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 moment when you should
find a purse containing but three oboloi.'

'How much is an oboloi?'

'An obol is about twopence halfpenny,' the Phoenix replied.

'Yes,' said Jane, 'and if you find a purse I suppose it is only because
some one has lost it, and you ought to take it to the policeman.'

'The situation,' remarked the Phoenix, 'does indeed bristle with
difficulties.'

'What about a buried treasure,' said Cyril, 'and every one was dead that
it belonged to?'

'Mother wouldn't believe THAT,' said more than one voice.

'Suppose,' said Robert--'suppose we asked to be taken where we could
find a purse and give it back to the person it belonged to, and they
would give us something for finding it?'

'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
heather-mixture fingering wool (which is very wrong, and you must never
do it when you are darning).

'No, THAT wouldn't do,' said Cyril. 'Let's chuck it and go to the North
Pole, or somewhere really interesting.'

'No,' said the girls together, 'there must be SOME way.'

'Wait a sec,' Anthea added. 'I've got an idea coming. Don't speak.'

There was a silence as she paused with the darning-needle 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, and--and--and get it some way that she'll
believe in and not think wrong.'

'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
tearing the carpet.

'Yes,' said the Phoenix, 'you certainly are. And you have to remember
that if you take a thing out it doesn't stay in.'

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
what a good, wel