"There are the trees," said the Beaver. "Theyre 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.
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.
"S-s-s-sh," said the Beaver, "not here. I must bring you where we can have a real talk and also dinner.”
"So youve 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 kettles singing and I daresay, Mr Beaver, youll get us some fish.”
"It wants us to go to it," said Susan, "and it is warning us not to make a noise.”
"Are you the Sons of Adam and the Daughters of Eve?" it said.
"Lets go home," said Susan. And then, though nobody said it out loud, everyone suddenly realized the same fact that Edmund had whispered to Peter at the end of the last chapter. They were lost.
"What?"said Peter.
"Sh! Look!" said Susan.
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," said Mr Beaver, "and it looks as if Mrs Beaver is expecting us. Ill lead the way. But be careful and dont slip.”
"What is it?" asked Lucy, trying very hard not to sound nervous.
"Were some of them," said Peter.
They all stared as hard as they could, and no one felt very comfortable.
"And now," said Mr Beaver, pushing away his empty beer mug and pulling his cup of tea towards him, "if youll just wait till Ive got my pipe lit up and going nicely - why, now we can get to business. Its snowing again," he added, cocking his eye at the window.
Theytherefore 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.
"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 didnt 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.
At this moment the Beaver again popped its head out from behind the tree and beckoned earnestly to them.
"Yes, but how do we know?" said Edmund.
A DAY WITH THE BEAVERS
"Shant we have to risk it?" said Susan. "I mean, its no good just standing here and I feel I want some dinner.”
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. Were not safe in the open!”
WHILE the two boys were whispering behind, both the girls suddenly cried "Oh!" and stopped.
"And what about Mr Tumnus," said Lucy; "where is he?”
"Not meaning to be rude, Mr Beaver," added Peter, "but you see, were strangers.”
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 Tumnuss 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.
"The robin!" cried Lucy, "the robin. Its flown away." And so it had - right out of 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 hadnt 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 theyve made or reading a story theyve written. So it was only common politeness when Susan said, "What a lovely dam!" And Mr Beaver didnt say "Hush" this time but "Merely a trifle!
"I know what it is," said Peter; "its a beaver. I saw the tail.”
And when they had finished the fish Mrs Beaver brought unexpectedly out of the oven a great and gloriously sticky marmalade roll, steaminghot, 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.
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.
The first thing Lucy noticed as she went in was a burring sound, and the first thing she saw was a kindlooking 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.
"There it goes again," said Susan presently.
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.
"Theres something moving among the trees over there to the left.”
Merely a trifle! And it isnt really finished!”
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 dont 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.
"I saw it that time too," said Peter. "Its still there. Its just gone behind that big tree.”
"I know," said Peter. "The question is, are we to go to it or not? What do you think, Lu?”
"Whatever it is," said Peter, "its dodging us. Its something that doesnt want to be seen.”
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.”
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
"Come on," said Peter,"lets 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.”
"S-s-s-sh!" said the Beaver, "not so loud please. Were not safe even here.”
"Whats it like?" said Lucy.
They all saw it this time, a whiskered furry face which had looked out at them from behind a tree. But this time it didnt 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.
No one except Edmund felt any difficulty about trusting the beaver now, and everyone, including Edmund, was very glad to hear the word "dinner".
"If it comes to talking about sides," said Edmund, "how do we know youre a friend?”
"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?”
"Thats 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 Beavers voice sank into silence and it gave
"Why, who are you afraid of?" said Peter. "Theres no one here but ourselves.”
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.
"Thats all the better, because it means we shant have any visitors; and if anyone should have been trying to follow you, why he wont find any tracks.”
"Here we are, Mrs Beaver," said Mr Beaver, "Ive found them. Here are the Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve- and they all went in.
"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. Its my handkerchief - the one I gave to poor Mr Tumnus.”
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 were 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 Beavers own special rockingchair 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 theres nothing to beatgood 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.
"Its - its a kind of animal," said Susan; and then, "Look! Look! Quick! There it is.”
"I think its a nice beaver," said Lucy.
