"I know you would," said Anthea, gratefully; "but even with you I'd much rather not." "Well," said Cyril, trying to be kind and amiable, "I don't want you to do anything you think's wrong, _but_----" He was silent. This silence said many things. "I don't see----" Robert was beginning, when Anthea interrupted. "I'm quite sure. Sometimes you just think a thing's wrong, and sometimes you _know_. And this is a _know_ time." The Phoenix turned kind golden eyes on her and opened a friendly beak to say:-- "When it is, as you say, a 'know time' there is no more to be said. And your noble brothers would never leave you." "Of course not," said Cyril, rather quickly. And Robert said so, too. "I myself," the Phoenix went on, "am willing to help in any way possible. I will myself go--either by carpet or on the wing--and fetch you anything you can think of to amuse you during the evening. In order to waste no time I could go while you wash up. Why," it went on, in a musing voice, "does one wash up teacups and wash down the stairs?" "You couldn't wash stairs up, you know," said Anthea, "unless you began at the bottom and went up feet first as you washed. I wish cook would try that way for a change." "I don't," said Cyril, briefly. "I should hate the look of her elastic-side boots sticking up." "This is mere trifling," said the Phoenix. "Come, decide what I shall fetch for you. I can get you anything you like." But, of course, they couldn't decide. Many things were suggested: a rocking-horse, jewelled chessmen, an elephant, a bicycle, a motor-car, books with pictures, musical instruments, and many other things. But a musical instrument is agreeable only to the player, unless he has learned to play it really well; books are not sociable, bicycles cannot be ridden without going out of doors, and the same is true of motor-cars and elephants. Only two people can play chess at once with one set of chessmen (and anyway it's very much too much like lessons for a game), and only one can ride on a rocking-horse. Suddenly in the midst of the discussion the Phoenix spread its wings and fluttered to the floor, and from there it spoke. [Illustration: "THE CARPET WANTS YOU TO LET IT GO TO ITS OLD HOME."] "I gather," it said, "from the carpet that it wants you to let it go to its old home, where it was born and brought up, and it will return within the hour laden with a number of the most beautiful and delightful products of its native land." "What _is_ its native land?" "I didn't gather. But since you can't agree, and time is passing, and the tea-things are not washed down--I mean washed up--" "I votes we do," said Cyril. "It'll stop all this jaw, any way. And it's not bad to have surprises. Perhaps it's a Turkey carpet, and it might bring us Turkish delight." "Or a Turkish patrol," said Robert. "Or a Turkish bath," said Anthea. "Or a Turkish towel," said Jane.