will give them all to you, if only

'I see they're a breedy lot,' replied the burglar. 'But I don't want no bother with the coppers. Did you come by

'was larger than we wanted, and they're an awful bother. If you got your barrow, and some sacks or baskets,

your brother's missus would be awfully pleased. My father says Persian cats are worth pounds and pounds

'Well,' said the burglarand he was certainly moved by her remarks'I see you're in a holeand I don't

mind lending a helping 'and. I don't ask 'ow you come by them. But I've got a pal'e's a mark on cats. I'll

fetch him along, and if he thinks they'd fetch anything above their skins I don't mind doin' you a kindness.'

'You won't go away and never come back,' said Jane, 'because I don't think I COULD bear that.'

The burglar, quite touched by her emotion, swore sentimentally that, alive or dead, he would come back.

Then he went, and Cyril and Robert sent the girls to bed and sat up to wait for his return. It soon seemed

absurd to await him in a state of wakefulness, but his stealthy tap on the window awoke them readily enough.

For he did return, with the pal and the barrow and the sacks. The pal approved of the cats, now dormant in

Persian repletion, and they were bundled into the sacks, and taken away on the barrowmewing, indeed, but

'I'm a fencethat's what I am,' said the burglar gloomily. 'I never thought I'd come down to this, and all

'I ain't got the time on me,' said the pal'but it was just about chuckingout time as I come by the "Bull and

When the cats had been removed, and the boys and the burglar had parted with warm expressions of

'All night?' said Cyril. 'Whyit's tomorrow morning if it's one. We can have another wish!'

So the carpet was urged, in a hastily written note, to remove the cow to wherever she belonged, and to return

to its proper place on the nursery floor. But the cow could not be got to move on to the carpet. So Robert got

the clothes line out of the back kitchen, and tied one end very firmly to the cow's horns, and the other end to a

And the carpet and cow vanished together, and the boys went to bed, tired out and only too thankful that the

Next morning the carpet lay calmly in its place, but one corner was very badly torn. It was the corner that the

The morning after the adventure of the Persian cats, the muskrats, the common cow, and the uncommon

burglar, all the children slept till it was ten o'clock; and then it was only Cyril who woke; but he attended to

the others, so that by half past ten every one was ready to help to get breakfast. It was shivery cold, and there

Robert had arranged a thoughtful little surprise for the absent servants. He had made a neat and delightful

booby trap over the kitchen door, and as soon as they heard the front door click open and knew the servants

had come back, all four children hid in the cupboard under the stairs and listened with delight to the

entrancethe tumble, the splash, the scuffle, and the remarks of the servants. They heard the cook say it was

a judgement on them for leaving the place to itself; she seemed to think that a booby trap was a kind of plant

that was quite likely to grow, all by itself, in a dwelling that was left shut up. But the housemaid, more acute,

judged that someone must have been in the housea view confirmed by the sight of the breakfast things on

The cupboard under the stairs was very tight and paraffiny, however, and a silent struggle for a place on top

ended in the door bursting open and discharging Jane, who rolled like a football to the feet of the servants.

'Now,' said Cyril, firmly, when the cook's hysterics had become quieter, and the housemaid had time to say

what she thought of them, 'don't you begin jawing us. We aren't going to stand it. We know too much. You'll

please make an extra special treacle roley for dinner, and we'll have a tinned tongue.'

'I daresay,' said the housemaid, indignant, still in her outdoor things and with her hat very much on one side.

'Don't you come athreatening me, Master Cyril, because I won't stand it, so I tell you. You tell your ma

about us being out? Much I care! She'll be sorry for me when she hears about my dear greataunt by marriage

as brought me up from a child and was a mother to me. She sent for me, she did, she wasn't expected to last

the night, from the spasms going to her legsand cook was that kind and careful she couldn't let me go

'Don't,' said Anthea, in real distress. 'You know where liars go to, Elizaat least if you don't'

'Forbear,' said Cyril, 'they've had enough. Whether we tell or not depends on your later life,' he went on,

addressing the servants. 'If you are decent to us we'll be decent to you. You'd better make that treacle

roleyand if I were you, Eliza, I'd do a little housework and cleaning, just for a change.'

'There's nothing like firmness,' Cyril went on, when the breakfast things were cleared away and the children

were alone in the nursery. 'People are always talking of difficulties with servants. It's quite simple, when you

know the way. We can do what we like now and they won't peach. I think we've broken THEIR proud spirit.

'I wouldn't if I were you,' said the Phoenix, yawning, as it swooped down from its roost on the curtain pole.

'I've given you one or two hints, but now concealment is at an end, and I see I must speak out.'

It perched on the back of a chair and swayed to and fro, like a parrot on a swing.

'What's the matter now?' said Anthea. She was not quite so gentle as usual, because she was still weary from

the excitement of last night's cats. 'I'm tired of things happening. I shan't go anywhere on the carpet. I'm going

'Darn!' said the Phoenix, 'darn! From those young lips these strange expressions'

'Your stockings,' it said, 'are much less important than they now appear to you. But the carpetlook at the

bare worn patches, look at the great rent at yonder corner. The carpet has been your faithful friendyour

'Dear Phoenix,' Anthea urged, 'don't talk in that horrid lecturing tone. You make me feel as if I'd done

something wrong. And really it is a wishing carpet, and we haven't done anything else to itonly wishes.'

'Only wishes,' repeated the Phoenix, ruffling its neck feathers angrily, 'and what sort of wishes? Wishing

people to be in a good temper, for instance. What carpet did you ever hear of that had such a wish asked of it?

But this noble fabric, on which you trample so recklessly' (every one removed its boots from the carpet and

stood on the linoleum), 'this carpet never flinched. It did what you asked, but the wear and tear must have

been awful. And then last nightI don't blame you about the cats and the rats, for those were its own choice;

'I should think the cats and rats were worse,' said Robert, 'look at all their claws.'

'Yes,' said the bird, 'eleven thousand nine hundred and forty of themI daresay you noticed? I should be

'Good gracious,' said Jane, sitting down suddenly on the floor, and patting the edge of the carpet softly; 'do

'French mud twice. Sand of sunny shores twice. Soaking in southern seas once. India once. Goodness knows

where in Persia once. muskratland once. And once, wherever the cow came from. Hold your carpet up to

With cautious tenderness the boys held the carpet up to the light; the girls looked, and a shiver of regret ran

through them as they saw how those eleven thoousand nine hundred and forty claws had run through the

carpet. It was full of little holes: there were some large ones, and more than one thin place. At one corner a

'We must mend it,' said Anthea; 'never mind about my stockings. I can sew them up in lumps with sewing

cotton if there's no time to do them properly. I know it's awful and no girl would who respected herself, and

all that; but the poor dear carpet's more important than my silly stockings. Let's go out now this very minute.'

So out they all went, and bought wool to mend the carpet; but there is no shop in Camden Town where you

can buy wishingwool, no, nor in Kentish Town either. However, ordinary Scotch heathermixture fingering

seemed good enough, and this they bought, and all that day Jane and Anthea darned and darned and darned.

The boys went out for a walk in the afternoon, and the gentle Phoenix paced up and down the tablefor

'It is not an ordinary, ignorant, innocent carpet from Kidderminster,' it said, 'it is a carpet with a pasta

Persian past. Do you know that in happier years, when that carpet was the property of caliphs, viziers, kings,

'Not of a MAGIC carpet,' said the Phoenix; 'why, if it had been allowed to lie about on floors there wouldn't

be much of it left now. No, indeed! It has lived in chests of cedarwood, inlaid with pearl and ivory, wrapped

in priceless tissues of cloth of gold, embroidered with gems of fabulous value. It has reposed in the

sandalwood caskets of princesses, and in the roseattarscented treasurehouses of kings. Never, never, had

any one degraded it by walking on itexcept in the way of business, when wishes were required, and then

'Oh, DON'T!' said Jane, very near tears. 'You know you'd never have been hatched at all if it hadn't been for

'You needn't have walked so much or so hard!' said the bird, 'but come, dry that crystal tear, and I will relate

to you the story of the Princess Zulieka, the Prince of Asia, and the magic carpet.'

'The Princess Zulieka, fairest of royal ladies,' began the bird, 'had in her cradle been the subject of several

But what in her day Zulieka's grandmother had been was destined never to be revealed, for Cyril and Robert

suddenly burst into the room, and on each brow were the traces of deep emotion. On Cyril's pale brow stood

beads of agitation and perspiration, and on the scarlet brow of Robert was a large black smear.

'What ails ye both?' asked the Phoenix, and it added tartly that storytelling was quite impossible if people

'Squirrel doesn't mean to be a beast. It's only that the MOST AWFUL thing has happened, and stories don't

seem to matter so much. Don't be cross. You won't be when you've heard what's happened.'

'Well, what HAS happened?' said the bird, still rather crossly; and Anthea and Jane paused with long needles

poised in air, and long needlefuls of Scotch heathermixture fingering wool drooping from them.

'The most awful thing you can possibly think of,' said Cyril. 'That nice chapour own burglarthe police

have got him, on suspicion of stolen cats. That's what his brother's missis told me.'

