纳尼亚传奇银椅 《银椅》第1章:在体育馆后面

《银椅》第1章:在体育馆后面  

IT was a dull autumn day and Jill Pole was crying behind the gym.
She was crying because they had been bullying her. This is not going to be a school story
so I shall say as little as possible about Jill's school
which is not a pleasant subject. It was "Co-educational
" a school for both boys and girls
what used to be called a "mixed" school; some said it was not nearly so mixed as the minds of the people who ran it. These people had the idea that boys and girls should be allowed to do what they liked. And unfortunately what ten or fifteen of the biggest boys and girls liked best was bullying the others. All sorts of things
horrid things
went on which at an ordinary school would have been found out and stopped in half a term; but at this school they weren't. Or even if they were
the people who did them were not expelled or punished. The Head said they were interesting psychological cases and sent for them and talked to them for hours. And if you knew the right sort of things to say to the Head
the main result was that you became rather a favourite than otherwise.
That was why Jill Pole was crying on that dull autumn day on the damp little path which runs beeen the back of the gym and the shrubbery. And she hadn't nearly finished her cry when a boy came round the corner of the gym whistling
with his hands in his pockets. He nearly ran into her.
这就是吉尔;波尔在那个阴沉的秋日，在体育馆后面和灌木丛之间那条溼漉漉的小路上哭的原因。她还没哭完，就有一个男生双手插在口袋里，绕过体育馆墙角，吹着口哨走来几乎撞上了她。
"Can't you look where you're going?" said Jill Pole.
"All right
" said the boy
"you needn't start -" and then he noticed her face. "I say
Pole
" he said
"what's up?"
Jill only made faces; the sort you make when you're trying to say something but find that if you speak you'll start crying again.
"It's Them
I suppose - as usual
" said the boy grimly
digging his hands farther into his pockets.
Jill nodded. There was no need for her to say anything
even if she could have said it. They both knew.
"Now
look here
" said the boy
"there's no good us all -"
He meant well
but he did talk rather like someone beginning a lecture. Jill suddenly flew into a temper (which is quite a likely thing to happen if you have been interrupted in a cry).
"Oh
go away and mind your own business
" she said. "Nobody asked you to e barging in
did they? And you're a nice person to start telling us what we all ought to do
aren't you? I suppose you mean we ought tospend all our time sucking up to Them
and currying favour
and dancing attendance on Them like you do."
"Oh
Lor!" said the boy
sitting down on the grassy bank at the edge of the shrubbery and very quickly getting up again because the grass was soaking wet. His name unfortunately was Eustace Scrubb
but he wasn't a bad sort.
"Pole!" he said. "Is that fair? Have I been doing anything of the sort this term? Didn't I stand up to Carter about the rabbit? And didn't I keep the secret about Spivvins - under torture too? And didn't I -"
"I d-don't know and I don't care
" sobbed Jill.
Scrubb saw that she wasn't quite herself yet and very sensibly offered her a peppermint. He had one too. Presently Jill began to see things in a clearer light.
"I'm sorry
Scrubb
" she said presently. "I wasn't fair. You have done all that - this term."
"Then wash out last term if you can
" said Eustace. "I was a different chap then. I was - gosh! what a little tick I was."
"Well
honestly
you were
" said Jill.
"You think there has been a change
then?" said Eustace.
"It's not only me
" said Jill. "Everyone's been saying so. They've noticed it. Eleanor Blakiston heard Adela Pennyfather talking about it in our changing room yesterday. She said
`Someone's got hold of that Scrubb kid. He's quite unmanageable this term. We shall have to attend to him next.'"
Eustace gave a shudder. Everyone at Experiment House knew what it was like being "attended to" by Them.
Both children were quiet for a moment. The drops dripped off the laurel leaves.
"Why were you so different last term?" said Jill presently.
"A lot of queer things happened to me in the hols
" said Eustace mysteriously.
"What sort of things?" asked Jill.
Eustace didn't say anything for quite a long time. Then he said:
"Look here
Pole
you and I hate this place about as much as anybody can hate anything
don't we?"
"I know I do
" said Jill.
"Then I really think I can trust you."
"Dam' good of you
" said Jill.
"Yes
but this is a really terrific secret. Pole
I say
are you good at believing things? I mean things that everyone here would laugh at?"
"I've never had the chance
" said Jill
"but I think I would be."
"Could you believe me if I said I'd been right out of the world - outside this world - last hols?"
"I wouldn't know what you meant."
"Well
don't let's bother about that then. Supposing I told you I'd been in a place where animals can talk and where there are - er - enchantments and dragons - and well
all the sorts of things you have in fairy-tales." Scrubb felt terribly awkward as he said this and got red in the face.
"How did you get there?" said Jill. She also felt curiously shy.
"The only way you can - by Magic
" said Eustace almost in a whisper. "I was with o cousins of mine. We were just - whisked away. They'd been there before."
