ady for a great surprise. In that hutch there's
an old friend of ours--DON'T look!--Yes; it's the Psammead, the good old
Psammead! it wants us to buy it. It says you're not to look at it. Look
at the white rat and count your money! On your honour don't look!'

The others responded nobly. They looked at the white rat till they quite
stared him out of countenance, so that he went and sat up on his hind
legs in a far corner and hid his eyes with his front paws, and pretended
he was washing his face.

Cyril stooped again, busying himself with the other bootlace and
listened for the Psammead's further instructions.

'Go in,' said the Psammead, 'and ask the price of lots of other things.
Then say, "What do you want for that monkey that's lost its tail--the
mangy old thing in the third hutch from the end." Oh--don't mind MY
feelings--call me a mangy monkey--I've tried hard enough to look like
one! I don't think he'll put a high price on me--I've bitten him eleven
times since I came here the day before yesterday. If he names a bigger
price than you can afford, say you wish you had the money.'

'But you can't give us wishes. I've promised never to have another wish
from you,' said the bewildered Cyril.

'Don't be a silly little idiot,' said the Sand-fairy in trembling but
affectionate tones, 'but find out how much money you've got between you,
and do exactly what I tell you.'

Cyril, pointing a stiff and unmeaning finger at the white rat, so as to
pretend that its charms alone employed his tongue, explained matters to
the others, while the Psammead hunched itself, and bunched itself,
and did its very best to make itself look uninteresting. Then the four
children filed into the shop.

'How much do you want for that white rat?' asked Cyril.

'Eightpence,' was the answer.

'And the guinea-pigs?'

'Eighteenpence to five bob, according to the breed.'

'And the lizards?'

'Ninepence each.'

'And toads?'

'Fourpence. Now look here,' said the greasy owner of all this caged life
with a sudden ferocity which made the whole party back hurriedly on to
the wainscoting of hutches with which the shop was lined. 'Lookee here.
I ain't agoin' to have you a comin' in here a turnin' the whole place
outer winder, an' prizing every animile in the stock just for your
larks, so don't think it! If you're a buyer, BE a buyer--but I never
had a customer yet as wanted to buy mice, and lizards, and toads, and
guineas all at once. So hout y