"Narnia? Whats that?" said Lucy.
"Good evening, good evening," said the Faun. "Excuse me - I dont want to be inquisitive - but should I be right in thinking that you are a Daughter of Eve?”
"My names Lucy," said she, not quite understanding him.
And so Lucy found herself walking through the wood arm in arm with this strange creature as if they had known one another all their lives.
"Its no good now, you know," said the Faun, laying down its flute and shaking its head at her very sorrowfully.
"But what have you done?" asked Lucy.
"And may I ask, O Lucy Daughter of Eve," said Mr Tumnus, "how you have come into Narnia?”
"But they arent countries at all," said Lucy, almost laughing. "Its only just back there - at least - Im not sure. It is summer there.”
"And if I dont," said he, beginning to cry again "shes sure to find out. And shell have my tail cut off and my horns sawn off, and my beard plucked out, and shell wave her wand over my beautiful clove hoofs and turn them into horrid solid hoofs like wretched horses. And if she is extra and specially angry shell turn me into stone and I shall be only statue of a Faun in her horrible house until the four thrones at Cair Paravel are filled and goodness knows when that will happen, or whether it will ever happen at all.”
"Well," said Lucy rather slowly (for she wanted to be truthful and yet not be too hard on him), "well, that was pretty bad. But youre so sorry for it that Im sure you will never do it again.”
"I - I got in through the wardrobe in the spare room," said Lucy.
"This is the land of Narnia," said the Faun, "where we are now; all that lies between the lamp-post and the great castle of Cair Paravel on the eastern sea. And you - you have come from the wild woods of the west?”
Im doing it now, this very moment.”
"Im sure I can," said Lucy.
"Do you know your way from here, Daughter o Eve?" said Tumnus.
They had not gone far before they came to a place where the ground became rough and there were rocks all about and little hills up and little hills down. At the bottom of one small valley Mr Tumnus turned suddenly aside as if he were going to walk straight into an unusually large rock, but at the last moment Lucy found he was leading her into the entrance of a cave. As soon as they were inside she found herself blinking in the light of a wood fire. Then Mr Tumnus stooped and took a flaming piece of wood out of the fire with a neat little pair of tongs, and lit a lamp. "Now we shant be long," he said, and immediately put a kettle on.
"Im very sorry, Mr Tumnus," said Lucy. "But please let me go home.”
"You are the child," said Tumnus. "I had orders from the White Witch that if ever I saw a Son of Adam or a Daughter of Eve in the wood, I was to catch them and hand them over to her. And you are the first Ive ever met. And Ive pretended to be your friend an asked you to tea, and all the time Ive been meaning to wait till you were asleep and then go and tell Her.”
"Thats the worst of it," said Mr Tumnus with a deep groan. "Im a kidnapper for her, thats what I am. Look at me, Daughter of Eve. Would you believe that Im the sort of Faun to meet a poor innocent child in the wood, one that had never done me any harm, and pretend to be friendly with it, and invite it home to my cave, all for the sake of lulling it asleep and then handing it over to the White Witch?”
They both got up and left the tea things on the table, and Mr Tumnus once more put up his umbrella and gave Lucy his arm, and they went out into the snow. The journey back was not at all like the journey to the Fauns cave; they stole along as quickly as they could, without speaking a word, and Mr Tumnus kept to the darkest places. Lucy was relieved when they reached the lamp-post again.
"Delighted, delighted," it went on. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tumnus.”
"Rather!" said Lucy, and then ran towards the far off patch of daylight as quickly as her legs would carry her. And presently instead of rough branch brushing past her she felt coats, and instead of crunching snow under her feet she felt wooden board and all at once she found herself jumping out of the wardrobe into thesame empty room from which the
"No," said Lucy. "Im sure you wouldnt do anything of the sort.”
"But you are - forgive me - you are what they call a girl?" said the Faun.
"Of course I will," said the Faun. "Of course Ive got to. I see that now. I hadnt known what Humans were like before I met you. Of course I cant give you up to the Witch; not now that I know you. But we must be off at once. Ill see you back to the lamp-post. I suppose you can find your own way from there back to Spare Oom and War Drobe?”
"Mr Tumnus!" bawled Lucy in his ear, shaking him. "Do stop. Stop it at once! You ought to be ashamed of yourself, a great big Faun like you. What on earth are you crying about?”
"Im here," she shouted. "Im here. Ive come back Im all right.”
"Then be off home as quick as you can," said the Faun, "and - c-can you ever forgive me for what meant to do?”
"Oh - oh - you wouldnt say that if you knew," replied Mr Tumnus between his sobs. "No, Im a bad Faun. I dont suppose there ever was a worse Faun since the beginning of the world.”
"Oh, but you wont, Mr Tumnus," said Lucy. "Yo wont, will you? Indeed, indeed you really mustnt.”
"Like what Ive done," said the Faun. "Taken service under the White Witch. Thats what I am. Im in the pay of the White Witch.”
"No good?" said Lucy, jumping up and feeling rather frightened. "What do you mean?
"To be sure, to be sure," said the Faun. "How stupid of me! But Ive never seen a Son of Adam or a Daughter of Eve before. I am delighted. That is to say -" and then it stopped as if it had been going to say something it had not intended but had remembered in time.
"But I have," said the Faun.
