Эдит Несбит - The Phoenix and the Carpet стр 6.

And when she said very, of course there was a real bears hug.

Then came the eel, and the Lamb was tickled till he wriggled exactly like a real one:

Perhaps you didnt know that a snig was a baby eel? It is, though, and the Lamb knew it.

Hedgehog now-! he said; and Anthea went on:

And then she loved him front ways round, while he squealed with pleasure.

It is a very baby game, and, of course, the rhymes are only meant for very, very small peoplenot for people who are old enough to read books, so I wont tell you any more of them.

By the time the Lamb had been a baby lion and a baby weazel, and a baby rabbit and a baby rat, mother was ready; and she and the Lamb, having been kissed by everybody and hugged as thoroughly as it is possible to be when youre dressed for out-of-doors, were seen to the tram by the boys. When the boys came back, every one looked at every one else and said

Now!

They locked the front door and they locked the back door, and they fastened all the windows. They moved the table and chairs off the carpet, and Anthea swept it.

We must show it a LITTLE attention, she said kindly. Well give it tea-leaves next time. Carpets like tea-leaves.

Then every one put on its out-door things, because as Cyril said, they didnt know where they might be going, and it makes people stare if you go out of doors in November in pinafores and without hats.

Then Robert gently awoke the Phoenix, who yawned and stretched itself, and allowed Robert to lift it on to the middle of the carpet, where it instantly went to sleep again with its crested head tucked under its golden wing as before. Then every one sat down on the carpet.

Where shall we go? was of course the question, and it was warmly discussed. Anthea wanted to go to Japan. Robert and Cyril voted for America, and Jane wished to go to the seaside.

Because there are donkeys there, said she.

Not in November, silly, said Cyril; and the discussion got warmer and warmer, and still nothing was settled.

I vote we let the Phoenix decide, said Robert, at last. So they stroked it till it woke. We want to go somewhere abroad, they said, and we cant make up our minds where.

Let the carpet make up ITS mind, if it has one, said the Phoenix.

Just say you wish to go abroad.

So they did; and the next moment the world seemed to spin upside down, and when it was right way up again and they were ungiddy enough to look about them, they were out of doors.

Out of doorsthis is a feeble way to express where they were. They were out ofout of the earth, or off it. In fact, they were floating steadily, safely, splendidly, in the crisp clear air, with the pale bright blue of the sky above them, and far down below the pale bright sun-diamonded waves of the sea. The carpet had stiffened itself somehow, so that it was square and firm like a raft, and it steered itself so beautifully and kept on its way so flat and fearless that no one was at all afraid of tumbling off. In front of them lay land.

The coast of France, said the Phoenix, waking up and pointing with its wing. Where do you wish to go? I should always keep one wish, of coursefor emergenciesotherwise you may get into an emergency from which you cant emerge at all.

But the children were far too deeply interested to listen.

I tell you what, said Cyril: lets let the thing go on and on, and when we see a place we really want to stop atwhy, well just stop. Isnt this ripping?

Its like trains, said Anthea, as they swept over the low-lying coast-line and held a steady course above orderly fields and straight roads bordered with poplar treeslike express trains, only in trains you never can see anything because of grown-ups wanting the windows shut; and then they breathe on them, and its like ground glass, and nobody can see anything, and then they go to sleep.

Its like tobogganing, said Robert, so fast and smooth, only theres no door-mat to stop short onit goes on and on.

You darling Phoenix, said Jane, its all your doing. Oh, look at that ducky little church and the women with flappy cappy things on their heads.

Dont mention it, said the Phoenix, with sleepy politeness.

OH! said Cyril, summing up all the rapture that was in every heart. Look at it alllook at itand think of the Kentish Town Road!

Every one looked and every one thought. And the glorious, gliding, smooth, steady rush went on, and they looked down on strange and beautiful things, and held their breath and let it go in deep sighs, and said Oh! and Ah! till it was long past dinner-time.

It was Jane who suddenly said, I wish wed brought that jam tart and cold mutton with us. It would have been jolly to have a picnic in the air.

The jam tart and cold mutton were, however, far away, sitting quietly in the larder of the house in Camden Town which the children were supposed to be keeping. A mouse was at that moment tasting the outside of the raspberry jam part of the tart (she had nibbled a sort of gulf, or bay, through the pastry edge) to see whether it was the sort of dinner she could ask her little mouse-husband to sit down to. She had had a very good dinner herself. It is an ill wind that blows nobody any good.

Well stop as soon as we see a nice place, said Anthea. Ive got threepence, and you boys have the fourpence each that your trams didnt cost the other day, so we can buy things to eat. I expect the Phoenix can speak French.

The carpet was sailing along over rocks and rivers and trees and towns and farms and fields. It reminded everybody of a certain time when all of them had had wings, and had flown up to the top of a church tower, and had had a feast there of chicken and tongue and new bread and soda-water. And this again reminded them how hungry they were. And just as they were all being reminded of this very strongly indeed, they saw ahead of them some ruined walls on a hill, and strong and upright, and really, to look at, as good as newa great square tower.

The top of thats just the exactly same size as the carpet, said Jane. I think it would be good to go to the top of that, because then none of the Abby-whats-its-namesI mean nativeswould be able to take the carpet away even if they wanted to. And some of us could go out and get things to eatbuy them honestly, I mean, not take them out of larder windows.

I think it would be better if we went Anthea was beginning; but Jane suddenly clenched her hands.

I dont see why I should never do anything I want, just because Im the youngest. I wish the carpet would fit itself in at the top of that towerso there!

The carpet made a disconcerting bound, and next moment it was hovering above the square top of the tower. Then slowly and carefully it began to sink under them. It was like a lift going down with you at the Army and Navy Stores.

I dont think we ought to wish things without all agreeing to them first, said Robert, huffishly. Hullo! What on earth?

For unexpectedly and greyly something was coming up all round the four sides of the carpet. It was as if a wall were being built by magic quickness. It was a foot highit was two feet highthree, four, five. It was shutting out the lightmore and more.