enix, and the carpet was a wishing carpet--and--'

'A very nice game, darling,' said mother, taking up her pen. 'Now do
be quiet. I've got a lot of letters to write. I'm going to Bournemouth
to-morrow with the Lamb--and there's that bazaar.'

Anthea went back to x y z, and mother's pen scratched busily.

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

'I wish it would take you where you could get a few nice Eastern things
for my bazaar,' said mother. 'I promised them, and I've no time to go to
Liberty's now.'

'It shall,' said Anthea, 'but, mother--'

'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 whooping-cough,
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
thought her cap was a crown, and--'

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

'But it's true,' said Anthea, desperately.

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

'Are you going away for long?' asked Anthea.

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

'He hasn't coughed since Saturday,' the Lamb's eldest sister
interrupted.

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

'We will, we will,' said Anthea, fervently. 'When's the bazaar?'

'On Saturday,' said mother, 'at the schools. Oh, don't talk any more,
there's a treasure! My head's going round, and I've forgotten how to
spell whooping-cough.'

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. And it hid its golden gleaming
self, and nobody could find it.

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
agita