The Phoenix And The Carpet, Chapter 1

Hello,

It's Mandy here.

Thanks so much for joining me to listen to tonight's reading.

It's chapter one of The Phoenix and the Carpet,

A fantasy novel for children written by E.

Nesbitt and first published in 1904.

The novel follows the adventures of five children.

Edith Nesbitt herself was an English writer and poet and wrote the famous children's book,

The Railway Children.

But for now,

Please go ahead and make yourself really comfortable.

And I'll begin.

Chapter one,

The Egg.

It began with the day when it was almost the 5th of November and a doubt arose in some breast,

Robert's I fancy,

As to the quality of the fireworks laid in for the Guy Fawkes celebration.

They were jolly cheap,

Said whoever it was,

And I think it was Robert,

And suppose they didn't go off on the night?

Those prosser kids would have something to snigger about then.

The ones I got are all right,

Jane said.

I know they are because the man at the shop said they were worth Thribble the money.

I'm sure Thribble isn't grammar,

Anthea said.

Of course it isn't,

Said Cyril.

One word can't be grammar all by itself,

So you needn't be so jolly clever.

Anthea was rummaging in the corner drawers of her mind,

For a very disagreeable answer,

When she remembered what a wet day it was and how the boys had been disappointed of that ride to London and back on the top of the tram,

Which their mother had promised them as a reward for not having once forgotten for six whole days to wipe their boots on the mat when they came home from school.

So Anthea only said,

Don't be so jolly clever yourself,

Squirrel,

And the fireworks look all right,

And you'll have the eightpence that your tram fares didn't cost today to buy something more with.

You ought to get a perfectly lovely Catherine wheel for eightpence.

I dare say,

Said Cyril coldly,

But it's not your eightpence anyhow.

But look here,

Said Robert,

Really now,

About the fireworks.

We don't want to be disgraced before those kids next door.

They think because they wear red plush on Sundays that no one else is any good.

I wouldn't wear plush if it was ever so,

Unless it was black to be beheaded in,

If I was Mary Queen of Scots,

Said Anthea with scorn.

Robert stuck steadily to his point.

One great point about Robert is the steadiness with which he can stick.

I think we ought to test them,

He said.

You young duffer,

Said Cyril.

Fireworks are like postage stamps.

You can only use them once.

So what do you suppose it means by Carter's tested seeds in the advertisement?

There was a blank silence.

Then Cyril touched his forehead with his finger and shook his head.

A little wrong up here,

He said.

I was always afraid of that with poor Robert.

All that cleverness,

You know,

And being top in algebra so often,

It's bound to tell.

Dry up,

Said Robert fiercely.

Don't you see,

You can't test seeds if you do them all.

You just take a few here and there,

And if those grow,

You can feel pretty sure the others will be,

What you call it,

Father told me,

Up to sample.

Don't you think we ought to sample the fireworks?

Just shut our eyes and each draw one out and then try them.

But it's raining cats and dogs,

Said Jane.

And Queen Anne is dead,

Rejoined Robert.

No one was in a very good temper.

We needn't go out to do them.

We can just move back the table and let them off on the old tea tray we play toboggans with.

I don't know what you think,

But I think it's time we did something and that would be really useful because then we shouldn't just hope the fireworks would make the proses sit up.

We should know.

It would be something to do,

Cyril owned with languid approval.

So the table was moved back and then the hole in the carpet that had been near the window till the carpet was turned around showed most awfully.

But Anthea stole out on tiptoe and got the tray when Cook wasn't looking and brought it in and put it over the hole.

Then all the fireworks were put on the table and each of the four children shut its eyes very tight and put out its hand and grasped something.

Robert took a cracker,

Cyril and Anthea had Roman candles,

But Jane's fat paw closed on the gem of the whole collection,

The jack-in-the-box that had cost two shillings and one at least of the party,

I will not say which because it was sorry afterwards,

Declared that Jane had done it on purpose.

Nobody was pleased.

For the worst of it was that these four children,

With a very proper dislike of anything,

Even faintly bordering on the sneakish,

Had a law,

Unalterable as those of the Medes and Persians,

That one had to stand by the results of a toss-up or a drawing of lots or any other appeal to chance,

However much one might happen to dislike the way things were turning out.

I didn't mean to,

Said Jane near tears.

I don't care,

I'll draw another.

You know jolly well you can't,

Said Cyril bitterly.

It's settled.

It's medium and Persian.