'Well, then, we went out, and down by where the undertaker's is, with the china flowers in the windowyou

know. There was a crowd, and of course we went to have a squint. And it was two bobbies and our burglar

between them, and he was being dragged along; and he said, "I tell you them cats was GIVE me. I got 'em in

'And the people laughed. Beasts! And then one of the policemen said perhaps he could give the name and

address of the cow, and he said, no, he couldn't; but he could take them there if they'd only leave go of his

coat collar, and give him a chance to get his breath. And the policeman said he could tell all that to the

'Don't be a puddinghead,' Cyril advised. 'A fat lot of good it would have done if we'd let him see us. No one

would have believed a word we said. They'd have thought we were kidding. We did better than let him see

us. We asked a boy where he lived and he told us, and we went there, and it's a little greengrocer's shop, and

we bought some Brazil nuts. Here they are.' The girls waved away the Brazil nuts with loathing and

'Well, we had to buy SOMETHING, and while we were making up our minds what to buy we heard his

brother's missis talking. She said when he came home with all them miaoulers she thought there was more in

it than met the eye. But he WOULD go out this morning with the two likeliest of them, one under each arm.

She said he sent her out to buy blue ribbon to put round their beastly necks, and she said if he got three

months' hard it was her dying word that he'd got the blue ribbon to thank for it; that, and his own silly

thieving ways, taking cats that anybody would know he couldn't have come by in the way of business, instead

of things that wouldn't have been missed, which Lord knows there are plenty such, and'

'Oh, STOP!' cried Jane. And indeed it was time, for Cyril seemed like a clock that had been wound up, and

'At the policestation,' said Robert, for Cyril was out of breath. 'The boy told us they'd put him in the cells,

and would bring him up before the Beak in the morning. I thought it was a jolly lark last nightgetting him

'Let's go to him,' cried both the girls jumping up. 'Let's go and tell the truth. They MUST believe us.'

'They CAN'T,' said Cyril. 'Just think! If any one came to you with such a tale, you couldn't believe it,

'There must be something we could do,' said Jane, sniffing very much'my own dear pet burglar! I can't bear

it. And he was so nice, the way he talked about his father, and how he was going to be so extra honest. Dear

Phoenix, you MUST be able to help us. You're so good and kind and pretty and clever. Do, do tell us what to

'You might rescue him,' it said, 'and conceal him here, till the lawsupporters had forgotten about him.'

'That would be ages and ages,' said Cyril, 'and we couldn't conceal him here. Father might come home at any

moment, and if he found the burglar here HE wouldn't believe the true truth any more than the police would.

That's the worst of the truth. Nobody ever believes it. Couldn't we take him somewhere else?'

'The sunny southern shore!' she cried, 'where the cook is being queen. He and she would be company for each

So, all talking at once, the children arranged to wait till evening, and then to seek the dear burglar in his

Meantime Jane and Anthea darned away as hard as they could, to make the carpet as strong as possible. For

all felt how terrible it would be if the precious burglar, while being carried to the sunny southern shore, were

to tumble through a hole in the carpet, and be lost for ever in the sunny southern sea.

The servants were tired after Mrs Wigson's party, so every one went to bed early, and when the Phoenix

reported that both servants were snoring in a heartfelt and candid manner, the children got upthey had

never undressed; just putting their nightgowns on over their things had been enough to deceive Eliza when

she came to turn out the gas. So they were ready for anything, and they stood on the carpet and said

I think every one had expected the cell to be the 'deepest dungeon below the castle moat'. I am sure no one

had doubted that the burglar, chained by heavy fetters to a ring in the damp stone wall, would be tossing

uneasily on a bed of straw, with a pitcher of water and a mouldering crust, untasted, beside him. Robert,

remembering the underground passage and the treasure, had brought a candle and matches, but these were not

The cell was a little whitewashed room about twelve feet long and six feet wide. On one side of it was a sort

of shelf sloping a little towards the wall. On this were two rugs, striped blue and yellow, and a waterproof

pillow. Rolled in the rugs, and with his head on the pillow, lay the burglar, fast asleep. (He had had his tea,

though this the children did not knowit had come from the coffeeshop round the corner, in very thick

crockery.) The scene was plainly revealed by the light of a gaslamp in the passage outside, which shone into

'I shall gag him,' said Cyril, 'and Robert will hold him down. Anthea and Jane and the Phoenix can whisper

This plan did not have the success it deserved, because the burglar, curiously enough, was much stronger,

even in his sleep, than Robert and Cyril, and at the first touch of their hands he leapt up and shouted out

Instantly steps were heard outside. Anthea threw her arms round the burglar and whispered

'It's usthe ones that gave you the cats. We've come to save you, only don't let on we're here. Can't we hide

'All right, governor,' replied the burglar, still with Anthea's arms round him; 'I was only atalking in my

It was an awful moment. Would the boots and the voice come in. Yes! No! The voice said

And the boots went heavily away, along the passage and up some sounding stone stairs.

'How the blue Moses did you get in?' asked the burglar, in a hoarse whisper of amazement.

'Stow that,' said the burglar. 'One on you I could 'a' swallowed, but fourAND a yellow fowl.'

'Look here,' said Cyril, sternly, 'you wouldn't have believed any one if they'd told you beforehand about your

'That I wouldn't,' said the burglar, with whispered fervour, 'so help me Bob, I wouldn't.'

'Well, then,' Cyril went on, ignoring this appeal to his brother, 'just try to believe what we tell you and act

accordingly. It can't do you any HARM, you know,' he went on in hoarse whispered earnestness. 'You can't

be very much worse off than you are now, you know. But if you'll just trust to us we'll get you out of this

right enough. No one saw us come in. The question is, where would you like to go?'

'I'd like to go to Boolong,' was the instant reply of the burglar. 'I've always wanted to go on that there trip, but

'Boolong is a town like London,' said Cyril, well meaning, but inaccurate, 'how could you get a living there?'

'It's 'ard to get a 'onest living anywheres nowadays,' he said, and his voice was sad.

'Yes, isn't it?' said Jane, sympathetically; 'but how about a sunny southern shore, where there's nothing to do

'That's my billet, miss,' replied the burglar. 'I never did care about worknot like some people, always

'Lor', lumme, yes,' he answered, 'gardening was my 'obby, so it was. But father died afore 'e could bind me to

'We'll take you to the sunny southern shore,' said Jane; 'you've no idea what the flowers are like.'

'Oh, chuck it,' the burglar whispered, clutching at his head with both hands. 'I knowed the first minute I see

them cats and that cow as it was a judgement on me. I don't know now whether I'm astanding on my hat or

my boots, so help me I don't. If you CAN get me out, get me, and if you can't, get along with you for

goodness' sake, and give me a chanst to think about what'll be most likely to go down with the Beak in the

'Come on to the carpet, then,' said Anthea, gently shoving. The others quietly pulled, and the moment the feet

And instantly they were. There were the rainbow sands, the tropic glories of leaf and flower, and there, of

course, was the cook, crowned with white flowers, and with all the wrinkles of crossness and tiredness and

'Why, cook, you're quite pretty!' Anthea said, as soon as she had got her breath after the tumblerushwhirl

of the carpet. The burglar stood rubbing his eyes in the brilliant tropic sunlight, and gazing wildly round him

'Penny plain and tuppence coloured!' he exclaimed pensively, 'and well worth any tuppence, however

The cook was seated on a grassy mound with her court of coppercoloured savages around her. The burglar

'Are they tame?' he asked anxiously. 'Do they bite or scratch, or do anything to yer with poisoned arrows or

'Don't you be so timid,' said the cook. 'Look'e 'ere, this 'ere's only a dream what you've come into, an' as it's

only a dream there's no nonsense about what a young lady like me ought to say or not, so I'll say you're the

bestlooking fellow I've seen this many a day. And the dream goes on and on, seemingly, as long as you

behaves. The things what you has to eat and drink tastes just as good as real ones, and'

'Look 'ere,' said the burglar, 'I've come 'ere straight outer the pleece station. These 'ere kids'll tell you it ain't

'Only because I was druv to it by dishonest blokes, as well you knows, miss,' rejoined the criminal. 'Blowed if

'I should only look a juggins in 'em, miss, thanking you all the same,' was the reply; 'but a bath I wouldn't

Cyril and Robert led him to a rocky pool, where he bathed luxuriously. Then, in shirt and trousers he sat on

'That cook, or queen, or whatever you call herher with the white bokay on her 'edshe's my sort. Wonder

'I was always a quick hitter,' the man went on; 'it's a word and a blow with me. I will.'

In shirt and trousers, and crowned with a scented flowery wreath which Cyril hastily wove as they returned to

'Look 'ere, miss,' he said. 'You an' me being' all forlornlike, both on us, in this 'ere dream, or whatever you

'I'm a single manwhat you might call a batcheldore. I'm mild in my 'abits, which these kids'll tell you the

'Walking out means you're going to be married,' said Anthea. 'Why not get married and have done with it?

