wish me to
stay here?'

'Oh YES,' said every one, with unmistakable sincerity.

'Why?' asked the Phoenix again, looking modestly at the table-cloth.

'Because,' said every one at once, and then stopped short; only Jane
added after a pause, 'you are the most beautiful person we've ever
seen.' 'You are a sensible child,' said the Phoenix, 'and I will NOT
vanish or anything sudden. And I will tell you my tale. I had resided,
as your book says, for many thousand years in the wilderness, which is
a large, quiet place with very little really good society, and I was
becoming weary of the monotony of my existence. But I acquired the habit
of laying my egg and burning myself every five hundred years--and you
know how difficult it is to break yourself of a habit.'

'Yes,' said Cyril; 'Jane used to bite her nails.'

'But I broke myself of it,' urged Jane, rather hurt, 'You know I did.'

'Not till they put bitter aloes on them,' said Cyril.

'I doubt,' said the bird, gravely, 'whether even bitter aloes (the aloe,
by the way, has a bad habit of its own, which it might well cure before
seeking to cure others; I allude to its indolent practice of flowering
but once a century), I doubt whether even bitter aloes could have cured
ME. But I WAS cured. I awoke one morning from a feverish dream--it was
getting near the time for me to lay that tiresome fire and lay that
tedious egg upon it--and I saw two people, a man and a woman. They were
sitting on a carpet--and when I accosted them civilly they narrated to
me their life-story, which, as you have not yet heard it, I will now
proceed to relate. They were a prince and princess, and the story of
their parents was one which I am sure you will like to hear. In early
youth the mother of the princess happened to hear the story of a certain
enchanter, and in that story I am sure you will be interested. The
enchanter--'

'Oh, please don't,' said Anthea. 'I can't understand all these
beginnings of stories, and you seem to be getting deeper and deeper in
them every minute. Do tell us your OWN story. That's what we really want
to hear.'

'Well,' said the Phoenix, seeming on the whole rather flattered, 'to
cut about seventy long stories short (though _I_ had to listen to them
all--but to be sure in the wilderness there is plenty of time), this
prince and princess were so fond of each other that they did not want
any one else, and the enchanter--don't be alarmed, I won't go into
his history-