Read "The Phoenix and the Carpet" by Edith Nesbit online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The children had seen the Phoenix-egg hatched in the flames in their own nursery grate, and had heard from it how the carpet on their own nursery floor was really the wishing carpet, which would take them anywhere they chose. The carpet had transported them to bed just at the right moment, and the Phoenix had gone to roost on the cornice supporting the window-curtains of the boys' room.
"Excuse me," said a gentle voice, and a courteous beak opened, very kindly and delicately, the right eye of Cyril. "I hear the slaves below preparing food. Awaken! A word of explanation and arrangement. I do wish you wouldn't -- "