I'm trying to use jQuery's load() to change the value of a textarea but it doesn't work

HTML:
<p><textarea cols="70" style="height:200px;border:1px solid #ccc;border-radius:3px;padding:4px;" name="html" id="html"></textarea></p>

jQuery:
$("#html").load('ajax/'+href+'.php');

also tried:
$("#html").text(load('ajax/'+href+'.php'));

and:
$("#html").val('');
$("#html").load('ajax/'+href+'.php');

It just stays blank. Can anyone help me?