The Story of the Amulet | Page 7

common English--
'Buy me--do--please buy me!'
Cyril started as though he had been pinched, and jumped a yard away
from the hutch.
'Come back--oh, come back!' said the voice, rather louder but still
softly; 'stoop down and pretend to be tying up your bootlace--I see it's
undone, as usual.'
Cyril mechanically obeyed. He knelt on one knee on the dry, hot dusty
pavement, peered into the darkness of the hutch and found himself face

to face with--the Psammead!
It seemed much thinner than when he had last seen it. It was dusty and
dirty, and its fur was untidy and ragged. It had hunched itself up into a
miserable lump, and its long snail's eyes were drawn in quite tight so
that they hardly showed at all.
'Listen,' said the Psammead, in a voice that sounded as though it would
begin to cry in a minute, 'I don't think the creature who keeps this shop
will ask a very high price for me. I've bitten him more than once, and
I've made myself look as common as I can. He's never had a glance
from my beautiful, beautiful eyes. Tell the others I'm here--but tell
them to look at some of those low, common beasts while I'm talking to
you. The creature inside mustn't think you care much about me, or he'll
put a price upon me far, far beyond your means. I remember in the dear
old days last summer you never had much money. Oh--I never thought
I should be so glad to see you--I never did.' It sniffed, and shot out its
long snail's eyes expressly to drop a tear well away from its fur. 'Tell
the others I'm here, and then I'll tell you exactly what to do about
buying me.' Cyril tied his bootlace into a hard knot, stood up and
addressed the others in firm tones--
'Look here,' he said, 'I'm not kidding--and I appeal to your honour,' an
appeal which in this family was never made in vain. 'Don't look at that
hutch--look at the white rat. Now you are not to look at that hutch
whatever I say.'
He stood in front of it to prevent mistakes.
'Now get yourselves ready for a great surprise. In that hutch there's an
old friend of ours--DON'T look!--Yes; it's the Psammead, the good old
Psammead! it wants us to buy it. It says you're not to look at it. Look at
the white rat and count your money! On your honour don't look!'
The others responded nobly. They looked at the white rat till they quite
stared him out of countenance, so that he went and sat up on his hind
legs in a far corner and hid his eyes with his front paws, and pretended
he was washing his face.

Cyril stooped again, busying himself with the other bootlace and
listened for the Psammead's further instructions.
'Go in,' said the Psammead, 'and ask the price of lots of other things.
Then say, "What do you want for that monkey that's lost its tail--the
mangy old thing in the third hutch from the end." Oh--don't mind MY
feelings--call me a mangy monkey--I've tried hard enough to look like
one! I don't think he'll put a high price on me--I've bitten him eleven
times since I came here the day before yesterday. If he names a bigger
price than you can afford, say you wish you had the money.'
'But you can't give us wishes. I've promised never to have another wish
from you,' said the bewildered Cyril.
'Don't be a silly little idiot,' said the Sand-fairy in trembling but
affectionate tones, 'but find out how much money you've got between
you, and do exactly what I tell you.'
Cyril, pointing a stiff and unmeaning finger at the white rat, so as to
pretend that its charms alone employed his tongue, explained matters to
the others, while the Psammead hunched itself, and bunched itself, and
did its very best to make itself look uninteresting. Then the four
children filed into the shop.
'How much do you want for that white rat?' asked Cyril.
'Eightpence,' was the answer.
'And the guinea-pigs?'
'Eighteenpence to five bob, according to the breed.'
'And the lizards?'
'Ninepence each.'
'And toads?'
'Fourpence. Now look here,' said the greasy owner of all this caged life

with a sudden ferocity which made the whole party back hurriedly on
to the wainscoting of hutches with which the shop was lined. 'Lookee
here. I ain't agoin' to have you a comin' in here a turnin' the whole place
outer winder, an' prizing every animile in the stock just for your larks,
so don't think it! If you're a buyer, BE a buyer--but I never had a
customer yet as wanted to buy mice, and lizards, and toads, and guineas