You've done it and you'll have to stand by it and us too,

Worse luck.

Never mind,

You'll have your pocket money before the fifth.

Anyway,

We'll have the jack-in-the-box last and get the most out of it we can.

So the cracker and the Roman candles were lighted and they were all that could be expected for the money,

But when it came to the jack-in-the-box it simply sat in the tray and laughed at them,

As Cyril said.

They tried to light it with paper and they tried to light it with matches.

They tried to light it with Vesuvian fuses from the pocket of father's second best overcoat that was hanging in the hall and then Anthea slipped away to the cupboard under the stairs where the brooms and dustpans were kept and the rosin-y firelighters that smell so nice and like the woods where pine trees grow and the old newspapers and the beeswax and turpentine and the horrid and stiff dark rags that are used for cleaning brass and furniture and the paraffin for the lamps.

She came back with a little pot that had once cost seven pence ha'penny when it was full of redcurrant jelly,

But the jelly had been all eaten long ago and Anthea had filled the jar with paraffin.

She came in and she threw the paraffin over the tray just at the moment when Cyril was trying with the 23rd match to light the jack-in-the-box.

The jack-in-the-box didn't catch fire any more than usual but the paraffin acted quite differently and in an instant a hot flash of flame leapt up and burnt off Cyril's eyelashes and scorched the faces of all four before they could spring back.

They backed in four instantaneous bounds as far as they could which was to the wall and the pillar of fire reached from floor to ceiling.

My hat,

Said Cyril with emotion,

You've done it this time Anthea.

The flame was spreading out under the ceiling like the rose of fire in Mr.

Ryder Haggard's exciting story about Alan Quartermaine.

Robert and Cyril saw that no time was to be lost.

They turned up the edges of the carpet and kicked them over the tray.

This cut off the column of fire and it disappeared and there was nothing left but smoke and a dreadful smell like lamps that have been turned too low.

All hands now rushed to the rescue and the paraffin fire was only a bundle of trampled carpet when suddenly a sharp crack beneath their feet made the amateur firemen start back.

Another crack,

The carpet moved as if it had had a cat wrapped in it.

The jack in the box had at last allowed itself to be lighted and it was going off with desperate violence inside the carpet.

Robert with the air of one doing the only possible thing rushed to the window and opened it.

Anthea screamed,

Jane burst into tears and Cyril turned the table wrong way up on top of the carpet heap but the firework went on banging and bursting and spluttering even underneath the table.

Next moment Mother rushed in attracted by the howls of Anthea and in a few moments the firework desisted and there was a dead silence and the children stood looking at each other's black faces and out of the corners of their eyes at Mother's white one.

The fact that the nursery carpet was ruined occasioned but little surprise nor was anyone really astonished that bed should prove the immediate end of the adventure.

It has been said that all roads lead to Rome.

This may be true but at any rate in early youth I am quite sure that many roads lead to bed and stop there or at least you do.

The rest of the fireworks were confiscated and Mother was not pleased when Father let them off himself in the back garden though he did say well how else can you get rid of them my dear.

You see Father had forgotten that the children were in disgrace and that their bedroom windows looked out onto the back garden so that they all saw the fireworks most beautifully and admired the skill with which Father handled them.

Next day all was forgotten and forgiven only the nursery had to be deeply cleaned like spring cleaning and the ceiling had to be whitewashed and Mother went out and just at tea time next day a man came with a rolled up carpet and Father paid him and Mother said if the carpet isn't in good condition you know I shall expect you to change it and the man replied there ain't a thread gone in it nowhere Mum it's a bargain if ever there was one and I'm more than half sorry I let it go at the price but we can't resist the ladies can we sir and he winked at Father and went away.

Then the carpet was put down in the nursery and sure enough there wasn't a hole in it anywhere.

