ke for a well-informed carpet
to make! Oh, what a night we're having!'

'Do go away,' said Robert, nervously. 'We're just going to bed--that's
our bedroom candle; there isn't any row. Everything's as quiet as a
mouse.'

A wild chorus of mews drowned his words, and with the mews were mingled
the shrieks of the musk-rats. What had happened? Had the cats tasted
them before deciding that they disliked the flavour?

'I'm a-coming in,' said the policeman. 'You've got a cat shut up there.'

'A cat,' said Cyril. 'Oh, my only aunt! A cat!'

'Come in, then,' said Robert. 'It's your own look out. I advise you not.
Wait a shake, and I'll undo the side gate.'

He undid the side gate, and the policeman, very cautiously, came in. And
there in the kitchen, by the light of one candle, with the mewing
and the screaming going like a dozen steam sirens, twenty waiting on
motor-cars, and half a hundred squeaking pumps, four agitated voices
shouted to the policeman four mixed and wholly different explanations of
the very mixed events of the evening.

Did you ever try to explain the simplest thing to a policeman?

CHAPTER 8. THE CATS, THE COW, AND THE BURGLAR

The nursery was full of Persian cats and musk-rats that had been brought
there by the wishing carpet. The cats were mewing and the musk-rats were
squeaking so that you could hardly hear yourself speak. In the kitchen
were the four children, one candle, a concealed Phoenix, and a very
visible policeman.

'Now then, look here,' said the Policeman, very loudly, and he pointed
his lantern at each child in turn, 'what's the meaning of this here
yelling and caterwauling. I tell you you've got a cat here, and some
one's a ill-treating of it. What do you mean by it, eh?'

It was five to one, counting the Phoenix; but the policeman, who was
one, was of unusually fine size, and the five, including the Phoenix,
were small. The mews and the squeaks grew softer, and in the comparative
silence, Cyril said--

'It's true. There are a few cats here. But we've not hurt them. It's
quite the opposite. We've just fed them.'

'It don't sound like it,' said the policeman grimly.

'I daresay they're not REAL cats,' said Jane madly, perhaps they're only
dream-cats.'

'I'll dream-cat you, my lady,' was the brief response of the force.

'If you understood anything except people who do murders and stealings
and naughty things like that, I'd tell you all about it,' said Robert;
'but I'm cert