ajax function msg,php ajax success: function (msg) - get msg

I have some jquery/php code which uses ajax to call another page.

var pall_id = $(this).attr('id');

$.ajax({

type: "POST",

url: "do_history.php?pall_id="+pall_id,

success: function (msg) {

alert (msg);

},

error: function (XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown)

{

alert('Error submitting request.');

}

});

However what do I do to get the value of msg? e.g. if do_history.php is simply:

$text="text";

return $text;

?>

would 'msg' not be "text" so when I alert(msg); I would get "text" popping up on my screen.

What do I need to do to return a string value? Any ideas?

Thanks,