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whispered
Are you alone? '
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.
105
The Phoenix and the Carpet
Hush! ' said the voice from the letter-box slit. Your slaves have gone
a-merry-making. The latch of this portal is too stiff for my beak. But
at the side the little window above the shelf whereon your bread
lies it is not fastened. '
Righto! ' said Cyril.
And Anthea added, I wish you d meet us there, dear Phoenix. '
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
knicker-bockered knee on the concrete window-sill. 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 boots squarish muddy patches
disappeared.
Give me a leg up, ' said Robert to his sisters.
No, you don t, ' said Jane firmly. I m not going to be left outside
here with just Anthea, and have something creep up behind us out
of the dark. Squirrel can go and open the back door. '
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 gas-jet 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 burglars or of anything else, for that matter.
106
The Phoenix and the Carpet
And when all the gas-jets 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 fire-place. 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 disdain.
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 ago for 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 to-day s newspaper it 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
coal no dust. She put most of that on her hands, but there seemed
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