纳尼亚传奇:凯斯宾王子评价 《凯斯宾王子》第1章:小岛

《凯斯宾王子》第1章:小岛  

ONCE there were four children whose names were Peter
Susan
Edmund
and Lucy
and it has been told in another book called The Lion
the Witch and the Wardrobe how they had a remarkable adventure. They had opened the door of a magic wardrobe and found themselves in a quite different world from ours
and in that different world they had bee Kings and Queens in a country called Narnia. While they were in Narnia they seemed to reign for years and years; but when they came back through the door and found themselves in England again
it all seemed to have taken no time at all. At any rate
no one noticed that they had ever been away
and they never told anyone except one very wise grown-up.
That had all happened a year ago
and now all four of them were sitting on a seat at a railway station with trunks and playboxes piled up round them. They were
in fact
on their way back to school. They had travelled together as far as this station
which was a junction; and here
in a few minutes
one train would arrive and take the girls away to one school
and in about half an hour another train would arrive and the boys would go off to another school. The first part of the journey
when they were all together
always seemed to be part of the holidays; but now when they would be saying good-bye and going different ways so soon
everyone felt that the holidays were really over and everyone felt their term-time feelings beginning again
and they were all rather gloomy and no one could think of anything to say. Lucy was going to boarding school for the first time.
It was an empty
sleepy
country station and there was hardly anyone on the platform except themselves. Suddenly Lucy gave a sharp little cry
like someone who has been stung by a wasp.
这是个空荡、沉寂的小镇车站，月台上除了他们，几乎再没别人。突然，露茜轻声尖叫了一下，仿佛被马蜂蛰了一下似的。
"What's up
Lu?" said Edmund - and then suddenly broke off and made a noise like "Ow!"
"What on earth-"
began Peter
and then he too suddenly changed what he had been going to say. Instead
he said
"Susan
let go! What are you doing? Where are you dragging me to?"
"I'm not touching you
" said Susan. "Someone is pulling me. Oh - oh -oh -stop it!"
Everyone noticed that all the others' faces had gone very white.
"I felt just the same
" said Edmund in a breathless voice. "As if I were being dragged along. A most frightful pulling-ugh! it's beginning again."
"Me too
" said Lucy. "Oh
I can't bear it."
"Look sharp!" shouted Edmund. "All catch hands and keep together. This is magic - I can tell by the feeling. Quick!"
"Yes
" said Susan. "Hold hands. Oh
I do wish it would stop-oh!"
Next moment the luggage
the seat
the platform
and the station had pletely vanished. The four children
holding hands and panting
found themselves standing in a woody place - such a woody place that branches were sticking into them and there was hardly room to move. They all rubbed their eyes and took a deep breath.
"Oh
Peter!" exclaimed Lucy. "Do you think we can possibly have got back to Narnia?"
"It might be anywhere
" said Peter. "I can't see a yard in all these trees. Let's try to get into the open - if there is any open."
With some difficulty
and with some stings from tles and pricks from thorns
they struggled out of the thicket. Then they had another surprise. Everything became much brighter
and after a few steps they found themselves at the edge of the wood
looking down on a sandy beach. A few yards away a very calm sea was falling on the sand with such tiny ripples that it made hardly any sound. There was no land in sight and no clouds in the sky. The sun was about where it ought to be at ten o'clock in the morning
and the sea was a dazzling blue. They stood sniffing in the sea-smell.
"By Jove!" said Peter. "This is good enough."
Five minutes later everyone was barefooted and wading in the cool clear water.
"This is better than being in a stuffy train on the way back to Latin and French and Algebra!" said Edmund. And then for quite a long time there was no more talking
only splashing and looking for shrimps and crabs.
"All the same
" said Susan presently
"I suppose we'll have to make some plans. We shall want something to eat before long."
"We've got the sandwiches Mother gave us for the journey
" said Edmund. "At least I've got mine."
"Not me
" said Lucy. "Mine were in my little bag."
"So were mine
" said Susan.
"Mine are in my coat-pocket
there on the beach
" said Peter. "That'll be o lunches among four. This isn't going to be such fun."
"At present
" said Lucy
"I want something to drink more than something to eat."
Everyone else now felt thirsty
as one usually is after wading in salt water under a hot sun.
"It's like being shipwrecked
" remarked Edmund. "In the books they always find springs of clear
fresh water on the island. We'd better go and look for them."
"Does that mean we have to go back into all that thick wood?" said Susan.
"Not a bit of it
" said Peter. "If there are streams they're bound to e down to the sea
and if we walk along the beach we're bound to e to them."
They all now waded back and went first across the smooth
wet sand and then up to the dry
crumbly sand that sticks to one's toes
and began putting on their shoes and socks. Edmund and Lucy wanted to leave them behind and do their exploring with bare feet
but Susan said this would be a mad thing to do. "We might never find them again
" she pointed out
"and we shall want them if we're still here when night es and it begins to be cold."
When they were dressed again they set out along the shore with the sea on their left hand and the wood on their right. Except for an occasional seagull it was a very quiet place. The wood was so thick and tangled that they could hardly see into it at all; and nothing in it moved - not a bird
not even an insect.