As the last fold was unrolled something hard and loud sounding bumped out of it and chundled along the nursery floor all the children scrambled for it and Cyril got it he took it to the gas it was shaped like an egg very yellow and shiny half transparent and it had an odd sort of light in it that changed as you held it in different ways it was as though it was an egg with a yolk of pale fire that just showed through the stone I may keep it means I mother Cyril asked and of course Mother said no they must take it back to the man who had brought the carpet because she had only paid for the carpet and not for a stone egg with a fiery yolk to it so she told them where the shop was and it was in the Kentish town road not far from the hotel that is called the Bull and Gate it was a pokey little shop and the man was arranging furniture outside on the pavement very cunningly so that the more broken parts would show as little as possible and directly he saw the children he knew them again and he began at once without giving them a chance to speak no you don't he cried loudly I ain't gonna take back no carpets so don't you make no blooming error a bargain's a bargain and the carpets pufficked throughout we don't want you to take it back said Cyril but we found something in it he must have got into it up at your place then said the man with indignant promptness for there ain't nothing in nothing as I sell it's all clean as a whistle I never said it wasn't clean said Cyril oh if it's moths said the man that's easy cured with borax but I expect it was only an odd one I tell you the carpet's good through and through it hadn't got no moths when it left my hands not so much as an egg but that's just it interrupted Jane there was so much as an egg the man made a sort of rush at the children and stamped his foot clear out I say he shouted or I'll call for the police a nice thing for customers to hear you are coming here are charging me we're finding things in goods what ourselves here be off before I send you off with a flea in your ears hey constable the children fled and they think and their father thinks that they couldn't have done anything else mother has her own opinion but father said they might keep the egg the man certainly didn't know the egg was there when he brought the carpet said he any more than your mother did and weave as much right to it as he had so the egg was put on the mantelpiece where it quite brightened up the dingy nursery the nursery was dingy because it was a basement room and its windows looked out on a stone area with a rockery made of clinkers facing the windows nothing grew in the rockery except London pride and snails the room had been described in the house agents list as a convenient breakfast room in the basement and in the daytime it was rather dark this didn't matter so much in the evenings when the gas was alight but then it was in the evening that the black beetles got so sociable and used to come out of the low cupboards on each side of the fireplace where their homes were and try to make friends with the children at least I suppose that was what they wanted but the children never would on the 5th of November father and mother went to the theatre and the children were not happy because the process next door had lots of fireworks and they had none they were not even allowed to have a bonfire in the garden no more playing with fire thank you was father's answer when they asked him when the baby had been put to bed the children sat sadly round the fire in the nursery I'm beastly bored said Robin let's talk about the samayad said Anthea who generally tried to give the conversation a cheerful turn what's the good of talking said Cyril what I want is for something to happen it's awfully stuffy for a chap not to be allowed out in the evenings there's simply nothing to do when you've got through your homers Jane finished the last of her home lessons and shut the book with a bang we've got the pleasure of memory said she just think of last holidays last holidays indeed offered something to think of for they had been spent in the country at a white house between a sand pit and a gravel pit and things had happened the children had found a samayad or sand fairy and it had let them have anything they wished for just exactly anything with no bother about it's not being really for their good or anything like that and if you want to know what kind of things they wished for and how their wishes turned out you can read it all in a book called five children and it it was the samayad if you've not read it perhaps I ought to tell you that the fifth child was the baby brother who was called the lamb because the first thing he ever said was bah and that the other children were not particularly handsome nor were they extra clever nor extraordinarily good but they were not bad sorts on the whole I don't want to think about the pleasures of memory said Cyril I want some more things to happen we're very much luckier than anyone else as it is said Jane why no one else ever found a samayad we ought to be grateful why shouldn't we go on being though Cyril asked lucky I mean not grateful why has it all got to stop perhaps something will happen said Anthea comfortably do you know sometimes I think we are the sort of people that things do happen to it's like that in history said Jane some kings are full of interesting things and others nothing ever happens to them except they're being born and crowned and buried and sometimes not even that I think the panthers right said Cyril I think we are the sort of people things do happen to I have a sort of feeling things would happen right enough if we could only give them a little shove it just wants something to start it that's all I wish they taught magic at school Jane sighed I believe if we could do a little magic it might make something happen I wonder how you begin Robert looked around the room but he got no ideas from the faded green curtains or the drab Venetian blinds or the worn brown oil cloth on the floor even the new carpet suggested nothing though its pattern was a very wonderful one and always seemed as though it were just going to make you think of something I could begin right enough said Anthea I've read lots about it but I believe it's wrong