“It’s worse when they have too many,” said Jane with a shudder, “think of centipedes!” They stood there on the pavement, a cause of some inconvenience to the passersby, and thus beguiled the time with conversation. Cyril was leaning his elbow on the top of a hutch that had seemed empty when they had inspected the whole edifice of hutches one by one, and he was trying to reawaken the interest of a hedgehog that had curled itself into a ball earlier in the interview, when a small, soft voice just below his elbow said, quietly, plainly and quite unmistakably—not in any squeak or whine that had to be translated—but in downright common English— “Buy me—do—please buy me!” Cyril started as though he had been pinched, and jumped a yard away from the hutch. “Come back—oh, come back!” said the voice, rather louder but still softly; “stoop down and pretend to be tying up your bootlace—I see it’s undone, as usual.” Cyril mechanically obeyed. He knelt on one knee on the dry, hot dusty pavement, peered into the darkness of the hutch and found himself face to face with—the Psammead! It seemed much thinner than when he had last seen it. It was dusty and dirty, and its fur was untidy and ragged. It had hunched itself up into a miserable lump, and its long snail’s eyes were drawn in quite tight so that they hardly showed at all. “Listen,” said the Psammead, in a voice that sounded as though it would begin to cry in a minute, “I don’t think the creature who keeps this shop will ask a very high price for me. I’ve bitten him more than once, and I’ve made myself look as common as I can. He’s never had a glance from my beautiful, beautiful eyes. Tell the others I’m here—but tell them to look at some of those low, common beasts while I’m talking to you. The creature inside mustn’t think you care much about me, or he’ll put a price upon me far, far beyond your means. I remember in the dear old days last summer you never had much money. Oh—I never thought I should be so glad to see you—I never did.” It sniffed, and shot out its long snail’s eyes expressly to drop a tear well away from its fur. “Tell the others I’m here, and then I’ll tell you exactly what to do about buying me.” Cyril tied his bootlace into a hard knot, stood up and addressed the others in firm tones— “Look here,” he said, “I’m not kidding—and I appeal to your honour,” an appeal which in this family was never made in vain. “Don’t look at that hutch—look at the white rat. Now you are not to look at that hutch whatever I say.” He stood in front of it to prevent mistakes. “Now get yourselves ready 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!”