Chapter 8 Chapter 7 A Day at the Beaver's House

Just as the two boys were talking in a low voice behind, the two girls suddenly stopped with an "ah". "The robin," cried Sue, "the robin has flown away!" and it did fly away, and was never to be seen. "What shall we do now?" said Edmund, looking at Peter implying, "How did I warn you? I was right!" "Hush, look!" said Susan. "What?" Peter asked. "There's something moving in the woods a little to the left." They desperately opened their eyes wide to search, and their eyes felt a little uncomfortable. After a while, Susan said, "Look, it's moving again."

"I saw it this time, too," said Peter. "It's still there, and now it's gone behind that big tree." "What's that?" asked Lucy, trying not to be afraid. "Who knows what it is?" said Peter. "It keeps avoiding us, for fear of being seen." "Let's go back," Susan said.At this moment, although no one said it aloud, everyone suddenly realized the difficulty that Edmund had just whispered to Peter, and they were lost. "What does it look like?" asked Lucy. "It is, it's an animal," said Susan.After a while, she called again: "Come and see, come! It's out again!"

This time they all saw clearly, a furry face covered with whiskers, looking at them from behind a tree.But this time it didn't withdraw immediately, but put its paw to its mouth, just like people put their fingers on their lips to signal others to be quiet.Then it disappeared again.The children all stood there holding their breath. After a while, the strange animal came out from behind the tree again.It looked around, as if afraid of being noticed, gave them a "shh", and beckoned them to go to the thick forest where it was, and then disappeared again. "I know what it is," said Peter. "It is a beaver, and I have seen its tail."

"He told us to go there," said Susan, "and told us to be quiet." "I know that," Peter said. "The question is whether we go or not? Lu, what do you think?" "I think the beaver is very honest," said Lucy. "Really, how do we know?" asked Edmund. "We've got to take a chance," said Susan. "I mean, it's no use standing here. I'm hungry." At this time, the beaver suddenly poked his head out from behind the tree and nodded sincerely to them. "Come on," said Peter, "let's try it. Let's all stick close together, and if the beaver is the enemy, we'll fight him."

So the children huddled close together, and walked towards the tree, till they came behind the tree to where the beaver had been standing, but from there the beaver went back again.It lowered its voice and said to them in a hoarse voice, "Inward, inward, come to me, there is danger outside." It led them into a very dark place.There were four trees close together, and the branches were connected to each other, so that the snow could not fall below, so that the brown earth and pine needles could be seen on the ground.It wasn't until they got here that Beaver started talking to them.

"Are you sons of Adam and daughters of Eve?" it asked. "Yes." Peter replied. "Hush," said Beaver, "don't make too much noise, we ain't safe enough even here." "Why, who are you afraid of?" said Peter, "there's no one here but us." "There are trees here," said the beaver. "They keep their ears up. Most of them are on our side, but some of them have betrayed us and gone to her side. Do you know who I'm talking about?" It nodded several times. "When it comes to both sides," said Edmund, "how do we know you're a friend and not an enemy?"

"Please don't be offended, Mr. Beaver," explained Peter. "You see, we don't know each other well." "Yes, yes," said the beaver, "I have a souvenir here." Then it took out a small white thing.The children all watched in amazement.Suddenly Lucy said: "Oh, here's my handkerchief. I gave it to poor Mr. Tumnus." "Yes," said Beaver, "my poor fellow, he got wind of it before he was arrested, and handed me this handkerchief, saying that if anything should happen to him, I must meet you at this place and bring you To..." At this point, Beaver's voice was too low to be heard.It nodded to the children very mysteriously, and gestured to them again, telling them to stand as close to it as possible, so that the children's faces touched its beard and felt itchy.It added in a low voice:

"It is said that Aslan is active and may have landed." Now, a very strange phenomenon happened.These kids, like you, have no idea who Alans is.But when Beaver mentioned Alans, each of them had a strange feeling.Perhaps sometimes you have encountered similar situations in your dreams.Often you hear a new thing during the day, and when it comes to your dreams, its significance is surprisingly great—either it leads to a terrible nightmare, or it is beautiful beyond words, making you unforgettable forever, and wishing to relive it again and again this sweet dream.This is the case now.Every child felt something throbbing inside him at the sound of Alans' name.Edmund felt a strange fear, Peter felt suddenly fearless, Susan felt a fragrant breath and a beautiful music rippling around her, and Lucy felt a special excitement and joy. , the same way you feel when you wake up one morning and think that the holidays or summer will start today.

"Talk about Mr. Tumnus," said Lucy. "Where is he?" "Hush," said Beaver, "this is not a place to talk, I must take you to a place where you can talk and eat." No one suspected Beaver now but Edmund, and everyone, including Edmund, was delighted to hear the word "eat."So they all hurried on after the new friend.The beaver moved with astonishing speed, and led them for more than an hour through the thickest part of the forest.Just when everyone was exhausted and hungry, the trees in front became thinner and the slope of the ground became steeper.After a few steps down, they were out of the woods.Overhead is a clear blue sky, the sun is still shining, looking around, the ice is clear and the scenery is picturesque.

They were standing on the edge of a steep and narrow valley. If it hadn't been frozen, the bottom of the valley would have been a raging river.Just below their feet, a dam cuts across the river.As soon as they saw a dam, they immediately thought that beavers were good at building dams, and they were almost sure that the dam under their feet was built by Mr. Beaver.They also noticed that it had a peculiarly modest expression on its face, the kind you often see a gardener or author himself when you visit one of their gardens or read a book they wrote. Same expression.Susan said: "How well this dam is built!" Mr. Beaver didn't say "Shut up" this time, but kept saying: "It's just a gadget! It's just a gadget! It's not all there yet." Done!" Of course, Beaver said this only out of usual politeness.