'No, miss. Not me, not even in a dream. I don't say anythink ag'in the young chap's looks, but I always swore

I'd be married in church, if at alland, anyway, I don't believe these here savages would know how to keep a

registering office, even if I was to show them. No, mister, thanking you kindly, if you can't bring a clergyman

'I'm agreeable, miss, I m sure,' said he, pulling his wreath straight. ''Ow this 'ere bokay do tiddle a chap's ears

So, very hurriedly, the carpet was spread out, and instructed to fetch a clergyman. The instructions were

written on the inside of Cyril's cap with a piece of billiard chalk Robert had got from the marker at the hotel

at Lyndhurst. The carpet disappeared, and more quickly than you would have thought possible it came back,

The Reverend Septimus was rather a nice young man, but very much mazed and muddled, because when he

saw a strange carpet laid out at his feet, in his own study, he naturally walked on it to examine it more

closely. And he happened to stand on one of the thin places that Jane and Anthea had darned, so that he was

half on wishing carpet and half on plain Scotch heathermixture fingering, which has no magic properties at

The effect of this was that he was only half thereso that the children could just see through him, as though

he had been a ghost. And as for him, he saw the sunny southern shore, the cook and the burglar and the

children quite plainly; but through them all he saw, quite plainly also, his study at home, with the books and

the pictures and the marble clock that had been presented to him when he left his last situation.

He seemed to himself to be in a sort of insane fit, so that it did not matter what he didand he married the

burglar to the cook. The cook said that she would rather have had a solider kind of a clergyman, one that you

And of course the clergyman, though misty, was really real, and able to marry people, and he did. When the

ceremony was over the clergyman wandered about the island collecting botanical specimens, for he was a

There was a splendid wedding feast. Can you fancy Jane and Anthea, and Robert and Cyril, dancing merrily

in a ring, handinhand with coppercoloured savages, round the happy couple, the queen cook and the

burglar consort? There were more flowers gathered and thrown than you have ever even dreamed of, and

before the children took carpet for home the now marriedandsettled burglar made a speech.

'Ladies and gentlemen,' he said, 'and savages of both kinds, only I know you can't understand what I'm a

saying of, but we'll let that pass. If this is a dream, I'm on. If it ain't, I'm onner than ever. If it's betwixt and

betweenwell, I'm honest, and I can't say more. I don't want no more 'igh London societyI've got some

one to put my arm around of; and I've got the whole lot of this 'ere island for my allotment, and if I don't

grow some broccoli as'll open the judge's eye at the cottage flower shows, well, strike me pink! All I ask is, as

these young gents and ladies'll bring some parsley seed into the dream, and a penn'orth of radish seed, and

threepenn'orth of onion, and I wouldn't mind goin' to fourpence or fippence for mixed kale, only I ain't got a

brown, so I don't deceive you. And there's one thing more, you might take away the parson. I don't like things

what I can see 'alf through, so here's how!' He drained a coconutshell of palm wine.

With all good wishes the children took their leave. They also collected the clergyman and took him back to

The Phoenix kindly carried the seeds next day to the burglar and his bride, and returned with the most

'He's made a wooden spade and started on his allotment,' it said, 'and she is weaving him a shirt and trousers

The police never knew how the burglar got away. In Kentish Town Police Station his escape is still spoken of

As for the Reverend Septimus Blenkinsop, he felt that he had had a very insane fit indeed, and he was sure it

was due to overstudy. So he planned a little dissipation, and took his two maiden aunts to Paris, where they

enjoyed a dazzling round of museums and picture galleries, and came back feeling that they had indeed seen

life. He never told his aunts or any one else about the marriage on the islandbecause no one likes it to be

Jane sang this simple song directly after breakfast, and the Phoenix shed crystal tears of affectionate

'She won't be home till past bedtime, though,' said Robert. 'We might have one more carpetday.'

He was glad that mother was coming homequite glad, very glad; but at the same time that gladness was

rudely contradicted by a quite strong feeling of sorrow, because now they could not go out all day on the

'I do wish we could go and get something nice for mother, only she'd want to know where we got it,' said

Anthea. 'And she'd never, never believe it, the truth. People never do, somehow, if it's at all interesting.'

'I'll tell you what,' said Robert. 'Suppose we wished the carpet to take us somewhere where we could find a

'Suppose it took us somewhere foreign, and the purse was covered with strange Eastern devices, embroidered

in rich silks, and full of money that wasn't money at all here, only foreign curiosities, then we couldn't spend

it, and people would bother about where we got it, and we shouldn't know how on earth to get out of it at all.'

Cyril moved the table off the carpet as he spoke, and its leg caught in one of Anthea's darns and ripped away

But Anthea was a really firstclass sister. She did not say a word till she had got out the Scotch

heathermixture fingering wool and the darningneedle and the thimble and the scissors, and by that time she

had been able to get the better of her natural wish to be thoroughly disagreeable, and was able to say quite

Cyril thumped her on the back. He understood exactly how she had felt, and he was not an ungrateful brother.

'Respecting the purse containing coins,' the Phoenix said, scratching its invisible ear thoughtfully with its

shining claw, 'it might be as well, perhaps, to state clearly the amount which you wish to find, as well as the

country where you wish to find it, and the nature of the coins which you prefer. It would be indeed a cold

'Yes,' said Jane, 'and if you find a purse I suppose it is only because some one has lost it, and you ought to

'What about a buried treasure,' said Cyril, 'and every one was dead that it belonged to?'

'Suppose,' said Robert'suppose we asked to be taken where we could find a purse and give it back to the

'We aren't allowed to take money from strangers. You know we aren't, Bobs,' said Anthea, making a knot at

the end of a needleful of Scotch heathermixture fingering wool (which is very wrong, and you must never

'No, THAT wouldn't do,' said Cyril. 'Let's chuck it and go to the North Pole, or somewhere really interesting.'

There was a silence as she paused with the darningneedle in the air! Suddenly she spoke:

'I see. Let's tell the carpet to take us somewhere where we can get the money for mother's present,

'Well, I must say you are learning the way to get the most out of the carpet,' said Cyril. He spoke more

heartily and kindly than usual, because he remembered how Anthea had refrained from snarking him about

'Yes,' said the Phoenix, 'you certainly are. And you have to remember that if you take a thing out it doesn't

No one paid any attention to this remark at the time, but afterwards every one thought of it.

'Do hurry up, Panther,' said Robert; and that was why Anthea did hurry up, and why the big darn in the

middle of the carpet was all open and webby like a fishing net, not tight and close like woven cloth, which is

Then every one put on its outdoor things, the Phoenix fluttered on to the mantelpiece and arranged its golden

'Please go slowly, dear carpet,' Anthea began; we like to see where we're going.' And then she added the

Next moment the carpet, stiff and raftlike, was sailing over the roofs of Kentish Town.

'I wishNo, I don't mean that. I mean it's a PITY we aren't higher up,' said Anthea, as the edge of the carpet

'That's right. Be careful,' said the Phoenix, in warning tones. 'If you wish when you're on a wishing carpet,

So for a short time no one spoke, and the carpet sailed on in calm magnificence over St Pancras and King's

'We're going out Greenwich way,' said Cyril, as they crossed the streak of rough, tumbled water that was the

On and on the carpet swept, still keeping much nearer to the chimneypots than the children found at all

Jane and Robert were in the middle of the carpet. Part of them was on the carpet, and part of themthe

'It's all very misty,' said Jane; 'it looks partly like out of doors and partly like in the nursery at home. I feel as

'It's the hole,' said the Phoenix; 'it's not measles whatever that possession may be.'

And at that both Robert and Jane suddenly, and at once, made a bound to try and get on to the safer part of

the carpet, and the darn gave way and their boots went up, and the heavy heads and bodies of them went

down through the hole, and they landed in a position something between sitting and sprawling on the flat

leads on the top of a high, grey, gloomy, respectable house whose address was 705, Amersham Road, New

The carpet seemed to awaken to new energy as soon as it had got rid of their weight, and it rose high in the

'Are you hurt?' cried Cyril, and Robert shouted 'No,' and next moment the carpet had sped away, and Jane and

'It might have been worse,' said the Phoenix. 'What would have been the sentiments of the survivors if that

'Yes, there's that,' said Cyril, recovering himself. 'They'll be all right. They'll howl till some one gets them

down, or drop tiles into the front garden to attract attention of passersby. Bobs has got my

oneandfivepencelucky you forgot to mend that hole in my pocket, Panther, or he wouldn't have had it.

'It's all my fault,' she said. 'I KNEW the proper way to darn, and I didn't do it. It's all my fault. Let's go home

and patch the carpet with your Etonssomething really strongand send it to fetch them.'

