While the two boys were whispering behind, both the
girls suddenly cried "Oh!" and stopped.
"The robin!" cried Lucy, "the robin. It's flown away."
And so it had — right out of sight.
"And now what are we to do?" said Edmund, giving Peter a look
which was as much as to say "What did I tell you?"
"Sh! Look!" said Susan.
"What?" said Peter.
"There's something moving among the trees over there to the left."
They all stared as hard as they could, and no one felt very comfortable.
"There it goes again," said Susan presently.
"I saw it that time too," said Peter. "It's still there. It's just gone
behind that big tree."
"What is it?" asked Lucy, trying very hard not to sound nervous.
"Whatever it is," said Peter, "it's dodging us. It's something that
doesn't want to be seen."
"Let's go home," said Susan. And then, though nobody said it out
loud, everyone suddenly realised the same fact that Edmund had
whispered to Peter at the end of the last chapter. They were lost.
"What's it like?" said Lucy.
"It's — it's a kind of animal," said Susan; and then, "Look! Look!
Quick! There it is."
They all saw it this time, a whiskered furry face which had looked
out at them from behind a tree. But this time it didn't immediately
draw back. Instead, the animal put its paw against its mouth just as
humans put their finger on their lips when they are signalling to you to
be quiet. Then it disappeared again. The children, all stood holding
their breath.
A moment later the stranger came out from behind the tree, glanced
all round as if it were afraid someone was watching, said "Hush",
made signs to them to join it in the thicker bit of wood where it was
standing, and then once more disappeared.
"I know what it is," said Peter; "it's a beaver. I saw the tail."
"It wants us to go to it," said Susan, "and it is warning us not to
make a noise."
"I know," said Peter. "The question is, are we to go to it or not? What
do you think, Lu?"
"I think it's a nice beaver," said Lucy.
"Yes, but how do we know?" said Edmund.
"Shan't we have to risk it?" said Susan. "I mean, it's no good just
standing here and I feel I want some dinner."
At this moment the Beaver again popped its head out from behind
the tree and beckoned earnestly to them.
"Come on," said Peter,"let's give it a try. All keep close together. We
ought to be a match for one beaver if it turns out to be an enemy."
So the children all got close together and walked up to the tree and
in behind it, and there, sure enough, they found the Beaver; but it still
drew back, saying to them in a hoarse throaty whisper, "Further in,
come further in. Right in here. We're not safe in the open!"
Only when it had led them into a dark spot where four trees grew so
close together that their boughs met and the brown earth and pine
needles could be seen underfoot because no snow had been able to
fall there, did it begin to talk to them.
"Are you the Sons of Adam and the Daughters of Eve?" it said.
"We're some of them," said Peter.
"S-s-s-sh!" said the Beaver, "not so loud please. We're not safe even
here."
"Why, who are you afraid of?" said Peter. "There's no one here but
ourselves."
"There are the trees," said the Beaver. "They're always listening.
Most of them are on our side, but there are trees that would betray us
to her; you know who I mean," and it nodded its head several times.
"If it comes to talking about sides," said Edmund, "how do we know
you're a friend?"
"Not meaning to be rude, Mr Beaver," added Peter, "but you see,
we're strangers."
"Quite right, quite right," said the Beaver. "Here is my token." With
these words it held up to them a little white object. They all looked at
it in surprise, till suddenly Lucy said, "Oh, of course. It's my handkerchief — the one I gave to poor Mr Tumnus."
"That's right," said the Beaver. "Poor fellow, he got wind of the arrest
before it actually happened and handed this over to me. He said that
if anything happened to him I must meet you here and take you on to
-" Here the Beaver's voice sank into silence and it gave one or two
very mysterious nods. Then signalling to the children to stand as close
around it as they possibly could, so that their faces were actually
tickled by its whiskers, it added in a low whisper -
"They say Aslan is on the move — perhaps has already landed."
And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew
who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had
spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something
which you don't understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some
enormous meaning — either a terrifying one which turns the whole
dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into
words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all
your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again.
It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt
something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious
horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if
some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just
floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up
in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or
the beginning of summer.
"And what about Mr Tumnus," said Lucy; "where is he?"
"S-s-s-sh," said the Beaver, "not here. I must bring you where we
can have a real talk and also dinner."
No one except Edmund felt any difficulty about trusting the beaver
now, and everyone, including Edmund, was very glad to hear the word
"dinner".
They therefore all hurried along behind their new friend who led
them at a surprisingly quick pace, and always in the thickest parts of
the forest, for over an hour. Everyone was feeling very tired and very
hungry when suddenly the trees began to get thinner in front of them
and the ground to fall steeply downhill. A minute later they came out
under the open sky (the sun was still shining) and found themselves
looking down on a fine sight.
They were standing on the edge of a steep, narrow valley at the
bottom of which ran — at least it would have been running if it hadn't
been frozen — a fairly large river. Just below them a dam had been
built across this river, and when they saw it everyone suddenly
remembered that of course beavers are always making dams and felt
quite sure that Mr Beaver had made this one. They also noticed that
he now had a sort of modest expression on his, face — the sort of look
people have when you are visiting a garden they've made or reading
a story they've written. So it was only common politeness when Susan
said, "What a lovely dam!" And Mr Beaver didn't say "Hush" this time
but "Merely a trifle! Merely a trifle! And it isn't really finished!"
