ordinary November life
in Camden Town--and there was the nursery floor all bare boards in
the middle and brown oilcloth round the outside, and the bareness and
yellowness of the middle floor showed up the blackbeetles with terrible
distinctness, when the poor things came out in the evening, as usual, to
try to make friends with the children. But the children never would.

The Sunday ended in gloom, which even junket for supper in the blue
Dresden bowl could hardly lighten at all. Next day the Lamb's cough
was worse. It certainly seemed very whoopy, and the doctor came in his
brougham carriage.

Every one tried to bear up under the weight of the sorrow which it was
to know that the wishing carpet was locked up and the Phoenix mislaid. A
good deal of time was spent in looking for the Phoenix.

'It's a bird of its word,' said Anthea. 'I'm sure it's not deserted us.
But you know it had a most awfully long fly from wherever it was to near
Rochester and back, and I expect the poor thing's feeling tired out and
wants rest. I am sure we may trust it.'

The others tried to feel sure of this, too, but it was hard.

No one could be expected to feel very kindly towards the cook, since it
was entirely through her making such a fuss about a little foreign mud
that the carpet had been taken away.

'She might have told us,' said Jane, 'and Panther and I would have
cleaned it with tea-leaves.'

'She's a cantankerous cat,' said Robert.

'I shan't say what I think about her,' said Anthea, primly, 'because it
would be evil speaking, lying, and slandering.'

'It's not lying to say she's a disagreeable pig, and a beastly
blue-nosed Bozwoz,' said Cyril, who had read The Eyes of Light, and
intended to talk like Tony as soon as he could teach Robert to talk like
Paul.

And all the children, even Anthea, agreed that even if she wasn't a
blue-nosed Bozwoz, they wished cook had never been born.

But I ask you to believe that they didn't do all the things on purpose
which so annoyed the cook during the following week, though I daresay
the things would not have happened if the cook had been a favourite.
This is a mystery. Explain it if you can. The things that had happened
were as follows:

Sunday.--Discovery of foreign mud on both sides of the carpet.

Monday.--Liquorice put on to boil with aniseed balls in a saucepan.
Anthea did this, because she thought it would be good for the Lamb's
cough. The whole thing forgotten, and bottom o