CHAPTER EIGHT
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THE HOUSE OF HARFANG "Go on, Pole, do your stuff," whispered Scrubb.Jill found that her mouth was so dry that she couldnt speak a word. She nodded savagely at Scrubb.
Thinking to himself that he would never five her (or Puddleglum either), Scrubb licked his lips and shouted up to the King giant.
"If you please, Sire, the Lady of the Green Kirtle salutes you by us and said youd like to have us for your Autum.”
The giant King and Queen looked at each other, o each other, and smiled in a way that Jill didly like. She liked the Kier than the Queen. He had a fine, curled beard and a straight eagle-like nose, and was really rather good- looking as giants go. The Queen was dreadfully fat and had a double and a fat, powdered face - which isnt a very hing at the best of times, and of course looks much worse when it is ten times too big. Then the King put out his tongue and licked his lips. Anyone might do that:
but his tongue was so very large and red, and came out so uedly, that it gave Jill quite a shock.
"Oh, what good children!" said the Queen. ("Perhaps shes the nie after all," thought Jill.)
"Yes indeed," said the King. "Quite excellent children. We wele you to our court.
Give me your hands.”
He stretched down his great right hand - very and with any number s on the fingers, but also with terrible pointed nails. He was much too big to shake the hands which the children, in turn, held up to him; but he shook the arms.
"And whats that?" asked the King, pointing to Puddleglum.
"Reshpeckobiggle," said Puddleglum.
"Oh!" screamed the Queen, gathering her skirts close about her ankles. "The horrid thing!
Its alive.”
"Hes quite all right, your Majesty, really, he is," said Scrubb hastily. "Youll like him much better when you get to know him. Im sure you will.”
I hope you wont lose all i in Jill for the rest of the book if I tell you that at this moment she began to cry. There was a good deal of excuse for her. Her feet and hands and ears and nose were still only just beginning to thaw; melted snow was trig off her clothes; she had had hardly anything to eat or drink that day; and her legs were ag so that she felt she could not go on standing much longer. Anyway, it did mood at the moment than anything else would have done, for the Queen said: "Ah, the poor child! My lord, we d to keep uests standing. Quick, some of you! Take them away. Give them food and wine and baths. fort the little girl. Give her lollipops, give her dolls, give her physics, give her all you think of - possets and fits and caraways and lullabies and toys. Dont cry, little girl, or you wont be good for anything when the feast es.”
Jill was just as indignant as you and I would have been at the mention of toys and dolls; and, though lollipops and fits might be all very well in their way, she very much hoped that something more solid would be provided. The Queens foolish speech, however, produced excelles, for Puddleglum and Scrubb were at once picked up by gigantitlemen-in-waiting, and Jill by a gigantic maid of honour, and carried off to their rooms.
Jills room was about the size of a church, and would have been rather grim if it had not had a r fire on the hearth and a very thick crimson carpet on the floor. And here delightful things began to happen to her. She was handed over to the Queens old Nurse,
who was, from the giants point of view, a little old woman almost bent double with age, and, from the human point of view, a giantess small enough to go about an ordinary room without knog her head on the ceiling. She was very capable, though Jill did wish she wouldnt keep on clig her tongue and saying things like "Oh la, la! Ups-adaisy" and "Theres a duck" and "Now well be all right, my poppet". She filled a giant foot-bath with hot water and helped Jill into it. If you swim (as Jill could) a giant bath is a lovely thing. And giant towels, though a bit rough and coarse, are lovely too, because there are acres of them. In fact you doo dry at all, you just roll about on them in front of the fire and enjoy yourself. And when that was over, , fresh, warmed clothes were put on Jill: very splendid clothes and a little too big for her, but clearly made for humans not giantesses. "I suppose if that woman in the green kirtle es here, they must be used to guests of our size," thought Jill.
She soon saw that she was right about this, for a table and chair of the right height for an ordinary grown-up human were placed for her, and the knives and forks and spoohe proper size too. It was delightful to sit down, feeling warm and at last. Her feet were still bare and it was lovely to tread on the giant carpet. She sank in it well over her ankles and it was just the thing for sore feet. The meal - which I suppose we must call dihough it was ea time - was cock-a-leekie soup, and hot roast turkey, and a steamed pudding, and roast chestnuts, and as much fruit as you could eat.
The only annoying thing was that the Nurse kept ing in and out, and every time she came in, she brought a gigantic toy with her - a huge doll, bigger than Jill herself, a wooden horse on wheels, about the size of an elephant, a drum that looked like a young gasometer, and a woolly lamb. They were crude, badly made things, painted in very bright colours, and Jill hated the sight of them. She kept on telling the Nurse she didnt want them, but the Nurse said: "Tut-tut-tut-tut. Youll want em all right when youve had a bit of a rest, I know! Te-he-he! Beddy bye, norecious poppet!”