'All right,' said Cyril; 'but your Sunday jacket is stronger than my Etons. We must just chuck mother's

It sank swiftly, yet steadily, and landed on the pavement of the Deptford Road. It tipped a little as it landed,

so that Cyril and Anthea naturally walked off it, and in an instant it had rolled itself up and hidden behind a

gatepost. It did this so quickly that not a single person in the Deptford Road noticed it. The Phoenix rustled

its way into the breast of Cyril's coat, and almost at the same moment a wellknown voice remarked

'We DID think of going to Greenwich Palace and talking about Nelson,' said Cyril, telling as much of the

'Well,' said Uncle Reginald, 'I must fly. I've a case in the County Court. That's the worst of being a beastly

solicitor. One can't take the chances of life when one gets them. If only I could come with you to the Painted

'_I_ mustn't enjoy myself,' he said, 'but that's no reason why you shouldn't. Here, divide this by four, and the

And waving a cheery farewell with his neat umbrella, the good and highhatted uncle passed away, leaving

Cyril and Anthea to exchange eloquent glances over the shining golden sovereign that lay in Cyril's hand.

'It WAS clever of itso adequate and yet so simple,' said the Phoenix, with calm approval.

'Oh, come on home and let's mend the carpet. I am a beast. I'd forgotten the others just for a minute,' said the

They unrolled the carpet quickly and slylythey did not want to attract public attentionand the moment

their feet were on the carpet Anthea wished to be at home, and instantly they were.

The kindness of their excellent uncle had made it unnecessary for them to go to such extremes as Cyril's

Anthea set to work at once to draw the edges of the broken darn together, and Cyril hastily went out and

bought a large piece of the marblepatterned American oilcloth which careful housewives use to cover

Then they set to work to line the carpet throughout with the oilcloth. The nursery felt very odd and empty

without the others, and Cyril did not feel so sure as he had done about their being able to 'tram it' home. So he

The Phoenix watched them for a time, but it was plainly growing more and more restless. It fluffed up its

splendid feathers, and stood first on one gilded claw and then on the other, and at last it said

'I can bear it no longer. This suspense! My Robertwho set my egg to hatchin the bosom of whose

Norfolk raiment I have nestled so often and so pleasantly! I think, if you'll excuse me'

'So THAT'S all right,' said Cyril, taking up his needle and instantly pricking his hand in a new place.

Of course I know that what you have really wanted to know about all this time is not what Anthea and Cyril

did, but what happened to Jane and Robert after they fell through the carpet on to the leads of the house

But I had to tell you the other first. That is one of the most annoying things about stories, you cannot tell all

Robert's first remark when he found himself seated on the damp, cold, sooty leads was

'Dry up, Pussy; don't be a little duffer,' said her brother, kindly, 'it'll be all right.'

And then he looked about, just as Cyril had known he would, for something to throw down, so as to attract

the attention of the wayfarers far below in the street. He could not find anything. Curiously enough, there

were no stones on the leads, not even a loose tile. The roof was of slate, and every single slate knew its place

and kept it. But, as so often happens, in looking for one thing he found another. There was a trapdoor

'Stop snivelling and come here, Jane,' he cried, encouragingly. 'Lend a hand to heave this up. If we can get

into the house, we might sneak down without meeting any one, with luck. Come on.'

They heaved up the door till it stood straight up, and, as they bent to look into the hole below, the door fell

back with a hollow clang on the leads behind, and with its noise was mingled a bloodcurdling scream from

They found themselves looking down into an attic, which was also a lumberroom. It had boxes and broken

In the middle of the floor was a box, open, half full of clothes. Other clothes lay on the floor in neat piles. In

the middle of the piles of clothes sat a lady, very fat indeed, with her feet sticking out straight in front of her.

'Where are the rest of your gang?' asked the lady, stopping short in the middle of a scream.

'Yes,' said Jane, before Robert could say 'You shut up!' 'You must have read about it. The Phoenix is with

Then the lady got up, and picking her way carefully between the piles of clothes she got to the door and

through it. She shut it behind her, and the two children could hear her calling 'Septimus! Septimus!' in a loud

'Now you. Hang by your hands. I'll catch you. Oh, there's no time for jaw. Drop, I say.'

Robert tried to catch her, and even before they had finished the breathless roll among the piles of clothes,

'We'll hidebehind those fenders and things; they'll think we've gone along the roofs. Then, when all is

They hastily hid. A corner of an iron bedstead stuck into Robert's side, and Jane had only standing room for

one footbut they bore itand when the lady came back, not with Septimus, but with another lady, they

'Gone!' said the first lady; 'poor little thingsquite mad, my dearand at large! We must lock this room and

'Let me look out,' said the second lady, who was, if possible, older and thinner and primmer than the first. So

the two ladies dragged a box under the trapdoor and put another box on the top of it, and then they both

climbed up very carefully and put their two trim, tidy heads out of the trapdoor to look for the 'mad

They managed to creep out from their hidingplace and out through the door before the two ladies had done

Robert and Jane tiptoed down the stairsone flight, two flights. Then they looked over the banisters. Horror!

The room was a study, calm and gentlemanly, with rows of books, a writing table, and a pair of embroidered

slippers warming themselves in the fender. The children hid behind the windowcurtains. As they passed the

table they saw on it a missionarybox with its bottom label torn off, open and empty.

'Hush!' said Robert, not a moment too soon, for there were steps on the stairs, and next instant the two ladies

came into the room. They did not see the children, but they saw the empty missionary box.

'I knew it,' said one. 'Selina, it WAS a gang. I was certain of it from the first. The children were not mad.

They were sent to distract our attention while their confederates robbed the house.'

'Downstairs, no doubt, collecting the silver milkjug and sugarbasin and the punchladle that was Uncle

'Oh, don't be so rash and heroic,' said Selina. 'Amelia, we must call the police from the window. Lock the

The words ended in a yell as Selina, rushing to the window, came face to face with the hidden children.

'Oh, don't!' said Jane; 'how can you be so unkind? We AREN'T burglars, and we haven't any gang, and we

didn't open your missionarybox. We opened our own once, but we didn't have to use the money, so our

Miss Selina had seized Jane and Miss Amelia captured Robert. The children found themselves held fast by

'We've got YOU, at any rate,' said Miss Amelia. 'Selina, your captive is smaller than mine. You open the

Selina obeyed; but when she had opened the window, instead of calling 'Murder!' she called 'Septimus!'

In another minute he had let himself in with his latchkey and had mounted the stairs. As he came into the

room Jane and Robert each uttered a shriek of joy so loud and so sudden that the ladies leaped with surprise,

'Don't you remember us?' asked Robert. 'You married our burglar for usdon't you remember?'

'I KNEW it was a gang,' said Amelia. 'Septimus, these abandoned children are members of a desperate

burgling gang who are robbing the house. They have already forced the missionarybox and purloined its

'No, no,' said the curate, hastily. '_I_ opened the box myself. This morning I found I had not enough small

change for the Mothers' Independent Unity Measles and Croup Insurance payments. I suppose this is NOT a

The curate, still pale and trembling, searched the house, which, of course, was blamelessly free of burglars.

'Aren't you going to let us go?' asked Robert, with furious indignation, for there is something in being held by

a strong lady that sets the blood of a boy boiling in his veins with anger and despair. 'We've never done

anything to you. It's all the carpet. It dropped us on the leads. WE couldn't help it. You know how it carried

'Never mind your head just now,' said Robert; 'try to be honest and honourable, and do your duty in that state

'This is a judgement on me for something, I suppose,' said the Reverend Septimus, wearily, 'but I really

Jane had been crying ever since her capture. Now she said 'You aren't now, but perhaps you will be,

'Aunt Selina,' said the curate, 'and Aunt Amelia, believe me, this is only an insane dream. You will realize it

soon. It has happened to me before. But do not let us be unjust, even in a dream. Do not hold the children;

The strong, bony hands unwillingly loosened their grasp. Robert shook himself and stood in sulky

resentment. But Jane ran to the curate and embraced him so suddenly that he had not time to defend himself.

'You're a dear,' she said. 'It IS like a dream just at first, but you get used to it. Now DO let us go. There's a

'I don't know,' said the Reverend Septimus; 'it's a difficult problem. It is such a very unusual dream. Perhaps

it's only a sort of other lifequite real enough for you to be mad in. And if you're mad, there might be a

dreamasylum where you'd be kindly treated, and in time restored, cured, to your sorrowing relatives. It is

very hard to see your duty plainly, even in ordinary life, and these dreamcircumstances are so

'If it's a dream,' said Robert, 'you will wake up directly, and then you'd be sorry if you'd sent us into a

dreamasylum, because you might never get into the same dream again and let us out, and so we might stay

there for ever, and then what about our sorrowing relatives who aren't in the dreams at all?'

And Jane and Robert felt quite ill with helplessness and hopelessness. A really conscientious curate is a very

And then, just as the hopelessness and the helplessness were getting to be almost more than they could bear,

the two children suddenly felt that extraordinary shrinking feeling that you always have when you are just

going to vanish. And the next moment they had vanished, and the Reverend Septimus was left alone with his

'I knew it was a dream,' he cried, wildly. 'I've had something like it before. Did you dream it too, Aunt Selina,

'What do you mean? WE haven't been dreaming anything. You must have dropped off in your chair.'

'Oh, if it's only _I_,' he said; 'if we'd all dreamed it I could never have believed it, never!'

