e 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 father handled them.

Next day all was forgotten and forgiven; only the nursery had to
be deeply cleaned (like spring-cleaning), and the ceiling had to be
whitewashed.

And mother went out; and just at tea-time next day a man came with a
rolled-up carpet, and father paid him, and mother said--

'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 loud-sounding 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, half-transparent, 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.

'I MAY keep it, mayn't I, mother?' Cyril asked.

And of course mother said no; they must take it back to the man who had
brought the carpet, because she had only paid for a carpet, and not for
a stone egg with a fiery yolk to it.

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 a-goin' to take back no
carpets, so don't you make no bloomin' errer. A bargain's a bargain, and
the carpet's puffik throughout.'

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

'