第36章

'Hush!' said the voice from the letter-box slit.'Your slaves have gone a-merry-making.The latch of this portal is too stiff for my beak.But at the side--the little window above the shelf whereon your bread lies--it is not fastened.'

'Righto!' said Cyril.

And Anthea added, 'I wish you'd meet us there, dear Phoenix.'

The children crept round to the pantry window.It is at the side of the house, and there is a green gate labelled 'Tradesmen's Entrance', which is always kept bolted.But if you get one foot on the fence between you and next door, and one on the handle of the gate, you are over before you know where you are.This, at least, was the experience of Cyril and Robert, and even, if the truth must be told, of Anthea and Jane.So in almost no time all four were in the narrow gravelled passage that runs between that house and the next.

Then Robert made a back, and Cyril hoisted himself up and got his knicker-bockered knee on the concrete window-sill.He dived into the pantry head first, as one dives into water, and his legs waved in the air as he went, just as your legs do when you are first beginning to learn to dive.The soles of his boots--squarish muddy patches--disappeared.

'Give me a leg up,' said Robert to his sisters.

'No, you don't,' said Jane firmly.'I'm not going to be left outside here with just Anthea, and have something creep up behind us out of the dark.Squirrel can go and open the back door.'

A light had sprung awake in the pantry.Cyril always said the Phoenix turned the gas on with its beak, and lighted it with a waft of its wing; but he was excited at the time, and perhaps he really did it himself with matches, and then forgot all about it.He let the others in by the back door.And when it had been bolted again the children went all over the house and lighted every single gas-jet they could find.For they couldn't help feeling that this was just the dark dreary winter's evening when an armed burglar might easily be expected to appear at any moment.There is nothing like light when you are afraid of burglars--or of anything else, for that matter.

And when all the gas-jets were lighted it was quite clear that the Phoenix had made no mistake, and that Eliza and cook were really out, and that there was no one in the house except the four children, and the Phoenix, and the carpet, and the blackbeetles who lived in the cupboards on each side of the nursery fire-place.

These last were very pleased that the children had come home again, especially when Anthea had lighted the nursery fire.But, as usual, the children treated the loving little blackbeetles with coldness and disdain.

I wonder whether you know how to light a fire? I don't mean how to strike a match and set fire to the corners of the paper in a fire someone has laid ready, but how to lay and light a fire all by yourself.I will tell you how Anthea did it, and if ever you have to light one yourself you may remember how it is done.First, she raked out the ashes of the fire that had burned there a week ago--for Eliza had actually never done this, though she had had plenty of time.In doing this Anthea knocked her knuckle and made it bleed.Then she laid the largest and handsomest cinders in the bottom of the grate.Then she took a sheet of old newspaper (you ought never to light a fire with to-day's newspaper--it will not burn well, and there are other reasons against it), and tore it into four quarters, and screwed each of these into a loose ball, and put them on the cinders; then she got a bundle of wood and broke the string, and stuck the sticks in so that their front ends rested on the bars, and the back ends on the back of the paper balls.In doing this she cut her finger slightly with the string, and when she broke it, two of the sticks jumped up and hit her on the cheek.Then she put more cinders and some bits of coal--no dust.She put most of that on her hands, but there seemed to be enough left for her face.Then she lighted the edges of the paper balls, and waited till she heard the fizz-crack-crack-fizz of the wood as it began to burn.Then she went and washed her hands and face under the tap in the back kitchen.

Of course, you need not bark your knuckles, or cut your finger, or bruise your cheek with wood, or black yourself all over; but otherwise, this is a very good way to light a fire in London.In the real country fires are lighted in a different and prettier way.

But it is always good to wash your hands and face afterwards, wherever you are.

While Anthea was delighting the poor little blackbeetles with the cheerful blaze, Jane had set the table for--I was going to say tea, but the meal of which I am speaking was not exactly tea.Let us call it a tea-ish meal.There was tea, certainly, for Anthea's fire blazed and crackled so kindly that it really seemed to be affectionately inviting the kettle to come and sit upon its lap.

So the kettle was brought and tea made.But no milk could be found--so every one had six lumps of sugar to each cup instead.

The things to eat, on the other hand, were nicer than usual.The boys looked about very carefully, and found in the pantry some cold tongue, bread, butter, cheese, and part of a cold pudding--very much nicer than cook ever made when they were at home.And in the kitchen cupboard was half a Christmassy cake, a pot of strawberry jam, and about a pound of mixed candied fruit, with soft crumbly slabs of delicious sugar in each cup of lemon, orange, or citron.

It was indeed, as Jane said, 'a banquet fit for an Arabian Knight.'

The Phoenix perched on Robert's chair, and listened kindly and politely to all they had to tell it about their visit to Lyndhurst, and underneath the table, by just stretching a toe down rather far, the faithful carpet could be felt by all--even by Jane, whose legs were very short.

'Your slaves will not return to-night,' said the Phoenix.'They sleep under the roof of the cook's stepmother's aunt, who is, Igather, hostess to a large party to-night in honour of her husband's cousin's sister-in-law's mother's ninetieth birthday.'