'Yes, I know it was an untruth, and I shall doubtless be punished for it in due course. But I could see the poor

dear fellow's brain giving way before my very eyes. He couldn't have stood the strain of three dreams. It

WAS odd, wasn't it? All three of us dreaming the same thing at the same moment. We must never tell dear

Seppy. But I shall send an account of it to the Psychical Society, with stars instead of names, you know.'

And she did. And you can read all about it in one of the society's fat Bluebooks.

Of course, you understand what had happened? The intelligent Phoenix had simply gone straight off to the

Psammead, and had wished Robert and Jane at home. And, of course, they were at home at once. Cyril and

When the joyful emotions of reunion had calmed down a little, they all went out and spent what was left of

Uncle Reginald's sovereign in presents for mother. They bought her a pink silk handkerchief, a pair of blue

and white vases, a bottle of scent, a packet of Christmas candles, and a cake of soap shaped and coloured like

a tomato, and one that was so like an orange that almost any one you had given it to would have tried to peel

itif they liked oranges, of course. Also they bought a cake with icing on, and the rest of the money they

When they had arranged all the things on a table, with the candles stuck up on a plate ready to light the

moment mother's cab was heard, they washed themselves thoroughly and put on tidier clothes.

'But, really, it's just as much good old Phoenix,' said Robert. 'Suppose it hadn't thought of getting the wish!'

'Ah!' said the Phoenix, 'it is perhaps fortunate for you that I am such a competent bird.'

'There's mother's cab,' cried Anthea, and the Phoenix hid and they lighted the candles, and next moment

She liked her presents very much, and found their story of Uncle Reginald and the sovereign easy and even

'Well, I MUST say,' mother said, looking at the wishing carpet as it lay, all darned and mended and backed

with shiny American cloth, on the floor of the nursery'I MUST say I've never in my life bought such a bad

A soft 'Oh!' of contradiction sprang to the lips of Cyril, Robert, Jane, and Anthea. Mother looked at them

'Well, of course, I see you've mended it very nicely, and that was sweet of you, dears.'

'But, stilltwentytwo and ninepence! It ought to have lasted for years. It's simply dreadful now. Well,

never mind, darlings, you've done your best. I think we'll have coconut matting next time. A carpet doesn't

'It's not our fault, mother, is it, that our boots are the really reliable kind?' Robert asked the question more in

'No, dear, we can't help our boots,' said mother, cheerfully, 'but we might change them when we come in,

perhaps. It's just an idea of mine. I wouldn't dream of scolding on the very first morning after I've come

This conversation was at breakfast, and the Lamb had been beautifully good until every one was looking at

the carpet, and then it was for him but the work of a moment to turn a glass dish of syrupy blackberry jam

upside down on his young head. It was the work of a good many minutes and several persons to get the jam

off him again, and this interesting work took people's minds off the carpet, and nothing more was said just

then about its badness as a bargain and about what mother hoped for from coconut matting.

When the Lamb was clean again he had to be taken care of while mother rumpled her hair and inked her

fingers and made her head ache over the difficult and twisted housekeeping accounts which cook gave her

on dirty bits of paper, and which were supposed to explain how it was that cook had only

fivepencehalfpenny and a lot of unpaid bills left out of all the money mother had sent her for

housekeeping. Mother was very clever, but even she could not quite understand the cook's accounts.

The Lamb was very glad to have his brothers and sisters to play with him. He had not forgotten them a bit,

and he made them play all the old exhausting games: 'Whirling Worlds', where you swing the baby round and

round by his hands; and 'Leg and Wing', where you swing him from side to side by one ankle and one wrist.

There was also climbing Vesuvius. In this game the baby walks up you, and when he is standing on your

shoulders, you shout as loud as you can, which is the rumbling of the burning mountain, and then tumble him

gently on to the floor, and roll him there, which is the destruction of Pompeii.

'All the same, I wish we could decide what we'd better say next time mother says anything about the carpet,'

'Well, you talk and decide,' said Anthea; 'here, you lovely ducky Lamb. Come to Panther and play Noah's

The Lamb came with his pretty hair all tumbled and his face all dusty from the destruction of Pompeii, and

instantly became a baby snake, hissing and wriggling and creeping in Anthea's arms, as she said

'Well, you see,' Cyril was saying; 'it's just the old bother. Mother can't believe the real true truth about the

'You speak sooth, O Cyril,' remarked the Phoenix, coming out from the cupboard where the blackbeetles

lived, and the torn books, and the broken slates, and odd pieces of toys that had lost the rest of themselves.

'It's a sort of joinedtogether lot of peoplea sort of brotherhooda kind ofwell, something very like

'I take your meaning,' said the Phoenix. 'I would fain see these calling themselves Sons of the Phoenix'

'Pretty Polly!' remarked the Lamb, reaching his hands towards the golden speaker.

The Phoenix modestly retreated behind Robert, and Anthea hastened to distract the attention of the Lamb by

'I don't think you'd care about the sons of the Phoenix, really,' said Robert. 'I have heard that they don't do

anything fiery. They only drink a great deal. Much more than other people, because they drink lemonade and

'In your mind, perhaps,' said Jane; 'but it wouldn't be good in your body. You'd get too balloony.'

'Look here,' said Anthea; 'I really have an idea. This isn't like a common carpet. It's very magic indeed. Don't

you think, if we put Tatcho on it, and then gave it a rest, the magic part of it might grow, like hair is supposed

'It might,' said Robert; 'but I should think paraffin would do as wellat any rate as far as the smell goes, and

It was Cyril who fetched the Tatcho bottle from father's washhandstand. But the bottle had not much in it.

'We mustn't take it all,' Jane said, 'in case father's hair began to come off suddenly. If he hadn't anything to

put on it, it might all drop off before Eliza had time to get round to the chemist's for another bottle. It would

'And wigs are very expensive, I believe,' said Anthea. 'Look here, leave enough in the bottle to wet father's

head all over with in case any emergency emergesand let's make up with paraffin. I expect it's the smell

So a small teaspoonful of the Tatcho was put on the edges of the worst darn in the carpet and rubbed carefully

into the roots of the hairs of it, and all the parts that there was not enough Tatcho for had paraffin rubbed into

them with a piece of flannel. Then the flannel was burned. It made a gay flame, which delighted the Phoenix

'How often,' said mother, opening the door'how often am I to tell you that you are NOT to play with

It was no use telling mother what they had done to the carpet. She did not know it was a magic carpet, and no

'Well, don't do it again,' said mother. 'And now, away with melancholy! Father has sent a telegram. Look!'

'Box for kiddies at Garrick. Stalls for us, Haymarket. Meet Charing Cross, 6.30.'

'That means,' said mother, 'that you're going to see "The Water Babies" all by your happy selves, and father

and I will take you and fetch you. Give me the Lamb, dear, and you and Jane put clean lace in your red

evening frocks, and I shouldn't wonder if you found they wanted ironing. This paraffin smell is ghastly. Run

The frocks did want ironingwanted it rather badly, as it happened; for, being of tomatoColoured Liberty

silk, they had been found very useful for tableaux vivants when a red dress was required for Cardinal

Richelieu. They were very nice tableaux, these, and I wish I could tell you about them; but one cannot tell

everything in a story. You would have been specially interested in hearing about the tableau of the Princes in

the Tower, when one of the pillows burst, and the youthful Princes were so covered with feathers that the

picture might very well have been called 'Michaelmas Eve; or, Plucking the Geese'.

Ironing the dresses and sewing the lace in occupied some time, and no one was dull, because there was the

theatre to look forward to, and also the possible growth of hairs on the carpet, for which every one kept

looking anxiously. By four o'clock Jane was almost sure that several hairs were beginning to grow.

The Phoenix perched on the fender, and its conversation, as usual, was entertaining and instructivelike

school prizes are said to be. But it seemed a little absentminded, and even a little sad.

'Don't you feel well, Phoenix, dear?' asked Anthea, stooping to take an iron off the fire.

'I am not sick,' replied the golden bird, with a gloomy shake of the head; 'but I am getting old.'

'Time,' remarked the Phoenix, 'is measured by heartbeats. I'm sure the palpitations I've had since I've known

'But I thought you lived 500 years,' said Robert, and you've hardly begun this set of years. Think of all the

'Time,' said the Phoenix, 'is, as you are probably aware, merely a convenient fiction. There is no such thing as

time. I have lived in these two months at a pace which generously counterbalances 500 years of life in the

desert. I am old, I am weary. I feel as if I ought to lay my egg, and lay me down to my fiery sleep. But unless

I'm careful I shall be hatched again instantly, and that is a misfortune which I really do not think I COULD

endure. But do not let me intrude these desperate personal reflections on your youthful happiness. What is the

show at the theatre tonight? Wrestlers? Gladiators? A combat of cameleopards and unicorns?'