The bed was not a giant bed but only a big four-poster, like what you might see in an old-fashioned hotel; and very small it looked in that enormous room. She was very glad to tumble into it.
"Is it still snowing, Nurse?" she asked sleepily.
"No. Raining now, ducky!" said the giantess. "Rainll wash away all the nasty snow.
Precious poppet will be able to go out and play tomorrow!" And she tucked Jill up and said good night.
I know nothing so disagreeable as being kissed by a giantess. Jill thought the same, but was asleep in five minutes.
The rain fell steadily all the evening and all the night, dashing against the windows of the castle, and Jill never heard it but slept deeply, past supper time and past midnight. And
then came the deadest hour of the night and nothing stirred but mi the house of the giants. At that hour there came to Jill a dream. It seemed to her that she awoke in the same room and saw the fire, sunk low and red, and in the firelight the great wooden horse. And the horse came of its own will, rolling on its wheels across the carpet, and stood at her head. And now it was no longer a horse, but a lion as big as the horse. And then it was not a toy lion, but a real lion, The Real Lion, just as she had seen him on the mountain beyond the worlds end. And a smell of all sweet-smelling things there are filled the room. But there was some trouble in Jills mind, though she could not think what it was, and the tears streamed down her fad wet the pillow. The Lion told her to repeat the signs, and she found that she had fotten them all. At that, a great horror came over her. And Aslan took her up in his jaws (she could fe<cite>９９ｌｉｂ?</cite>el his lips and his breath but not his teeth) and carried her to the window and made her look out. The moon shone bright; and written i letters across the world or the sky (she did not know which)
were the words UNDER ME. After that, the dream faded away, and when she woke, very late m, she did not remember that she had dreamed at all.
She and dressed and had finished breakfast in front of the fire when the Nurse opehe door and said: "Heres pretty poppets little friends e to play with her.”
In came Scrubb and the Marsh-wiggle.
"Hullo! Good m," said Jill. "Isnt this fun? Ive slept about fifteen hours, I believe. I do feel better, dont you?”
"1 do," said Scrubb, "but Puddleglum says he has a headache. Hullo! - your window has a window seat. If we got up on that, we could see out." And at ohey all did so: and at the first glance Jill said, "Oh, how perfectly dreadful!”
The sun was shining and, except for a few drifts, the snow had been almost pletely washed away by the rain. Down below them, spread out like a map, lay the flat hill-top which they had struggled over yesterday afternoon; seen from the castle, it could not be mistaken for anything but the ruins of a gigantic city. It had been flat, as Jill now saw, because it was still, on the whole, paved, though in places the pavement was broken. The criss-cross banks were what was left of the walls of huge buildings which might once have been giants palaces and temples. O of wall, about five hundred feet high, was still standing; it was that which she had thought was a cliff. The things that had looked like factory eys were enormous pillars, broken off at unequal heights; their fragments lay at their bases like felled trees of monstrous stohe ledges which they had climbed down on the north side of the hill - and also, no doubt the other ledges which they had climbed up on the south side - were the remaining steps of giant stairs. To all, in large, dark lettering across the tre of the pavement, ran the words UNDER ME.
The three travellers looked at each other in dismay, and, after a short whistle, Scrubb said what they were all thinking, "The sed and third signs muffed." And at that moment Jills dream rushed bato her mind.
"Its my fault," she said in despairing tones. "I - Id given up repeating the signs every night. If Id been thinking about them I could have seen it was the city, even in all that snow.”
"Im worse," said Puddleglum. "I did see, or nearly. I thought it looked unonly like a ruined city.”
"Youre the only one who isnt to blame," said Scrubb. "You did try to make us stop.”
"Didnt try hard enough, though," said the Marshwiggle. "And Id no call to be trying. I ought to have do. As if I couldnt have stopped you two with one hand each!”
"The truth is," said Scrubb, "we were so jolly keen oing to this place that we werent b about anything else. At least I know I was. Ever since we met that woman with the knight who didnt talk, weve been thinking of nothing else. Wed nearly fotten about Prince Rilian.”
"I shouldnt wonder," said Puddleglum, "if that wasly what she intended.”
"What I dont quite uand," said Jill, "is how we didhe lettering? Or could it have e there since last night. Could he - Aslan - have put it there in the night? I had such a queer dream." And she told them all about it.
"Why, you chump!" said Scrubb. "We did see it. We got into the lettering. Dont you see?
We got into the letter E ihat was your sunk lane. We walked along the bottom stroke of the E, due north - turht along the upright - came to aurn to the right - thats the middle stroke - and the on to the top left- hand er, or (if you like) the north-eastern er of the letter, and came back. Like the bally idiots we are." He kicked the window seat savagely, a on, "So its no good, Pole. I know what you were thinking because I was thinking the same. You were thinking how would have been if Aslan hadnt put the instrus oones of the ruined city till after wed passed it. And then it would have been his fault, not ours. So likely, isnt it?
