When they had arranged all the things on a table, with the candles stuck up on a plate ready to light the moment mother's cab was heard, they washed themselves thoroughly and put on tidier clothes.
Then Robert said, "Good old psammead," and the others said so too.
"But, really, it's just as much good old Phœnix," said Robert. "Suppose it hadn't thought of getting the wish!"
"Ah!" said the Phœnix, "it is perhaps fortunate for you that I am such a competent bird."
"There's mother's cab," cried Anthea, and the Phœnix bird and they lighted the candles, and next moment mother's cab was home again.
She liked her presents very much, and found their story of Uncle Reginald and the sovereign easy and even pleasant to believe.
"Good old carpet," were Cyril's last sleepy words.
"What there is of it," said the Phœnix, from the cornice-pole.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Copyright, 1904, by George Newnes, Limited.