'I don't think so,' said Cyril; 'it's called "The Water Babies", and if it's like the book there isn't any gladiating

in it. There are chimneysweeps and professors, and a lobster and an otter and a salmon, and children living

'I don't suppose there will be REAL water,' said Jane. 'And theatres are very warm and pretty, with a lot of

'_I_ was just going to say that,' said Robert, in injured tones, 'only I know how rude it is to interrupt. Do

come, Phoenix, old chap; it will cheer you up. It'll make you laugh like any thing. Mr Bourchier always

'Your words are strange,' said the Phoenix, 'but I will come with you. The revels of this Bourchier, of whom

you speak, may help me to forget the weight of my years.' So that evening the Phoenix snugged inside the

waistcoat of Robert's Etonsa very tight fit it seemed both to Robert and to the Phoenixand was taken to

Robert had to pretend to be cold at the glittering, manymirrored restaurant where they ate dinner, with father

in evening dress, with a very shiny white shirtfront, and mother looking lovely in her grey evening dress,

that changes into pink and green when she moves. Robert pretended that he was too cold to take off his

greatcoat, and so sat sweltering through what would otherwise have been a most thrilling meal. He felt that

he was a blot on the smart beauty of the family, and he hoped the Phoenix knew what he was suffering for its

sake. Of course, we are all pleased to suffer for the sake of others, but we like them to know it unless we are

Father was full of jokes and fun, and every one laughed all the time, even with their mouths full, which is not

manners. Robert thought father would not have been quite so funny about his keeping his overcoat on if

When dinner was finished to the last grape and the last paddle in the finger glassesfor it was a really truly

grownup dinnerthe children were taken to the theatre, guided to a box close to the stage, and left.

Father's parting words were: 'Now, don't you stir out of this box, whatever you do. I shall be back before the

end of the play. Be good and you will be happy. Is this zone torrid enough for the abandonment of

greatcoats, Bobs? No? Well, then, I should say you were sickening for somethingmumps or measles or

He went, and Robert was at last able to remove his coat, mop his perspiring brow, and release the crushed and

dishevelled Phoenix. Robert had to arrange his damp hair at the lookingglass at the back of the box, and the

Phoenix had to preen its disordered feathers for some time before either of them was fit to be seen.

They were very, very early. When the lights went up fully, the Phoenix, balancing itself on the gilded back of

'How fair a scene is this!' it murmured; 'how far fairer than my temple! Or have I guessed aright? Have you

brought me hither to lift up my heart with emotions of joyous surprise? Tell me, my Robert, is it not that this,

THIS is my true temple, and the other was but a humble shrine frequented by outcasts?'

'I don't know about outcasts,' said Robert, 'but you can call this your temple if you like. Hush! the music is

I am not going to tell you about the play. As I said before, one can't tell everything, and no doubt you saw

'The Water Babies' yourselves. If you did not it was a shame, or, rather, a pity.

What I must tell you is that, though Cyril and Jane and Robert and Anthea enjoyed it as much as any children

'This is indeed my temple,' it said again and again. 'What radiant rites! And all to do honour to me!'

The songs in the play it took to be hymns in its honour. The choruses were choric songs in its praise. The

electric lights, it said, were magic torches lighted for its sake, and it was so charmed with the footlights that

the children could hardly persuade it to sit still. But when the limelight was shown it could contain its

approval no longer. It flapped its golden wings, and cried in a voice that could be heard all over the theatre:

Little Tom on the stage stopped short in what he was saying. A deep breath was drawn by hundreds of lungs,

every eye in the house turned to the box where the luckless children cringed, and most people hissed, or said

Then the play went on, and an attendant presently came to the box and spoke wrathfully.

The man said well, then, they must keep their bird very quiet. 'Disturbing every one like this,' he said.

'It won't do it again,' said Robert, glancing imploringly at the golden bird; 'I'm sure it won't.'

'Well, he is a beauty, and no mistake,' said the attendant, 'only I'd cover him up during the acts. It upsets the

'Don't speak again, there's a dear,' said Anthea; 'you wouldn't like to interfere with your own temple, would

So now the Phoenix was quiet, but it kept whispering to the children. It wanted to know why there was no

altar, no fire, no incense, and became so excited and fretful and tiresome that four at least of the party of five

What happened next was entirely the fault of the Phoenix. It was not in the least the fault of the theatre

people, and no one could ever understand afterwards how it did happen. No one, that is, except the guilty bird

itself and the four children. The Phoenix was balancing itself on the gilt back of the chair, swaying backwards

and forwards and up and down, as you may see your own domestic parrot do. I mean the grey one with the

red tail. All eyes were on the stage, where the lobster was delighting the audience with that gem of a song, 'If

'No altar, no fire, no incense!' and then, before any of the children could even begin to think of stopping it, it

spread its bright wings and swept round the theatre, brushing its gleaming feathers against delicate hangings

It seemed to have made but one circular wingsweep, such as you may see a gull make over grey water on a

stormy day. Next moment it was perched again on the chairbackand all round the theatre, where it had

passed, little sparks shone like tinsel seeds, then little smoke wreaths curled up like growing plantslittle

'A magnificent idea!' said the Phoenix, complacently. 'An enormous altarfire supplied free of charge.

The only smell was the stifling smell of smoke, of burning silk, or scorching varnish.

The little flames had opened now into great flameflowers. The people in the theatre were shouting and

'Father said stay here,' said Anthea, very pale, and trying to speak in her ordinary voice.

'He didn't mean stay and be roasted,' said Robert. 'No boys on burning decks for me, thank you.'

But a fierce waft of smoke and hot air made him shut it again. It was not possible to get out that way.

And, indeed, the crowd round the doors looked as thick as flies in the jammaking season.

Even at that awful moment Robert looked round to see if the bird had overheard a speech which, however

'Look here,' said Cyril, 'I've read about fires in papers; I'm sure it's all right. Let's wait here, as father said.'

'Look here,' said Robert, 'I'm NOT frightenedno, I'm not. The Phoenix has never been a skunk yet, and I'm

'The Phoenix thanks you, O Robert,' said a golden voice at his feet, and there was the Phoenix itself, on the

'Quick!' it said. 'Stand on those portions of the carpet which are truly antique and authenticand'

A sudden jet of flame stopped its words. Alas! the Phoenix had unconsciously warmed to its subject, and in

the unintentional heat of the moment had set fire to the paraffin with which that morning the children had

anointed the carpet. It burned merrily. The children tried in vain to stamp it out. They had to stand back and

let it burn itself out. When the paraffin had burned away it was found that it had taken with it all the darns of

Scotch heathermixture fingering. Only the fabric of the old carpet was leftand that was full of holes.

The four children got on to what was left of the carpet. Very careful they were not to leave a leg or a hand

hanging over one of the holes. It was very hotthe theatre was a pit of fire. Every one else had got out.

'Home!' said Cyril, and instantly the cool draught from under the nursery door played upon their legs as they

sat. They were all on the carpet still, and the carpet was lying in its proper place on the nursery floor, as calm

and unmoved as though it had never been to the theatre or taken part in a fire in its life.

Four long breaths of deep relief were instantly breathed. The draught which they had never liked before was

for the moment quite pleasant. And they were safe. And every one else was safe. The theatre had been quite

They presently found themselves all talking at once. Somehow none of their adventures had given them so

When suddenly Anthea's face turned pale under the dirt which it had collected on it during the fire.

'Oh,' she cried, 'mother and father! Oh, how awful! They'll think we're burned to cinders. Oh, let's go this

'WellYOU go then,' said Anthea, 'or I will. Only do wash your face first. Mother will be sure to think you

are burnt to a cinder if she sees you as black as that, and she'll faint or be ill or something. Oh, I wish we'd

'Hush!' said Robert; 'it's no use being rude to the bird. I suppose it can't help its nature. Perhaps we'd better

No one had noticed the Phoenix since it had bidden them to step on the carpet. And no one noticed that no

All were partially clean, and Cyril was just plunging into his greatcoat to go and look for his parentshe,

and not unjustly, called it looking for a needle in a bundle of haywhen the sound of father's latchkey in the

'Are you all safe?' cried mother's voice; 'are you all safe?' and the next moment she was kneeling on the

linoleum of the hall, trying to kiss four damp children at once, and laughing and crying by turns, while father

'But how did you guess we'd come home,' said Cyril, later, when every one was calm enough for talking.

'Well, it was rather a rum thing. We heard the Garrick was on fire, and of course we went straight there,' said

father, briskly. 'We couldn't find you, of courseand we couldn't get inbut the firemen told us every one

was safely out. And then I heard a voice at my ear say, "Cyril, Anthea, Robert, and Jane"and something

touched me on the shoulder. It was a great yellow pigeon, and it got in the way of my seeing who'd spoken. It

fluttered off, and then some one said in the other ear, "They're safe at home"; and when I turned again, to see

who it was speaking, hanged if there wasn't that confounded pigeon on my other shoulder. Dazed by the fire,

'I said it was the bird that spoke,' said mother, 'and so it was. Or at least I thought so then. It wasn't a pigeon.

It was an orangecoloured cockatoo. I don't care who it was that spoke. It was true and you're safe.'

Mother began to cry again, and father said bed was a good place after the pleasures of the stage.

'Oh, very well,' said the bird, when Robert had said what he felt, 'didn't you know that I had power over fire?

