CHAPTER SEVEN THE HILL OF THE STRANGE TRENCHES（第4/4页）

“Not a man...Marsh-wiggle,”replied Puddleglum in a somewhat indistinct voice. “Not frog either：Marsh-wiggle.”

At that moment the door opened behind them and the younger giant came in saying，“They’re to go to the throne-room at once.”

The children stood up but Puddleglum remained sitting and said，“Marsh-wiggle. Marsh-wiggle. Very respectable Marsh-wiggle. Respectowiggle.”

“Show them the way，young’un,”said the giant Porter. “You’d better carry Froggy. He’s had a drop more than’s good for him.”

“Nothing wrong with me,”said Puddleglum. “Not a frog. Nothing frog with me. I’m a respectabiggle.”

But the young giant caught him up by the waist and signed to the children to follow. In this undignified way they crossed the courtyard. Puddleglum，held in the giant’s fist，and vaguely kicking the air，did certainly look very like a frog. But they had little time to notice this，for they soon entered the great doorway of the main castle-both their hearts beating faster than usual-and，after pattering along several corridors at a trot to keep up

with the giant’s paces，found themselves blinking in the light of an enormous room，where lamps glowed and a fire roared on the hearth and both were reflected from the gilding of roof and cornice. More giants than they could count stood on their left and right，all in magnificent robes；and on two thrones at the far end，sat two huge shapes that appeared to be the King and Queen.

About twenty feet from the thrones，they stopped. Scrubb and Jill made an awkward attempt at a bow（girls are not taught how to curtsey at Experiment House）and the young giant carefully put Puddleglum down on the floor，where he collapsed into a sort of sitting position. With his long limbs he looked，to tell the truth， uncommonly like a large spider.