"Daughter of Eve, dont you understand?" said the Faun. "It isnt something I have done.
"Of course Im human," said Lucy, still a little puzzled.
"Well, its very kind of you," said Lucy. "But I shant be able to stay long.”
"Of course Im a girl," said Lucy.
"The White Witch? Who is she?”
Lucy thought she had never been in a nicer place. It was a little, dry, clean cave of reddish stone with a carpet on the floor and two little chairs ("one for me and one for a friend," said Mr Tumnus) and a table and a dresser and a mantelpiece over the fire and above that a picture of an old Faun with a grey beard. In one corner there was a door which Lucy thought must lead to Mr Tumnuss bedroom, and on one wall was a shelf full of books. Lucy looked at these while he was setting out the tea things. They had titles like The Life and Letters of Silenus or Nymphs and Their Ways or Men, Monks and Gamekeepers; a Study in Popular Legend or Is Man a Myth?
"A thing like what?" said Lucy.
"Thank you very much, Mr Tumnus," said Lucy. "But I was wondering whether I ought to be getting back.”
"Mr Tumnus! Mr Tumnus!" said Lucy in great distress. "Dont! Dont! What is the matter? Aren you well? Dear Mr Tumnus, do tell me what is wrong." But the Faun continued sobbing as if its heart would break. And even when Lucy went over and put her arms round him and lent him her hand kerchief, he did not stop. He merely took the handker chief and kept on using it, wringing it out with both hands whenever it got too wet to be any more use, so that presently Lucy was standing in a damp patch.
"I dont think youre a bad Faun at all," said Lucy. "I think you are a very good Faun. You are the nicest Faun Ive ever met.”
"What do you mean?" cried Lucy, turning very white.
"Why, of course I can," said Lucy, shaking him heartily by the hand. "And I do hope you wont get into dreadful trouble on my account.”
"I am very pleased to meet you, Mr Tumnus," said Lucy.
"Why, it is she that has got all Narnia under her thumb. Its she that makes it always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!”
"Its only just round the corner," said the Faun, "and therell be a roaring fire - and toast - and sardines - and cake.”
"If you will take my arm, Daughter of Eve," said Mr Tumnus, "I shall be able to hold the umbrella over both of us. Thats the way. Now - off we go.”
"Meanwhile," said Mr Tumnus, "it is winter in Narnia, and has been for ever so long, and we shall both catch cold if we stand here talking in the snow. Daughter of Eve from the far land of Spare Oom where eternal summer reigns around the bright city of War Drobe, how would it be if you came and had tea with me?”
whole adventure had started. She shut the wardrobe door tightly behind her and looked around, panting for breath. It was still raining and she could hear the voices of the others in the passage.
Ive got to go home at once. The others will be wondering what has happened to me." But a moment later she asked, "Mr Tumnus! Whatever is the matter?" for the Fauns brown eyes had filled with tears and then the tears began trickling down its cheeks, and soon they were running off the end of its nose; and at last it covered its face with its hands and began to howl.
And really it was a wonderful tea. There was a nice brown egg, lightly boiled, for each of them, and then sardines on toast, and then buttered toast, and then toast with honey, and then a sugar-topped cake. And when Lucy was tired of eating the Faun began to talk. He had wonderful tales to tell of life in the forest. He told about the midnight dances and how the Nymphs who lived in the wells and the Dryads who lived in the trees came out to dance with the Fauns; about long hunting parties after the milk-white stag who could give you wishes if you caught him; about feasting and treasure-seeking with the wild Red Dwarfs in deep mines and caverns far beneath the forest floor; and then about summer when the woods were green and old Silenus on his fat donkey would come to visit them, and sometimes Bacchus himself, and then the streams would run with wine instead of water and the whole forest would give itself up to jollification for weeks on end. "Not that it isnt always winter now," he added gloomily. Then to cheer himself up he took out from its case on the dresser a strange little flute that looked as if it were made of straw and began to play. And the tune he played made Lucy want to cry and laugh and dance and go to sleep all at the same time. It must have been hours later when she shook herself and said: "Oh, Mr Tumnus - Im so sorry to stop you, and I do love that tune - but really, I must go home. I only meant to stay for a few minutes.”
"How awful!" said Lucy. "But what does she pay you for?”
"Farewell, Daughter of Eve," said he. "Perhaps I may keep the handkerchief?”
"My old father, now," said Mr Tumnus; "thats his picture over the mantelpiece. He would never have done a thing like this.”
"You are in fact Human?”
"We must go as quietly as we can," said Mr Tumnus. "The whole wood is full of her spies. Even some of the trees are on her side.”
"Oh - oh - oh!" sobbed Mr Tumnus, "Im crying because Im such a bad Faun.”
Lucy looked very hard between the trees and could just see in the distance a patch of light that looked like daylight. "Yes," she said, "I can see the wardrobe door.”
WHAT LUCY FOUND THERE "GOOD EVENING," said Lucy. But the Faun was so busy picking up its parcels that at first it did not reply. When it had finished it made her a little bow.
"Now, Daughter of Eve!" said the Faun.
"Ah!" said Mr Tumnus in a rather melancholy voice, "if only I had worked harder at geography when I was a little Faun, I should no doubt know all about those strange countries. It is too late now.”