Do not distress yourself. I, like my high priests in Lombard Street, can undo the work of flames. Kindly open

That was why the papers said next day that the fire at the theatre had done less damage than had been

anticipated. As a matter of fact it had done none, for the Phoenix spent the night in putting things straight.

How the management accounted for this, and how many of the theatre officials still believe that they were

But what the children said in sad whispers to each other, as they pondered over last night's events, was

'Egg, toast, tea, milk, teacup and saucer, eggspoon, knife, butterthat's all, I think,' remarked Anthea, as

she put the last touches to mother's breakfasttray, and went, very carefully up the stairs, feeling for every

step with her toes, and holding on to the tray with all her fingers. She crept into mother's room and set the

'Is your head better, mammy dear?' she asked, in the soft little voice that she kept expressly for mother's

headaches. 'I've brought your brekkie, and I've put the little cloth with cloverleaves on it, the one I made

Anthea knew exactly what to do for mothers with headaches who had breakfast in bed. She fetched warm

water and put just enough eau de Cologne in it, and bathed mother's face and hands with the sweetscented

'But what's the matter with my girl?' she asked, when her eyes got used to the light.

'Oh, I'm so sorry you're ill,' Anthea said. 'It's that horrible fire and you being so frightened. Father said so.

'It wasn't your fault a bit, you darling goosie,' mother said. 'How could it be?'

'That's just what I can't tell you,' said Anthea. 'I haven't got a futile brain like you and father, to think of ways

'My futile brainor did you mean fertile?anyway, it feels very stiff and sore this morningbut I shall be

quite all right by and by. And don't be a silly little pet girl. The fire wasn't your faults. No; I don't want the

egg, dear. I'll go to sleep again, I think. Don't you worry. And tell cook not to bother me about meals. You

Anthea closed the door very mousily, and instantly went downstairs and ordered what she liked for lunch.

She ordered a pair of turkeys, a large plumpudding, cheesecakes, and almonds and raisins.

Cook told her to go along, do. And she might as well not have ordered anything, for when lunch came it was

just hashed mutton and semolina pudding, and cook had forgotten the sippets for the mutton hash and the

When Anthea rejoined the others she found them all plunged in the gloom where she was herself. For every

one knew that the days of the carpet were now numbered. Indeed, so worn was it that you could almost have

So that now, after nearly a month of magic happenings, the time was at hand when life would have to go on

in the dull, ordinary way and Jane, Robert, Anthea, and Cyril would be just in the same position as the other

children who live in Camden Town, the children whom these four had so often pitied, and perhaps a little

'Except,' said Robert, 'that we shall have more things to remember and be sorry we haven't got.'

'Mother's going to send away the carpet as soon as she's well enough to see about that coconut matting. Fancy

us with coconutmattingus! And we've walked under live coconuttrees on the island where you can't

His brothers and sisters had often wondered whether he remembered that island. Now they knew that he did.

'Yes,' said Cyril; 'no more cheap return trips by carpet for usthat's a dead cert.'

They were all talking about the carpet, but what they were all thinking about was the Phoenix.

The golden bird had been so kind, so friendly, so polite, so instructiveand now it had set fire to a theatre

Nobody blamed the bird. It had acted in a perfectly natural manner. But every one saw that it must not be

The four children felt like base spies and treacherous friends; and each in its mind was saying who ought not

to be the one to tell the Phoenix that there could no longer be a place for it in that happy home in Camden

Town. Each child was quite sure that one of them ought to speak out in a fair and manly way, but nobody

They could not talk the whole thing over as they would have liked to do, because the Phoenix itself was in the

'It's very horrid. I do hate thinking things about people, and not being able to say the things you're thinking

because of the way they would feel when they thought what things you were thinking, and wondered what

they'd done to make you think things like that, and why you were thinking them.'

Anthea was so anxious that the Phoenix should not understand what she said that she made a speech

completely baffling to all. It was not till she pointed to the cupboard in which all believed the Phoenix to be

'Yes,' he said, while Jane and Robert were trying to tell each other how deeply they didn't understand what

Anthea were saying; 'but after recent eventfulnesses a new leaf has to be turned over, and, after all, mother is

more important than the feelings of any of the lower forms of creation, however unnatural.'

'How beautifully you do do it,' said Anthea, absently beginning to build a cardhouse for the Lamb'mixing

up what you're saying, I mean. We ought to practise doing it so as to be ready for mysterious occasions.

We're talking about THAT,' she said to Jane and Robert, frowning, and nodding towards the cupboard where

the Phoenix was. Then Robert and Jane understood, and each opened its mouth to speak.

'Wait a minute,' said Anthea quickly; 'the game is to twist up what you want to say so that no one can

understand what you're saying except the people you want to understand it, and sometimes not them.'

'The ancient philosophers,' said a golden voice, 'Well understood the art of which you speak.'

Of course it was the Phoenix, who had not been in the cupboard at all, but had been cocking a golden eye at

There was a painful pause; the four could not but think it likely that the Phoenix had understood their very

veiled allusions, accompanied as they had been by gestures indicating the cupboard. For the Phoenix was not

'We were just saying' Cyril began, and I hope he was not going to say anything but the truth. Whatever it

was he did not say it, for the Phoenix interrupted him, and all breathed more freely as it spoke.

'I gather,' it said, 'that you have some tidings of a fatal nature to communicate to our degraded black brothers

who run to and fro for ever yonder.' It pointed a claw at the cupboard, where the blackbeetles lived.

'Mammy's asleep,' said Jane, hastily. 'Come and be wild beasts in a cage under the table.'

But the Lamb caught his feet and hands, and even his head, so often and so deeply in the holes of the carpet

that the cage, or table, had to be moved on to the linoleum, and the carpet lay bare to sight with all its horrid

'Sometimes the end is peace,' remarked the Phoenix. 'I imagine that unless it comes soon the end of your

'Yes,' said Cyril, respectfully kicking what was left of the carpet. The movement of its bright colours caught

the eye of the Lamb, who went down on all fours instantly and began to pull at the red and blue threads.

And before any one could have winked (even if they had wanted to, and it would not have been of the

slightest use) the middle of the floor showed bare, an island of boards surrounded by a sea of linoleum. The

There was a horrible silence. The Lambthe baby, all alonehad been wafted away on that untrustworthy

carpet, so full of holes and magic. And no one could know where he was. And no one could follow him

'That's what the clergyman said,' remarked Robert forlornly; 'but it wasn't, and it isn't.'

'The carpet understands all speech,' said the Phoenix, 'even Bosh. I know not this Boshland, but be assured

'Do you mean, then,' said Anthea, in white terror, 'that when he was saying "Agglety dag," or whatever it was,

'There I think you're wrong,' said Cyril; 'even people who talk English sometimes say things that don't mean

'Oh, never mind that now,' moaned Anthea; 'you think "Aggety dag" meant something to him and the carpet?'

'Beyond doubt it held the same meaning to the carpet as to the luckless infant,' the Phoenix said calmly.

Jane sobbed noisily, but the others were calm with what is sometimes called the calmness of despair. The

Lamb was gonethe Lamb, their own precious baby brotherwho had never in his happy little life been for

a moment out of the sight of eyes that loved himhe was gone. He had gone alone into the great world with

no other companion and protector than a carpet with holes in it. The children had never really understood

before what an enormously big place the world is. And the Lamb might be anywhere in it!

'And it's no use going to look for him.' Cyril, in flat and wretched tones, only said what the others were

'Do you wish him to return?' the Phoenix asked; it seemed to speak with some surprise.

'Then,' said the wearer of gold plumage, 'if you'll excuse me, I'll just pop out and see what I can do.'

'Oh, if only mother goes on sleeping! Oh, suppose she wakes up and wants the Lamb! Oh, suppose the

servants come! Stop crying, Jane. It's no earthly good. No, I'm not crying myselfat least I wasn't till you

said so, and I shouldn't anyway ifif there was any mortal thing we could do. Oh, oh, oh!'

Cyril and Robert were boys, and boys never cry, of course. Still, the position was a terrible one, and I do not

A breathless stillness held the children. Then Anthea dried her eyes. She looked round her and caught up the

'Hit my hand hard,' she said; 'I must show mother some reason for my eyes being like they are. Harder,' she

cried as Cyril gently tapped her with the iron handle. And Cyril, agitated and trembling, nerved himself to hit

'Oh, Panther, I didn't mean to hurt, really,' cried Cyril, clattering the poker back into the fender.

'It'sallright,' said Anthea breathlessly, clasping the hurt hand with the one that wasn't hurt;

It wasa round red and blue bump was rising on the back of it. 'Now, Robert,' she said, trying to breathe

more evenly, 'you go outoh, I don't know whereon to the dustbinanywhereand I shall tell mother

Anthea was now ready to deceive her mother for as long as ever she could. Deceit is very wrong, we know,

but it seemed to Anthea that it was her plain duty to keep her mother from being frightened about the Lamb

'It always has helped,' Robert said; 'it got us out of the tower, and even when it made the fire in the theatre it

Her heart beat bumpingly as she climbed the stairs. Mother would be certain to notice her eyeswell, her

'No, I must NOT think of the Lamb, she said to herself, and bit her tongue till her eyes watered again, so as to

give herself something else to think of. Her arms and legs and back, and even her tearreddened face, felt

Anthea tried to be brave. She tried to say that the Lamb and Robert were out. Perhaps she tried too hard.

