The crowd and the dance round Aslan (for it had become a danceonce more) grew so thick and rapid that Lucy was confused. She never saw where certain other people came from who were soon capering about among the trees. One was a youth, dressed only in a fawn-skin, with vine-leaves wreathed in his curly hair. His face would have been almost too pretty for a boy‘s, if it had not looked, so extremely wild. You felt, as Edmund said when he saw him a few days later, “There’s a chap who might do anything-absolutely anything.” He seemed to have a great many names-Bromios, Bassareus, and the Ram were three of them. There were a lot of girls with him, as wild as he. There was even, unexpectedly, someone on a donkey. And everybody was laughing: and everybody was shouting out, “Euan, euan, eu-oi-oi-oi.”
“Is it a Romp, Aslan?” cried the youth. And apparently it was. But nearly everyone seemed to have a different idea as to what they were playing. It may have been Tig, but Lucy never discovered who was It. It was rather like Blind Man‘s Buff, only everyone behaved as if they were blindfolded. It was not unlike Hunt the Slipper, but the slipper was never found. What made it more complicated was that the man on the donkey, who was old and enormously fat, began calling out at once, “Refreshments! Time for refreshments,” and falling off his donkey and being bundled on to it again by the others, while the donkey was under the impression that the whole thing was a circus and tried to give a display of walking on its hind legs. And all the time there were more and more vine leaves everywhere. And soon not only leaves but vines. They were climbing up everything. They were running up the legs of the tree people and circling round their necks. Lucy put up her hands to push back her hair and found she was pushing back vine branches. The donkey was a mass of them. His tail was completely entangled and something dark was nodding between his ears. Lucy looked again and saw it was a bunch of grapes. After that it was mostly grapes-overhead and underfoot and all around.
“Refreshments! Refreshments,” roared the old man. Everyone began eating, and whatever hothouses your people may have, you have never tasted such grapes. Really good grapes, firm and tight on the outside, but bursting into cool sweetness when you put them into your mouth, were one of the things the girls had never had quite enough of before. Here, there were more than anyone could possibly want, and rib table- manners at all. One saw sticky and stained fingers everywhere, and, though mouths were full, the laughter never ceased nor the yodellingcries of Euan, euan, eu-oi-oi-oi-oi, till all of a sudden everyone felt at the same moment that the game (whatever it was), and the feast, ought to be over, and everyone flopped down breathless on the ground and turned their faces to Aslan to hear what he would say next.
At that moment the sun was just rising and Lucy remembered something and whispered to Susan,“I say, Su, I know who they are.” “Who?”
“The boy with the wild face is Bacchus and the old one on the donkey is Silenus. Don’t you remember Mr Tumnus telling us about them long ago?”
“Yes, of course. But I say, Lu-” “What?”
“I wouldn‘t have felt safe with Bacchus and all his wild girls if we’d met them without Aslan.”
“I should think not,” said Lucy.
中文阅读
等所有的人都醒了,露西不得不第四次复述她的故事。大家听后都沉默不语,这使露西感到万分沮丧。
“我啥都看不见,”彼得说道。他看了半天,把眼睛都累痛了,“你呢,苏珊?”
“没有,当然我也看不见,”苏珊没好气地说,“因为没有什么要看的。她一直都在做梦。躺下好好睡一觉,露西。”
“我真希望,”露西颤抖着声音说道,“你们都能跟我来。因为--因为不管别人怎么样,我必须要跟他走。”
“别胡说了,露西,”苏珊道,“当然你不能擅自走开。不要让她走,彼得。她一直都很淘气。”
“如果她坚决要去,我愿意和她一道走,”埃德蒙说,“她以前的话都是真的。”
“我知道,她以前说的都是实话,”彼得说,“今天早上没准儿她也是对的。我们下到谷底的确很不走运。只是--在深夜这个时候。为什么我们看不见阿斯兰呢?他以前可不是这样。这不像是他的做法。DLF有什么说的?”“哦,我没有什么好说的,”矮人说道,“如果大家都去,当然,我也跟你们一起走。如果你们兵分两路,我将跟着大帝走。这是出于我对他和卡斯宾王的责任。但是,你若问我个人的看法,我是个普通的矮人,我认为,既然在白天都找不到路,在夜晚希望就更加渺茫了。我不需要懂魔法的狮子,他们能够说话却不吭声。还有所谓的友好的狮子,却对我们没有什么好处。再不然就是征服一切的大狮子,却没有人能够看见他们。在我看来,这都是些蠢话。”
“他正在用爪子拍打地面,催促我们快一点,”露西说,“现在我们必须动身了。至少我一定要走。”
“你没有权力像那样来强迫我们。现在是四比一,而且你的年龄最小。”苏珊说。
“哦,好吧,”埃德蒙怒喝道,“我们要走就走。否则大家决不会安生的。”他一心想要支持露西,可是由于没睡好觉,心里非常烦燥,说起话来也是火药味儿十足。
“那么,出发吧。”彼得说着,懒洋洋地将手臂伸进盾牌的皮带里,戴上头盔。换个时候,他也许会对露西说几句宽慰的话,毕竟她是自己最心爱的妹妹。他知道,露西的心里一定很不好受。他还知道,无论刚才发生过什么事儿,都不是她的过错。可他还是不由自主地对她感到气恼。
苏珊的表现最差劲。“假如我像露西那样胡搅蛮缠,”她说,“不管你们走还是不走,我都闹着要留下的话,我真想要这样做。”
“女王陛下,请服从大帝的命令,”特伦普金说,“让我们启程吧。如果不能睡觉,我情愿走路,也不愿站在这里说话。”
就这样他们终于上路了。露西走在前面,咬着嘴唇,努力克制着自己不去对苏珊反唇相讥。每当她定睛在阿斯兰身上,她就忘记了这些不快。狮子转过身来,在他们前面大约三十米的地方慢慢走着。别的人只能靠露西来为他们带路。对于他们,阿斯兰不仅是隐形的,而且沉默不语。他那像猫爪一样的巨爪悄无声息地行走在草地上。
他带领众人走到舞蹈树林的右边--没有人知道,树木是否还在跳舞,因为露西的两眼紧紧地盯着狮子,其他人的眼睛则聚焦在露西身上--逐渐接近峡谷的边缘。“鹅卵石和定音鼓!”特伦普金心里直打鼓,“但愿他们不至于疯狂到在月光下攀岩,最后摔断脖子。”