in the bible it's only wrong in the bible because people wanted to hurt other people I don't see how things can be wrong unless they hurt somebody and we don't want to hurt anybody and what's more we jolly well couldn't if we tried let's get the in goldsby legends there's a thing about abracadabra in there said Cyril yawning we may as well play at magic let's be knights templars they were awfully gone on magic they used to work spells or something with a goat and a goose father says so well that's all right said Robert unkindly you can play the goat right enough and Jane knows how to be a goose I'll get in goldsby said Anthea hastily you turn up the hearth rug so they traced strange figures on the linoleum where the hearth rug had kept it clean they traced them with chalk that Robert had nicked from the top of the mathematical master's desk at school you know of course that it is stealing to take a new stick of chalk but it is not wrong to take a broken piece so long as you only take one I don't know the reason for this rule or who made it and they chanted all the gloomiest songs they could think of and of course nothing happened so then Anthea said I'm sure a magic fire ought to be made of sweet smelling wood and have magic gums and essences and things in it I don't know any sweet smelling wood except cedar said Robert but I've got some ends of cedar wood lead pencil so they burned the ends of lead pencil and still nothing happened let's burn some of the eucalyptus oil we have for our coals said Anthea so they did it certainly smelt very strong and they burned lumps of camphor out of the big chest it was very bright and made a horrid black smoke which looked very magical but still nothing happened then they got some clean tea cloths from the dresser drawer in the kitchen and waved them over the magic chalk tracings and sang the hymn of the Moravian nuns at Bethlehem which is very impressive but still nothing happened so they waved more and more wildly and Robert's tea cloth caught the golden egg and whisked it off the mantelpiece and it fell into the fender and rolled onto the grate oh crikey said more than one voice and everyone instantly fell down flat on its front to look under the grate and there lay the egg glowing in a nest of hot ashes it's not smashed anyhow said Robert and he put his hand under the grate and picked up the egg but the egg was much hotter than anyone would have believed it could possibly get in such a short time and Robert had to drop it with a cry of bother it fell on the top bar of the grate and bounced right into the glowing red hot heart of the fire the tongs cried Anthea but alas no one could remember where they were everyone had forgotten that the tongs had last been used to fish up the doll's teapot from the bottom of the water where the lamb had dropped it so the nursery tongs were resting between the water button the dustbin and cook refused to lend the kitchen ones never mind said Robert we'll get it out with the poker and the shovel oh stop cried Anthea look at it look look look I do believe something is going to happen for the egg was now red hot and inside it something was moving next moment there was a soft cracking sound the egg burst in two and out of it came a flame colored bird it rested a moment among the flames and as it rested there the four children could see it growing bigger and bigger under their eyes every mouth was a gape every eye a goggle the bird rose in its nest fire stretched its wings and flew out into the room it flew round and round and round again and where it passed the air was warm then it perched on the fender the children looked at each other Cyril put out a hand towards the bird it put its head on one side and looked up at him as you may have seen a parrot do when it is just about to speak so the children were hardly astonished at all when it said be careful I am not nearly cool yet they were not astonished but they were very very much interested they looked at the bird and it was certainly worth looking at its feathers were like gold it was about as large as a bantam only its beak was not at all bantam shaped I believe I know what it is said Robert I've seen a picture he hurried away a hasty dash and scramble among the papers on father's study table yielded as the some books say the desired result but when he came back into the room holding out a paper and crying I say look here the others all said hush and he hushed obediently and instantly for the bird was speaking which of you it was saying put the egg into the fire he did said three voices and three fingers pointed at Robert the bird bowed at least it was more like that than anything else I am your grateful debtor it said with a high bred air the children were all choking with wonder and curiosity all except Robert he held the paper in his hand and he knew he said so he said I know who you are and he opened and displayed a printed paper at the head of which was a little picture of a bird sitting in a nest of flames you are the phoenix said Robert and the bird was quite pleased my fame has lived then for two thousand years it said allow me to look at my portrait it looked the page which Robert kneeling down spread out in the fender and said it's not a flattering likeness and what are these characters it asked pointing to the printed part oh that's all dull said Cyril with unconscious politeness it's not much about you you know but you're in lots of books with portraits asked the phoenix well no said Cyril in fact I don't think I ever saw any portrait of you but that one but I can read you something about yourself if you like the phoenix nodded and Cyril went off and fetched volume 10 of the old encyclopedia and on page 246 he found the following phoenix in all mythology a fabulous bird of antiquity antiquity is quite correct said the phoenix but fabulous well do I look at everyone shook its head Cyril went on the ancients speak of this bird as single or the only one of its kind that's right enough said the phoenix they describe it as about the size of an eagle eagles are of different sizes said the phoenix it's not at all a good description all the children were kneeling on the hearthrug to be as near the phoenix as possible you'll boil your brains it said look out I'm