Anyway, when she opened her mouth no words came. So she stood with it open. It seemed easier to keep

'The Lamb,' mother went on; 'he was very good at first, but he's pulled the toiletcover off the dressingtable

with all the brushes and pots and things, and now he's so quiet I'm sure he's in some dreadful mischief. And I

can't see him from here, and if I'd got out of bed to see I'm sure I should have fainted.'

'Of course he's here,' said mother, a little impatiently. 'Where did you think he was?'

That he had been there was plain, from the toiletcover on the floor, the scattered pots and bottles, the

wandering brushes and combs, all involved in the tangle of ribbons and laces which an open drawer had

'He must have crept out, then,' said mother; 'do keep him with you, there's a darling. If I don't get some sleep I

Anthea closed the door softly. Then she tore downstairs and burst into the nursery, crying

'He must have wished he was with mother. He's been there all the time. "Aggety dag"'

For there, on the floor, lay the carpet, and on the carpet, surrounded by his brothers and by Jane, sat the

Lamb. He had covered his face and clothes with vaseline and violet powder, but he was easily recognizable in

'You are right,' said the Phoenix, who was also present; 'it is evident that, as you say, "Aggety dag" is Bosh

for "I want to be where my mother is," and so the faithful carpet understood it.'

'But how,' said Anthea, catching up the Lamb and hugging him'how did he get back here?'

'Oh,' said the Phoenix, 'I flew to the Psammead and wished that your infant brother were restored to your

'Oh, I am glad, I am glad!' cried Anthea, still hugging the baby. 'Oh, you darling! Shut up, Jane! I don't care

HOW much he comes off on me! Cyril! You and Robert roll that carpet up and put it in the beetlecupboard.

He might say "Aggety dag" again, and it might mean something quite different next time. Now, my Lamb,

'I hope the beetles won't go wishing,' said Cyril, as they rolled up the carpet.

Two days later mother was well enough to go out, and that evening the coconut matting came home. The

children had talked and talked, and thought and thought, but they had not found any polite way of telling the

The days had been days spent by the children in embarrassment, and by the Phoenix in sleep.

And, now the matting was laid down, the Phoenix awoke and fluttered down on to it.

'I like not this carpet,' it said; 'it is harsh and unyielding, and it hurts my golden feet.'

'It's the ragandbottle man's day tomorrow,' said Anthea, in a low voice; 'he will take it away.'

'Hear me!' it cried, 'oh youthful children of men, and restrain your tears of misery and despair, for what must

be must be, and I would not remember you, thousands of years hence, as base ingrates and crawling worms

I will not seek to break the news to you gently. Let the blow fall at once. The time has come when I must

'We needn't have bothered so about how to break the news to it,' whispered Cyril.

'Ah, sigh not so,' said the bird, gently. 'All meetings end in partings. I must leave you. I have sought to

'Must you really goso soon?' murmured Anthea. It was what she had often heard her mother say to calling

'I must, really; thank you so much, dear,' replied the bird, just as though it had been one of the ladies.

'I am weary,' it went on. 'I desire to restafter all the happenings of this last moon I do desire really to rest,

Now that it had really come to parting with the Phoenix, whose favourite he had always been, Robert did feel

'I ask but the relic designed for the ragandbottle man. Give me what is left of the carpet and let me go.'

'Nor shall you regret it, children of golden hearts,' it said. 'Quickspread the carpet and leave me alone; but

first pile high the fire. Then, while I am immersed in the sacred preliminary rites, do ye prepare

The children spread out what was left of the carpet. And, after all, though this was just what they would have

wished to have happened, all hearts were sad. Then they put half a scuttle of coal on the fire and went out,

'One of us must keep watch,' said Robert, excitedly, as soon as they were all out of the room, 'and the others

can go and buy sweet woods and spices. Get the very best that money can buy, and plenty of them. Don't let's

stand to a threepence or so. I want it to have a jolly good sendoff. It's the only thing that'll make us feel less

It was felt that Robert, as the pet of the Phoenix, ought to have the last melancholy pleasure of choosing the

'I'll keep watch if you like,' said Cyril. 'I don't mind. And, besides, it's raining hard, and my boots let in the

So they left Cyril, standing like a Roman sentinel outside the door inside which the Phoenix was getting

ready for the great change, and they all went out to buy the precious things for the last sad rites.

'Robert is right,' Anthea said; 'this is no time for being careful about our money. Let's go to the stationer's

first, and buy a whole packet of leadpencils. They're cheaper if you buy them by the packet.'

This was a thing that they had always wanted to do, but it needed the great excitement of a funeral pyre and a

The people at the stationer's said that the pencils were real cedarwood, so I hope they were, for stationers

should always speak the truth. At any rate they cost oneandfourpence. Also they spent sevenpence

'Because,' said Anthea, 'I know sandalwood smells sweet, and when it's burned it smells very sweet indeed.'

'Ivory doesn't smell at all,' said Robert, 'but I expect when you burn it it smells most awful vile, like bones.'

At the grocer's they bought all the spices they could remember the names ofshelllike mace, cloves like

blunt nails, peppercorns, the long and the round kind; ginger, the dry sort, of course; and the beautiful

bloomcovered shells of fragrant cinnamon. Allspice too, and caraway seeds (caraway seeds that smelt most

Camphor and oil of lavender were bought at the chemist's, and also a little scent sachet labelled 'Violettes de

They took the things home and found Cyril still on guard. When they had knocked and the golden voice of

There lay the carpetor what was left of itand on it lay an egg, exactly like the one out of which the

'I've laid it, you see,' it said, 'and as fine an egg as ever I laid in all my born days.'

The things which the children had bought were now taken out of their papers and arranged on the table, and

when the Phoenix had been persuaded to leave its egg for a moment and look at the materials for its last fire it

'Never, never have I had a finer pyre than this will be. You shall not regret it,' it said, wiping away a golden

tear. 'Write quickly: "Go and tell the Psammead to fulfil the last wish of the Phoenix, and return instantly".'

'Please go and ask the Psammead to be so kind as to fulfil the Phoenix's last wish, and come straight back, if

you please.' The paper was pinned to the carpet, which vanished and returned in the flash of an eye.

Then another paper was written ordering the carpet to take the egg somewhere where it wouldn't be hatched

for another two thousand years. The Phoenix tore itself away from its cherished egg, which it watched with

yearning tenderness till, the paper being pinned on, the carpet hastily rolled itself up round the egg, and both

'Bear up,' said the bird; 'do you think _I_ don't suffer, being parted from my precious newlaid egg like this?

'OH!' cried Robert, suddenly, and wholly breaking down, 'I can't BEAR you to go!'

'The sorrows of youth soon appear but as dreams,' it said. 'Farewell, Robert of my heart. I have loved you

The fire had burnt to a red glow. One by one the spices and sweet woods were laid on it. Some smelt nice and

somethe caraway seeds and the Violettes de Parme sachet among themsmelt worse than you would

The bright bird fluttered seven times round the room and settled in the hot heart of the fire. The sweet gums

and spices and woods flared and flickered around it, but its golden feathers did not burn. It seemed to grow

redhot to the very inside heart of itand then before the eight eyes of its friends it fell together, a heap of

white ashes, and the flames of the cedar pencils and the sandalwood box met and joined above it.

'We gave it to some one who wanted it very much. The name began with a P,' said Jane.

'The person who began with P said we shouldn't lose by it,' Jane went on before she could be stopped.

But that very night a great box came, addressed to the children by all their names. Eliza never could

remember the name of the carrier who brought it. It wasn't Carter Paterson or the Parcels Delivery.

It was instantly opened. It was a big wooden box, and it had to be opened with a hammer and the kitchen

poker; the long nails came squeaking out, and boards scrunched as they were wrenched off. Inside the box

was soft paper, with beautiful Chinese patterns on itblue and green and red and violet. And under the

paperwell, almost everything lovely that you can think of. Everything of reasonable size, I mean; for, of

course, there were no motors or flying machines or thoroughbred chargers. But there really was almost

everything else. Everything that the children had always wantedtoys and games and books, and chocolate

and candied cherries and paintboxes and photographic cameras, and all the presents they had always wanted

to give to father and mother and the Lamb, only they had never had the money for them. At the very bottom

of the box was a tiny golden feather. No one saw it but Robert, and he picked it up and hid it in the breast of

his jacket, which had been so often the nestingplace of the golden bird. When he went to bed the feather was

Pinned to the lovely fur cloak that mother had always wanted was a paper, and it said

You may guess how father and mother talked it over. They decided at last the person who had had the carpet,

and whom, curiously enough, the children were quite unable to describe, must be an insane millionaire who

amused himself by playing at being a ragandbone man. But the children knew better.

They knew that this was the fulfilment, by the powerful Psammead, of the last wish of the Phoenix, and that

this glorious and delightful boxful of treasures was really the very, very, very end of the Phoenix and the