Shells and seaweed and anemones
or tiny crabs in rockpools
are all very well
but you soon get tired of them if you are thirsty. The children's feet
after the change from the cool water
felt hot and heavy. Susan and Lucy had raincoats to carry. Edmund had put down his coat on the station seat just before the magic overtook them
and he and Peter took it in turns to carry Peter's great-coat.
Presently the shore began to curve round to the right. About quarter of an hour later
after they had crossed a rocky ridge which ran out into a point
it made quite a sharp turn. Their backs were now to the part of the sea which had met them when they first came out of the wood
and now
looking ahead
they could see across the water another shore
thickly wooded like the one they were exploring.
"I wonder
is that an island or do we join on to it presently?" said Lucy.
"Don't know
" said Peter and they all plodded on in silence.
The shore that they were walking on drew nearer and nearer to the opposite shore
and as they came round each promontory the children expected to find the place where the o joined. But in this they were disappointed. They came to some rocks which they had to climb and from the top they could see a fairway ahead and - "Oh bother!" said Edmund
"it's no good. We shan't be able to get to those other woods at all. We're on an island!"
It was true. At this point the channel beeen them and the opposite coast was only about thirty or forty yards wide; but they could now see that this was its narrowest place. After that
their own coast bent round to the right again and they could see open sea beeen it and the mainland. It was obvious that they had already e much more than halfway round the island.
"Look!" said Lucy suddenly. "What's that?" She pointed to a long
silvery
snake-like thing that lay across the beach.
"A stream! A stream!" shouted the others
and
tired as they were
they lost no time in clattering down the rocks and racing to the fresh water. They knew that the stream would be better to drink farther up
away from the beach
so they went at once to the spot where it came out of the wood. The trees were as thick as ever
but the stream had made itself a deep course beeen high mossy banks so that by stooping you could follow it up in a sort of tunnel of leaves. They dropped on their knees by the first brown
dimply pool and drank and drank
and dipped their faces in the water
and then dipped their arms in up to the elbow.
"Now
" said Edmund
"what about those sandwiches?"
"Oh
hadn't we better have them?" said Susan. "We may need them far worse later on."
"I do wish
" said Lucy
"now that we're not thirsty
we could go on feeling as not-hungry as we did when we were thirsty."
"But what about those sandwiches?" repeated Edmund. "There's no good saving them till they go bad. You've got to remember it's a good deal hotter here than in England and we've been carrying them about in pockets for hours." So they got out the o packets and divided them into four portions
and nobody had quite enough
but it was a great deal better than nothing. Then they talked about their plans for the next meal. Lucy wanted to go back to the sea and catch shrimps
until someone pointed out that they had no s. Edmund said they must gather gulls' eggs from the rocks
but when they came to think of it they couldn't remember having seen any gulls' eggs and wouldn't be able to cook them if they found any. Peter thought to himself that unless they had some stroke of luck they would soon be glad to eat eggs raw
but he didn't see any point in saying this out loud. Susan said it was a pity they had eaten the sandwiches so soon. One or o tempers very nearly got lost at this stage. Finally Edmund said:
"Look here. There's only one thing to be done. We must explore the wood. Hermits and knights-errant and people like that always manage to live somehow if they're in a forest. They find roots and berries and things."
"What sort of roots?" asked Susan.
"I always thought it meant roots of trees
" said Lucy.
"Come on
" said Peter
"Ed is right. And we must try to do something. And it'll be better than going out into the glare and the sun again."
So they all got up and began to follow the stream. It was very hard work. They had to stoop under branches and climb over branches
and they blundered through great masses of stuff like rhododendrons and tore their clothes and got their feet wet in the stream; and still there was no noise at all except the noise of the stream and the noises they were making themselves. They were beginning to get very tired of it when they noticed a delicious smell
and then a flash of bright colour high above them at the top of the right bank.
"I say!" exclaimed Lucy. "I do believe that's an apple tree."
It was. They panted up the steep bank
forced their way through some brambles
and found themselves standing round an old tree that was heavy with large yellowishgolden apples as firm and juicy as you could wish to see.
"And this is not the only tree
" said Edmund with his mouth full of apple. "Look there-and there."
"Why
there are dozens of them
" said Susan
throwing away the core of her first apple and picking her second. "This must have been an orchard - long
long ago
before the place went wild and the wood grew up."
"Then this was once an inhabited island
" said Peter.
"And what's that?" said Lucy
pointing ahead.
"By Jove
it's a wall
" said Peter. "An old stone wall."
Pressing their way beeen the laden branches they reached the wall. It was very old
and broken down in places
with moss and wallflowers growing on it
but it was higher than all but the tallest trees. And when they came quite close to it they found a great arch which must once have had a gate in it but was now almost filled up with the largest of all the apple trees. They had to break some of the branches to get past
and when they had done so they all blinked because the daylight became suddenly much brighter. They found themselves in a wide open place with walls all round it. In here there were no trees
only level grass and daisies
and ivy
and grey walls. It was a bright
secret
quiet place
and rather sad; and all four stepped out into the middle of it
glad to be able to straighten their backs and move their limbs freely.