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EDMUND AND THE WARDROBE:
Lucy ran out of the empty room into the passage and found the other three.
"It's all right," she repeated, "I've comeback."
"What on earth are you talking about, Lucy?" asked Susan.
"Why? said Lucy in amazement, "haven't you all been wondering where I was?"
"So you've been hiding, have you?" said Peter. "Poor old Lu, hiding and nobody
noticed! You'll have to hide longer than that if you want people to start
looking for you."
"But I've been away for hours and hours," said Lucy.
The others all stared at one another.
"Batty!" said Edmund, tapping his head. "Quite batty."
"What do you mean, Lu?" asked Peter.
"What I said," answered Lucy. "It was just after breakfast when I went into the
wardrobe, and I've been away for hours and hours, and had tea, and all sorts of
things have happened."
"Don't be silly, Lucy," said Susan. "We've only just come out of that room a
moment ago, and you were there then."
"She's not being silly at all," said Peter, "she's just making up a story for
fun, aren't you, Lu? And why shouldn't she?"
"No, Peter, I'm not," she said. "It's - it's a magic wardrobe. There's a wood
inside it, and it's snowing, and there's a Faun and a Witch and it's called
Narnia; come and see."
The others did not know what to think, but Lucy was so excited that they all
went back with her into the room. She rushed ahead of them, flung open the door
of the wardrobe and cried, "Now! go in and see for yourselves."
"Why, you goose," said Susan, putting her head inside and pulling the fur coats
apart, "it's just an ordinary wardrobe; look! there's the back of it."
Then everyone looked in and pulled the coats apart; and they all saw - Lucy
herself saw - a perfectly ordinary wardrobe. There was no wood and no snow, only
the back of the wardrobe, with hooks on it. Peter went in and rapped his
knuckles on it to make sure that it was solid.
"A jolly good hoax, Lu," he said as he came out again; "you have really taken us
in, I must admit. We half believed you."
"But it wasn't a hoax at all," said Lucy, "really and truly. It was all
different a moment ago. Honestly it was. I promise."
"Come, Lu," said Peter, "that's going a bit far. You've had your joke. Hadn't
you better drop it now?"
Lucy grew very red in the face and tried to say something, though she hardly
knew what she was trying to say, and burst into tears.
For the next few days she was very miserable. She could have made it up with the
others quite easily at any moment if she could have brought herself to say that
the whole thing was only a story made up for fun. But Lucy was a very truthful
girl and she knew that she was really in the right; and she could not bring
herself to say this. The others who thought she was telling a lie, and a silly
lie too, made her very unhappy. The two elder ones did this without meaning to
do it, but Edmund could be spiteful, and on this occasion he was spiteful. He
sneered and jeered at Lucy and kept on asking her if she'd found any other new
countries in other cupboards all over the house. What made it worse was that
these days ought to have been delightful. The weather was fine and they were out
of doors from morning to night, bathing, fishing, climbing trees, and lying in
the heather. But Lucy could not properly enjoy any of it. And so things went on
until the next wet day.
That day, when it came to the afternoon and there was still no sign of a break
in the weather, they decided to play hide-and-seek. Susan was "It" and as soon
as the others scattered to hide, Lucy went to the room where the wardrobe was.
She did not mean to hide in the wardrobe, because she knew that would only set
the others talking again about the whole wretched business. But she did want to
have one more look inside it; for by this time she was beginning to wonder
herself whether Narnia and the Faun had not been a dream. The house was so large
and complicated and full of hiding-places that she thought she would have time
to have one look into the wardrobe and then hide somewhere else. But as soon as
she reached it she heard steps in the passage outside, and then there was
nothing for it but to jump into the wardrobe and hold the door closed behind
her. She did not shut it properly because she knew that it is very silly to shut
oneself into a wardrobe, even if it is not a magic one.
