'
'They are so soft and pussy,' said Jane.
'And valuable,' said Anthea, hastily. 'We can sell them for lots
and lots of money.'
'Why not send the carpet to get food for them?' suggested the
Phoenix, and its golden voice came harsh and cracked with the
effort it had to be make to be heard above the increasing
fierceness of the Persian mews.
So it was written that the carpet should bring food for 199 Persian
cats, and the paper was pinned to the carpet as before.
The carpet seemed to gather itself together, and the cats dropped
off it, as raindrops do from your mackintosh when you shake it.
And the carpet disappeared.
Unless you have had one-hundred and ninety-nine well-grown Persian
cats in one small room, all hungry, and all saying so in
unmistakable mews, you can form but a poor idea of the noise that now
deafened the children and the Phoenix. The cats did not seem to have
been at all properly brought up. They seemed to have no idea of its
being a mistake in manners to ask for meals in a strange house--let
alone to howl for them--and they mewed, and they mewed, and they
mewed, and they mewed, till the children poked their fingers into their
ears and waited in silent agony, wondering why the whole of Camden
Town did not come knocking at the door to ask what was the matter, and
only hoping that the food for the cats would come before the neighbours
did--and before all the secret of the carpet and the Phoenix had to
be given away beyond recall to an indignant neighbourhood.
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