s neck; he ain't worth tuppence.'

'Oh, no,' cried Jane, 'don't hurt it. Oh, don't; it is such a pet.'

'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 is yours for life.'

'Half a WHAT?' asked Anthea.

'Arf a shiner, quid, thick 'un--half a sov, then.'

'I haven't got it--and, besides, it's OUR bird,' said Anthea.

'Oh, don't talk to him,' said Cyril and then Jane said suddenly--

'Phoenix--dear Phoenix, we can't do anything. YOU must manage it.'

'With pleasure,' said the Phoenix--and Ike nearly dropped it in his
amazement.

'I say, it do talk, suthin' like,' said he.

'Youths,' said the Phoenix, 'sons of misfortune, hear my words.'

'My eyes!' said Ike.

'Look out, Ike,' said Urb, 'you'll throttle the joker--and I see at
wunst 'e was wuth 'is weight in flimsies.'00

'Hearken, O Eikonoclastes, despiser of sacred images--and thou, Urbanus,
dweller in the sordid city. Forbear this adventure lest a worse thing
befall.'

'Luv' us!' said Ike, 'ain't it been taught its schoolin' just!'

'Restore me to my young acolytes and escape unscathed. Retain me--and--'

'They must ha' got all this up, case the Polly got pinched,' said Ike.
'Lor' lumme, the artfulness of them young uns!'

'I say, slosh 'em in the geseech and get clear off with the swag's wot I
say,' urged Herbert.

'Right O,' said Isaac.

'Forbear,' repeated the Phoenix, sternly. 'Who pinched the click off of
the old bloke in Aldermanbury?' it added, in a changed tone.

'Who sneaked the nose-rag out of the young gell's 'and in Bell Court?
Who--'

'Stow it,' said Ike. 'You! ugh! yah!--leave go of me. Bash him off, Urb;
'e'll have my bloomin' eyes outer my ed.'

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 the narrow courts had ended in
the safe wideness of Farringdon Street.

'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 man