Above the dam there was what ought to have been a deep pool but
was now, of course, a level floor of dark green ice. And below the dam,
much lower down, was more ice, but instead of being smooth this was
all frozen into the foamy and wavy shapes in which the water had been
rushing along at the very moment when the frost came. And where the
water had been trickling over and spurting through the dam there was
now a glittering wall of icicles, as if the side of the dam had been
covered all over with flowers and wreaths and festoons of the purest
sugar. And out in the middle, and partly on top of the dam was a funny
little house shaped rather like an enormous beehive and from a hole
in the roof smoke was going up, so that when you saw it {especially if
you were hungry) you at once thought of cooking and became
hungrier than you were before.
That was what the others chiefly noticed, but Edmund noticed
something else. A little lower down the river there was another small
river which came down another small valley to join it. And looking up
that valley, Edmund could see two small hills, and he was almost sure
they were the two hills which the White Witch had pointed out to him
when he parted from her at the lamp-post that other day. And then
between them, he thought, must be her palace, only a mile off or less.
And he thought about Turkish Delight and about being a King ("And I
wonder how Peter will like that?" he asked himself) and horrible ideas
came into his head.
"Here we are," said Mr Beaver, "and it looks as if Mrs Beaver is
expecting us. I'll lead the way. But be careful and don't slip."
The top of the dam was wide enough to walk on, though not (for
humans) a very nice place to walk because it was covered with ice,
and though the frozen pool was level with it on one side, there was a
nasty drop to the lower river on the other. Along this route Mr Beaver
led them in single file right out to the middle where they could look a
long way up the river and a long way down it. And when they had
reached the middle they were at the door of the house.
"Here we are, Mrs Beaver," said Mr Beaver, "I've found them. Here
are the Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve'- and they all went in.
The first thing Lucy noticed as she went in was a burring sound, and
the first thing she saw was a kind-looking old she-beaver sitting in the
corner with a thread in her mouth working busily at her sewing
machine, and it was from it that the sound came. She stopped her
work and got up as soon as the children came in.
"So you've come at last!" she said, holding out both her wrinkled old
paws. "At last! To think that ever I should live to see this day! The
potatoes are on boiling and the kettle's singing and I daresay, Mr
Beaver, you'll get us some fish."
"That I will," said Mr Beaver, and he went out of the house (Peter
went with him), and across the ice of the deep pool to where he had
a little hole in the ice which he kept open every day with his hatchet.
They took a pail with them. Mr Beaver sat down quietly at the edge of
the hole (he didn't seem to mind it being so chilly), looked hard into
it, then suddenly shot in his paw, and before you could say Jack
Robinson had whisked out a beautiful trout. Then he did it all over
again until they had a fine catch of fish.
Meanwhile the girls were helping Mrs Beaver to fill the kettle and lay
the table and cut the bread and put the plates in the oven to heat and
draw a huge jug of beer for Mr Beaver from a barrel which stood in one
corner of the house, and to put on the frying-pan and get the dripping
hot. Lucy thought the Beavers had a very snug little home though it
was not at all like Mr Tumnus's cave. There were no books or pictures,
and instead of beds there were bunks, like on board ship, built into the
wall. And there were hams and strings of onions hanging from the
roof, and against the walls were gum boots and oilskins and hatchets
and pairs of shears and spades and trowels and things for carrying
mortar in and fishing-rods and fishing-nets and sacks. And the cloth
on the table, though very clean, was very rough.
Just as the frying-pan was nicely hissing Peter and Mr Beaver came
in with the fish which Mr Beaver had already opened with his knife and
cleaned out in the open air. You can think how good the new-caught
fish smelled while they were frying and how the hungry children
longed for them to be done and how very much hungrier still they had
become before Mr Beaver said, "Now we're nearly ready." Susan
drained the potatoes and then put them all back in the empty pot to
dry on the side of the range while Lucy was helping Mrs Beaver to dish
up the trout, so that in a very few minutes everyone was drawing up
their stools (it was all three-legged stools in the Beavers' house except
for Mrs Beaver's own special rocking-chair beside the fire) and
preparing to enjoy themselves. There was a jug of creamy milk for the
children (Mr Beaver stuck to beer) and a great big lump of deep
yellow butter in the middle of the table from which everyone took as
much as he wanted to go with his potatoes, and all the children
thought — and I agree with them — that there's nothing to beat good
freshwater fish if you eat it when it has been alive half an hour ago and
has come out of the pan half a minute ago. And when they had
finished the fish Mrs Beaver brought unexpectedly out of the oven a
great and gloriously sticky marmalade roll, steaming hot, and at the
same time moved the kettle on to the fire, so that when they had
finished the marmalade roll the tea was made and ready to be poured
out. And when each person had got his (or her) cup of tea, each
person shoved back his (or her) stool so as to be able to lean against
the wall and gave a long sigh of contentment.
"And now," said Mr Beaver, pushing away his empty beer mug and
pulling his cup of tea towards him, "if you'll just wait till I've got my
pipe lit up and going nicely — why, now we can get to business. It's
snowing again," he added, cocking his eye at the window. "That's all
the better, because it means we shan't have any visitors; and if anyone
should have been trying to follow you, why he won't find any tracks."