Now the steps she had heard were those of Edmund; and he came into the room just
in time to see Lucy vanishing into the wardrobe. He at once decided to get into
it himself - not because he thought it a particularly good place to hide but
because he wanted to go on teasing her about her imaginary country. He opened
the door. There were the coats hanging up as usual, and a smell of mothballs,
and darkness and silence, and no sign of Lucy. "She thinks I'm Susan come to
catch her," said Edmund to himself, "and so she's keeping very quiet in at the
back." He jumped in and shut the door, forgetting what a very foolish thing this
is to do. Then he began feeling about for Lucy in the dark. He had expected to
find her in a few seconds and was very surprised when he did not. He decided to
open the door again and let in some light. But he could not find the door
either. He didn't like this at all and began groping wildly in every direction;
he even shouted out, "Lucy! Lu! Where are you? I know you're here."
There was no answer and Edmund noticed that his own voice had a curious sound -
not the sound you expect in a cupboard, but a kind of open-air sound. He also
noticed that he was unexpectedly cold; and then he saw a light.
"Thank goodness," said Edmund, "the door must have swung open of its own
accord." He forgot all about Lucy and went towards the light, which he thought
was the open door of the wardrobe. But instead of finding himself stepping out
into the spare room he found himself stepping out from the shadow of some thick
dark fir trees into an open place in the middle of a wood.
There was crisp, dry snow under his feet and more snow lying on the branches of
the trees. Overhead there was pale blue sky, the sort of sky one sees on a fine
winter day in the morning. Straight ahead of him he saw between the tree-trunks
the sun, just rising, very red and clear. Everything was perfectly still, as if
he were the only living creature in that country. There was not even a robin or
a squirrel among the trees, and the wood stretched as far as he could see in
every direction. He shivered.
He now remembered that he had been looking for Lucy; and also how unpleasant he
had been to her about her "imaginary country" which now turned out not to have
been imaginary at all. He thought that she must be somewhere quite close and so
he shouted, "Lucy! Lucy! I'm here too-Edmund."
There was no answer.
"She's angry about all the things I've been saying lately," thought Edmund. And
though he did not like to admit that he had been wrong, he also did not much
like being alone in this strange, cold, quiet place; so he shouted again.
"I say, Lu! I'm sorry I didn't believe you. I see now you were right all along.
Do come out. Make it Pax."
Still there was no answer.
"Just like a girl," said Edmund to himself, "sulking somewhere, and won't accept
an apology." He looked round him again and decided he did not much like this
place, and had almost made up his mind to go home, when he heard, very far off
in the wood, a sound of bells. He listened and the sound came nearer and nearer
and at last there swept into sight a sledge drawn by two reindeer.
The reindeer were about the size of Shetland ponies and their hair was so white
that even the snow hardly looked white compared with them; their branching horns
were gilded and shone like something on fire when the sunrise caught them. Their
harness was of scarlet leather and covered with bells. On the sledge, driving
the reindeer, sat a fat dwarf who would have been about three feet high if he
had been standing. He was dressed in polar bear's fur and on his head he wore a
red hood with a long gold tassel hanging down from its point; his huge beard
covered his knees and served him instead of a rug. But behind him, on a much
higher seat in the middle of the sledge sat a very different person - a great
lady, taller than any woman that Edmund had ever seen. She also was covered in
white fur up to her throat and held a long straight golden wand in her right
hand and wore a golden crown on her head. Her face was white - not merely pale,
but white like snow or paper or icing-sugar, except for her very red mouth. It
was a beautiful face in other respects, but proud and cold and stern.
The sledge was a fine sight as it came sweeping towards Edmund with the bells
jingling and the dwarf cracking his whip and the snow flying up on each side of
it.
"Stop!" said the Lady, and the dwarf pulled the reindeer up so sharp that they
almost sat down. Then they recovered themselves and stood champing their bits
and blowing. In the frosty air the breath coming out of their nostrils looked
like smoke.
"And what, pray, are you?" said the Lady, looking hard at Edmund.
"I'm-I'm-my name's Edmund," said Edmund rather awkwardly. He did not like the
way she looked at him.
The Lady frowned, "Is that how you address a Queen?" she asked, looking sterner
than ever.
"I beg your pardon, your Majesty, I didn't know," said Edmund:
"Not know the Queen of Narnia?" cried she. "Ha! You shall know us better
hereafter. But I repeat-what are you?"
"Please, your Majesty," said Edmund, "I don't know what you mean. I'm at school
- at least I was it's the holidays now."
