'My hat!' Cyril remarked. 'I never thought about its being a
PERSIAN carpet.'
Yet it was now plain that it was so, for the beautiful objects
which it had brought back were cats--Persian cats, grey Persian
cats, and there were, as I have said, 199 of them, and they were
sitting on the carpet as close as they could get to each other.
But the moment the children entered the room the cats rose and
stretched, and spread and overflowed from the carpet to the floor,
and in an instant the floor was a sea of moving, mewing
pussishness, and the children with one accord climbed to the table,
and gathered up their legs, and the people next door knocked on the
wall--and, indeed, no wonder, for the mews were Persian and
piercing.
'This is pretty poor sport,' said Cyril. 'What's the matter with
the bounders?'
'I imagine that they are hungry,' said the Phoenix. 'If you were
to feed them--'
'We haven't anything to feed them with,' said Anthea in despair,
and she stroked the nearest Persian back. 'Oh, pussies, do be
quiet--we can't hear ourselves think.'
She had to shout this entreaty, for the mews were growing
deafening, 'and it would take pounds' and pounds' worth of
cat's-meat.'
'Let's ask the carpet to take them away,' said Robert. But the
girls said 'No.
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