nearly cool now and with a wear of golden wings it fluttered from the fender to the table it was so nearly cool that there was only a very faint smell of burning when it settled itself on the tablecloth it's only a very little scorched said the phoenix apologetically it will come out in the wash please go on reading the children gathered around the table the size of an eagle Cyril went on its head finely crested with a beautiful plumage its neck covered with feathers of a gold colour and the rest of its body purple only the tail white and the eyes sparkling like stars they say that it lives about 500 years in the wilderness and when advanced in age it builds itself a pile of sweet wood and aromatic gums fires it with the wafting of its wings and thus burns itself and that from its ashes arises a worm which in time grows up to be a phoenix hence the Phoenicians gave never mind what they gave said the phoenix ruffling its golden feathers they never gave much anyway they always were people who gave nothing for nothing that book ought to be destroyed it's most inaccurate the rest of my body was never purple and that's for my tail well i simply ask you is it white it turned round and gravely presented its golden tail to the children no it's not said everybody no and it never was said the phoenix and that's about the worm is just a vulgar insult the phoenix has an egg like all respectable birds it makes a pile that part's all right and it lays its egg and it burns itself and it goes to sleep and wakes up in its egg and comes out and goes on living again and so on forever and ever i can't tell you how weary i got of it such a restless existence no repose but how did your egg get here ask danthier ah that's my life secret said the phoenix i couldn't tell it to anyone who wasn't really sympathetic i've always been a misunderstood bird you can tell that by what they say about the worm i might tell you it went on looking at robert with with eyes that were indeed starry you put me on the fire robert looked uncomfortable the rest of us made the fire of sweet scented woods and gums though said cyril and it was an accident my putting you on the fire said robert telling the truth with some difficulty for he didn't know how the phoenix might take it it took it in the most unexpected manner your candid avowal it said removes my last scruple i will tell you my story and you won't vanish or anything sudden will you asked anthia anxiously why it asked puffing out the golden feathers do you wish me to stay here oh yes said everyone with unmistakable sincerity why asked the phoenix again looking modestly at the tablecloth because said everyone 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 500 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'm 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'm sure you will be interested the enchanter oh please don't said anthia i can't understand all these beginnings of stories and you seem to be getting deeper and deeper into them with 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 70 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 was so fond of each other that they didn't want anyone else and the enchanter don't be alarmed i won't go into his history had given them a magic carpet you've heard of a magic carpet and they had just sat on it and told it to take them right away from everyone and it had brought them to the wilderness and as they meant to stay there they had no further use for the carpet so they gave it to me that was indeed the chance of a lifetime i don't see what you wanted with the carpet said jane when you've got those lovely wings they are nice wings aren't they said the phoenix simpering and spreading them out well i got the prince to lay out the carpet and i laid my egg on it then i said to the carpet now my excellent carpet prove your worth take that egg somewhere where it can't be hatched for two thousand years and where when that time's up someone will light a fire of sweet wood and aromatic gums and put the egg in to hatch and you see it's all come out exactly as i said the words were no sooner out of my beak than egg and carpet disappeared the royal lovers assisted to arrange my pile and soothed my last moments i burnt myself up and knew no more till i awoke on yonder altar it pointed its claw at the great but the carpet said robert the magic carpet that takes you anywhere you wish what became of that oh that said the phoenix carelessly i should say that that is the carpet i remember the pattern perfectly it pointed as it spoke to the floor where lay the carpet which mother had bought in the kentish town road for 22 shillings and nine pence at that instant father's latch key was heard in the door oh whispered cyril now we shall catch it for not being in bed wish yourself there said the phoenix in a hurried whisper and then wish the carpet back in its place no sooner said than done it made one a little giddy certainly and a little breathless but when things seemed right way up again there the children were in bed with the lights out they heard the soft voice of the phoenix through the darkness i shall sleep on the cornice above your curtains it said please don't mention me to your kinsfolk not much good said robert they'd never believe us i say he called through the half open door to the girls talk about adventures and things happening we ought to be able to get some fun out of a magic carpet and a phoenix rather said the girls in bed children said father on the stairs go to sleep at once what do you mean by talking at this time of night no answer was expected to this question but under the bedclothes cyril murmured one mean he said don't know what we mean i don't know what anything means but we've got a magic carpet and a phoenix said robert you'll get something else if father comes in and catches you said cyril shut up i tell you robert shut up but he knew as well as you do that the adventures of that carpet and that phoenix were only just beginning father and mother had not the least idea of what had happened in their absence this is often the case even when there are no magic carpets or phoenixes in the house the next morning but i'm sure you'd rather wait till the next chapter before you hear about that to be continued