Now that they were talking in whispers Jill somehow felt it easier to believe. Then suddenly a horrible suspicion came over her and she said (so fiercely that for the moment she looked like a tigress):
"If I find you've been pulling my leg I'll never speak to you again; never
never
never."
"I'm not
" said Eustace. "I swear I'm not. I swear by everything."
(When I was at school one would have said
"I swear by the Bible." But Bibles were not encouraged at Experiment House.)
"All right
" said Jill
"I'll believe you."
"And tell nobody?"
"What do you take me for?"
They were very excited as they said this. But when they had said it and Jill looked round and saw the dull autumn sky and heard the drip off the leaves and thought of all the hopelessness of Experiment House (it was a thirteen-week term and there were still eleven weeks to e) she said:
"But after all
what's the good? We're not there: we're here. And we jolly well can't get there. Or can we?"
"That's what I've been wondering
" said Eustace. "When we came back from That Place
Someone said that the o Pevensie kids (that's my o cousins) could never go there again. It was their third time
you see. I suppose they've had their share. But he never said I couldn't. Surely he would have said so
unless he meant that I was to get back? And I can't help wondering
can we - could we -?"
"Do you mean
do something to make it happen?"
Eustace nodded.
"You mean we might draw a circle on the ground - and write in queer letters in it - and stand inside it - and recite charms and spells?"
"Well
" said Eustace after he had thought hard for a bit. "I believe that was the sort of thing I was thinking of
though I never did it. But now that it es to the point
I've an idea that all those circles and things are rather rot. I don't think he'd like them. It would look as if we thought we could make him do things. But really
we can only ask him."
"Who is this person you keep on talking about?"
"They call him Aslan in That Place
" said Eustace.
"What a curious name!"
"Not half so curious as himself
" said Eustace solemnly. "But let's get on. It can't do any harm
just asking. Let's stand side by side
like this. And we'll hold out our arms in front of us with the palms down: like they did in Ramandu's island -"
"Whose island?"
"I'll tell you about that another time. And he might like us to face the east. Let's see
where is the east?"
"I don't know
" said Jill.
"It's an extraordinary thing about girls that they never know the points of the pass
" said Eustace.
"You don't know either
" said Jill indignantly.
"Yes I do
if only you didn't keep on interrupting. I've got it now. That's the east
facing up into the laurels. Now
will you say the words after me?''
"What words?" asked Jill.
"The words I'm going to say
of course
" answered Eustace. "Now -"
And he began
"Aslan
Aslan
Aslan!"
"Aslan
Aslan
Aslan
" repeated Jill.
"Please let us o go into -"
At that moment a voice from the other side of the gym was heard shouting out
"Pole? Yes. I know where she is. She's blubbing behind the gym. Shall I fetch her out?"
Jill and Eustace gave one glance at each other
dived under the laurels
and began scrambling up the steep
earthy slope of the shrubbery at a speed which did them great credit. (Owing to the curious methods of teaching at Experiment House
one did not learn much French or Maths or Latin or things of that sort; but one did learn a lot about getting away quickly and quietly when They were looking for one.)
After about a minute's scramble they stopped to listen
and knew by the noises they heard that they were being followed.
"If only the door was open again!" said Scrubb as they went on
and Jill nodded. For at the top of the shrubbery was a high stone wall and in that wall a door by which you could get out on to open moor. This door was nearly always locked. But there had been times when people had found it open; or perhaps there had been only one time. But you may imagine how the memory of even one time kept people hoping
and trying the door; for if it should happen to be unlocked it would be a splendid way of getting outside the school grounds without being seen.
Jill and Eustace
now both very hot and very grubby from going along bent almost double under the laurels
panted up to the wall. And there was the door
shut as usual.
"It's sure to be no good
" said Eustace with his hand on the handle; and then
"O-o-oh. By Gum!!" For the handle turned and the door opened.
A moment before
both of them had meant to get through that doorway in double quick time
if by any chance the door was not locked. But when the door actually opened
they both stood stock still. For what they saw was quite different from what they had expected.
They had expected to see the grey
heathery slope of the moor going up and up to join the dull autumn sky. Instead
a blaze of sunshine met them. It poured through the doorway as the light of a June day pours into a garage when you open the door. It made the drops of water on the grass glitter like beads and showed up the dirtiness of Jill's tear-stained face. And the sunlight was ing from what certainly did look like a different world - what they could see of it. They saw smooth turf
smoother and brighter than Jill had ever seen before
and blue sky
and
darting to and fro
things so bright that they might have been jewels or huge butterflies. Although she had been longing for something like this
Jill felt frightened. She looked at Scrubb's face and saw that he was frightened too.
"Come on
Pole
" he said in a breathless voice.
"Can we get back? Is it safe?" asked Jill.
At that moment a voice shouted from behind
a mean
spiteful little voice. "Now then
Pole
" it squeaked. "Everyone knows you're there. Down you e." It was the voice of Edith Jackle
not one of Them herself but one of their hangers-on and tale-bearers.
"Quick!" said Scrubb. "Here. Hold hands. We mustn't get separated." And before she quite knew what was happening
he had grabbed her hand and pulled her through the door
out of the school grounds
out of England
out of our whole world into That Place.
