CHAPTER THIRTEEN HOW THE DWARFS REFUSED TO BE TAKEN IN(第4/4页)

Aslan raised his head and shook his mane. Instantly a glorious feast appeared on the Dwarfs’ knees:pies and tongues and pigeons and trifles and ices,and each Dwarf had a goblet of good wine in his right hand. But it wasn’t much use. They began eating and drinking greedily enough,but it was clear that they couldn’t taste it properly. They thought they were eating and drinking only the sort of things you might find in a stable. One said he was trying to eat hay and another said he had got a bit of an old turnip and a third said he’d found a raw cabbage leaf. And they raised golden goblets of rich red wine to their lips and said“Ugh! Fancy drinking dirty water out of a trough that a donkey’s been at! Never thought we’d come to this.”But very soon every Dwarf began suspecting that every other Dwarf had found something nicer than he had,and they started grabbing and snatching,and went on to quarrelling, till in a few minutes there was a free fight and all the good food was smeared on their faces and clothes or trodden under foot. But when at last they sat down to nurse their black eyes and their bleeding noses,they all said:

“Well,at any rate there’s no Humbug here. We haven’t let anyone take us in. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs.”

“You see,”said Aslan.“They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds,yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out. But come,children. I have other work to do.”

He went to the Door and they all followed him. He raised his head and roared,“Now it is time!”then louder,“Time!”; then so loud that it could have shaken the stars,“TIME.”The Door flew open.