On the upstream side of the dam, there used to be a very deep pool, but now it is a flat dark green ice pool at first glance.The downstream side of the dam is much lower and more ice is formed, but it is not as smooth as the upstream. Just like this, it rushed down, splashing countless waves.One side of the dam, where the water had previously flooded and passed, was now a gleaming wall of ice, covered with what seemed to be many crystal white flowers, garlands, and corollas.In the middle of the dam, there was a very interesting hut, which looked like a huge beehive, and now smoke was coming out of a hole in the roof.So as soon as you see it, especially when your stomach is growling with hunger, you will immediately think that something is already cooking in the pot, and your stomach will be even more hungry. These were the main things the other three children saw, but Edmund noticed something else.Not far down this river, there is another small river, which flows out of another small valley and joins this big river.Edmund looked up into the valley, and saw two hills which he was almost sure were the same hills which the White Witch had pointed out to him that day when he parted from him at the lamp-post.Between those two hills, he thought, must be her palace, not more than a mile or so away from him.He thought of Turkish Delight, of being a king ("I wonder how Peter would like these things?" he asked himself), and a terrible idea came into his head. "We're going home soon," said Beaver, "and it looks like my wife is waiting for us. Well, I'll show the way, but please be careful that you don't slip." The crest of the dam is quite wide, and it is possible to walk on it, but after all, it is somewhat inconvenient for humans, because it is covered with ice and snow. In addition, looking down, although the ice-filled pool is flat, on the other side, There is still a big gap, and some people are afraid.Mr. Beaver led them in a single walk to the middle of the dam.Standing here they can see.There is a long way up that river and a long way down the river.Once they were in the middle of the dam, they were at the door of the hut. "Here we come, ma'am," said Mr. Beaver, "I have found them. They are the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve," and he let them all into the house. Lucy walked into the house, and immediately heard a "click" and "click" sound, and saw an old beaver mother with a kind face.She was sitting in a corner with a piece of thread in her mouth, busy stepping on the sewing machine, and the sound of "click" and "click" came from the sewing machine.As soon as the children entered the house, she immediately stopped what she was doing and stood up to greet them. "At last you are here!" she said, stretching out her old, wrinkled paws. "At last you are here! I never dreamed that I would see this day! Potatoes are boiling in pots, kettles are It rang, hey, Mr. Beaver, you'd better bring me some fresh fish!" "Okay, I'll go." Mr. Beaver said, picked up a bucket, and walked out of the house, Peter followed.They crossed the deep ice-filled pool, and came to a place where there was a small hole in the ice, which the beaver had made every day with his axe. Mr. Beaver sat quietly by the hole (he didn't seem to care about it being so cold), staring intently at the river in the hole. Suddenly, he stretched his paws into the water, saying that it was too late, then soon, it clicked The boy caught a beautiful trout.In this way, he caught many good fish in a row. While Beaver and Peter were out fishing, the two girls helped Mrs Beaver fill the kettle, set the table for dinner, cut the bread, heat the dishes, and scooped Mr Beaver a mug of beer from a bucket in the corner.Finally, they put the pan in which they fried the fish on the stove, poured in oil and heated it.Lucy thought that the Beavers' home was very small and comfortable, although it was nothing like Mr. Tumnus' cave.There are no books or paintings in the room, and the two holes in the wall are their beds, which look like the floor bunks on a ship against the wall.Under the roof hung hams and strings of onions, and against the walls were rubber boots, oilcloths, axes, shears, shovels, trowels, and other implements for carrying mortar, and fishing rods, nets, and creels.The cloth on the table was rough but clean. Just as the pan was hissing, Peter and Mr. Beaver came back with the fish, which Mr. Beaver had cut open and cleaned outside with his knife.You can imagine how good fresh-caught fish tastes when it's fried in a pan, and how the hungry children, howling with hunger, wished it was ready before Mrs. Beaver said, "We'll have dinner right away." Before, they were very hungry.Susan drained the potatoes and put them back to roast in the empty pan on the stove, and Lucy helped Mrs Beaver put the trout on a plate.In this way, in a few minutes, the stools were set up and ready for dinner (the Beaver house was all three-legged stools, except for a special rocking chair by the stove for Mrs. Beaver to sit in).There was a pitcher of milk for the children (Mr. Beaver only drank beer), and in the middle of the table was a large dollop of dark yellow cream, which each man helped himself to while eating potatoes.The kids think—and I agree with them—that there is nothing like fish when you eat fish that was alive half an hour ago and came out of the pan half a minute ago.When the fish was finished, Mrs. Beaver surprised everyone by bringing out steaming sticky jam rolls from the stove.Meanwhile, move the kettle to the stove.So after the kids had eaten their jam rolls, the tea was ready.The children drank their tea, moved their stools back again, leaned against the wall, and breathed a sigh of contented relief. "Now," said Mr. Beaver, pushing aside the empty beer mug, and holding the teacup in front of him, "will you wait for my pipe, will you? Needless to say, we can now get down to our business. It's raining again It’s snowing,” he continued, looking up out of the window, “this is even better, no one will come looking for us when it snows; besides, if someone wants to follow you, he won’t be able to find anything about you.” footprint." ①Trout: The back is light blue and slightly brown, the lower part of the lateral line is silvery white, and there are black spots all over the body.