The sound of Edith Jackle's voice stopped as suddenly as the voice on the radio when it is switched off. Instantly there was a quite different sound all about them. It came from those bright things overhead
which now turned out to be birds. They were making a riotous noise
but it was much more like music - rather advanced music which you don't quite take in at the first hearing - than birds' songs ever are in our world. Yet
in spite of the singing
there was a sort of background of immense silence. That silence
bined with the freshness of the air
made Jill think they must be on the top of a very high mountain.
Scrubb still had her by the hand and they were walking forward
staring about them on every side. Jill saw that huge trees
rather like cedars but bigger
grew in every direction. But as they did not grow close together
and as there was no undergrowth
this did not prevent one from seeing a long way into the forest to leftnd right. And as far as Jill's eye could reach
it was all the same - level turf
darting birds with yellow
or dragonfly blue
or rainbow plumage
blue shadows
and emptiness. There was not a breath of wind in that cool
bright air. It was a very lonely forest.
Right ahead there were no trees: only blue sky. They went straight on without speaking till suddenly Jill heard Scrubb say
"Look out!" and felt herself jerked back. They were at the very edge of a cliff.
Jill was one of those lucky people who have a good head for heights. She didn't mind in the least standing on the edge of a precipice. She was rather annoyed with Scrubb for pulling her back - "just as if I was a kid"
she said and she wrenched her hand out of his. When she saw how very white he had turned
she despised him.
"What's the matter?" she said. And to show that she was not afraid
she stood very near the edge indeed; in fact
a good deal nearer than even she liked. Then she looked down.
She now realized that Scrubb had some excuse for looking white
for no cliff in our world is to be pared with this. Imagine yourself at the top of the very highest cliff you know. And imagine yourself looking down to the very bottom. And then imagine that the precipice goes on below that
as far again
ten times as far
enty times as far. And when you've looked down all that distance imagine little white things that might
at first glance
be mistaken for sheep
but presently you realize that they are clouds - not little wreaths of mist but the enormous white
puffy clouds which are themselves as big as most mountains. And at last
in beeen those clouds
you get your first glimpse of the real bottom
so far away that you can't make out whether it's field or wood
or land or water: farther below those clouds than you are above them.
Jill stared at it. Then she thought that perhaps
after all
she would step back afoot or so from the edge; but she didn't like to for fear of what Scrubb would think. Then she suddenly decided that she didn't care what he thought
and that she would jolly well get away from that horrible edge and never laugh at anyone for not liking heights again. But when she tried to move
she found she couldn't. Her legs seemed to have turned into putty. Everything was swimming before her eyes.
"What are you doing
Pole? Come back-blithering little idiot!" shouted Scrubb. But his voice seemed to he ing from a long way off. She felt him grabbing at her. But by now she had no control over her own arms and legs. There was a moment's struggling on the cliff edge. Jill was too frightened and dizzy to know quite what she was doing
but o things she remembered as long as she lived (they often came back to her in dreams). One was that she had wrenched herself free of Scrubb's clutches; the other was that
at the same moment
Scrubb himself
with a terrified scream
had lost his balance and gone hurtling to the depths.
Fortunately
she was given no time to think over what she had done. Some huge
brightly coloured animal had rushed to the edge of the cliff. It was lying down
leaning over
and (this was the odd thing) blowing. Not roaring or snorting
but just blowing from its wide-opened mouth; blowing out as steadily as a vacuum cleaner sucks in. Jill was lying so close to the creature that she could feel the breath vibrating steadily through its body. She was lying still because she couldn't get up. She was nearly fainting: indeed
she wished she could really faint
but faints don't e for the asking. At last she saw
far away below her
a tiny black speck floating away from the cliff and slightly upwards. As it rose
it also got farther away. By the time it was nearly on a level with the cliff-top it was so far off that she lost sight of it. It was obviously moving away from them at a great speed. Jill couldn't help thinking that the creature at her side was blowing it away.
幸亏她还来不及想想自己干了些什么。一只颜色鲜艳的巨兽已经冲到悬崖边上。它躺下，探出身子，吹着气(这可真是怪事)。不是怒吼，也不是喷鼻息，而是张大嘴巴吹气;悠悠地不断吹啊吹啊，就像吸尘器在吸一样。吉尔躺着的地方离这只动物那么近，都感觉得到这股气在它身体里沉稳的震动。她躺着一动不动是因为起不来口她差点晕过去了:其实，她但愿自己真的晕过去，不过不是想晕倒就能晕倒的。后来她终于看见了，在她下面很远的地方，一个小黑点正从悬崖飘开，而且稍微往上飘了一点。黑点一升起，就飘远了。等到黑点升到和悬崖差不多高的时候，已经飘得远远的，她就此看不见了。显然这个黑点已飞快地离开了他们。吉尔不禁认为就是她身边这动物把那个黑点吹走的。&
So she turned and looked at the creature. It was a lion.