No. We must just own up. Weve only fns to go by, and weve muffed the first three.”
"You mean I have," said Jill. "Its quite true. Ive spoiled everything ever since yht me here. All the same - Im frightfully sorry and all that - all the same, what are the instrus? UNDER ME doeso make much sense.”
"Yes it does, though," said Puddleglum. "It means weve got to look for the Prinder that city.”
"But how we?" asked Jill.
"Thats the question," said Puddleglum, rubbing his big, frog-like hands together. "How we now? No doubt, if wed had our minds on our job when we were at the Ruinous
City, wed have been shown how - found a little door, or a cave, or a tunnel, met someoo help us. Might have been (you never know) Aslan himself. Wed have got down uhose paving-stones somehow or other. Aslans instrus always work: there are no exceptions. But how to do it now - thats another matter.”
"Well, we shall just have to go back, I suppose," said Jill.
"Easy, isnt it?" said Puddleglum. "We might try opening that door to begin with." And they all looked at the door and saw that none of them could reach the handle, and that almost certainly no one could turn it if they did.
"Do you think they wo us out if we ask?" said Jill. And nobody said, but everyohought, "Supposing they dont.”
It was not a pleasant idea. Puddleglum was dead against any idea of telling the giants their real business and simply asking to be let out; and of course the children couldnt tell without his permission, because they had promised. And all three felt pretty sure that there would be no ce of esg from the castle by night. Ohey were in their rooms with the doors shut, they would be prisoill m. They might, of course, ask to have their doors left open, but that would rouse suspis.
"Our only ce," said Scrubb, "is to try to sneak away by daylight. Mightnt there be an hour iernoon when most of the giants are asleep? - and if we could steal down into the kit, mightnt there be a back door open?”
"Its hardly what I call a ce," said the Marshwiggle. "But its all the ce were likely to get." As a matter of fact, Scrubbs plan was not quite so hopeless as you might think. If you want to get out of a house without being seen, the middle of the afternoon is in some ways a better time to try it than the middle of the night. Doors and windows are more likely to be open; and if you are caught, you alretend you werent meaning to go far and had no particular plans. (It is very hard to make either giants rown-ups believe this if youre found climbing out of a bedroom window at one oclo the m.)
"We must put them off their guard, though," said Scrubb. "We must pretend we love being here and are longing for this Autum.”
"Thats tomorrow night," said Puddleglum. "I heard one of them say so.”
"I see," said Jill. "We must pretend to be awfully excited about it, and keep on asking questions. They think were absolute infants anyway, which will make it easier.”
"Gay," said Puddleglum with a deep sigh. "Thats what weve got to be. Gay. As if we hadnt a care in the world. Frolie. You two youngsters havent always got very high spirits, Ive noticed. You must watch me, and do as I do. Ill be gay. Like this" - and he assumed a ghastly grin. "And frolie" - here he cut a most mournful caper. "Youll
soo into it, if you keep your eyes ohey think Im a funny fellow already, you see. I dare say you two thought I was a trifle tipsy last night, but I do assure you it was - well, most of it was - put on. I had a would e in useful, somehow.”
The children, whealked over their adventures afterwards, could never feel sure whether this last statement was quite strictly true; but they were sure that Puddleglum thought it was true when he made it.
"All right. Gays the word," said Scrubb. "Now, if we could only get someoo open this door. While were fooling about and being gay, weve got to find out all we about this castle.”
Luckily, at that very moment the door opened, and the giant Nurse bustled in saying, "Now, my poppets. Like to e ahe King and all the court setting out on the hunting? Such a pretty sight!”
They lost no time in rushing out past her and climbing down the first staircase they came to. The noise of hounds and horns and giant voices guided them, so that in a few mihey reached the courtyard. The giants were all on foot, for there are no giant horses in that part of the world, and the giants hunting is done on foot; like beagling in England.
The hounds were also of normal size. When Jill saw that there were no horses she was at first dreadfully disappointed, for she felt sure that the great fat Queen would never go after hounds on foot; and it would never do to have her about the house all day. But then she saw the Queen in a kind of litter supported on the shoulders of six young giants. The silly old creature was all got up in green and had a horn at her side.
Twenty or thirty giants, including the King, were assembled, ready for the sport, all talking and laughing fit to deafen you: and down below, nearer Jills level, there were wagging tails, and barking, and loose, slobbery mouths and noses of dogs thrust into your hand. Puddleglum was just beginning to strike what he thought a gay and gamesome attitude (which might have spoiled everything if it had been noticed) when Jill put on her most attractively childish smile, rushed across to the Queens litter and shouted up to the Queen.
"Oh, please! Youre not going away, are you? You will e back?”
"Yes, my dear," said the Queen. "Ill be back tonight.”
"Oh, good. How lovely!" said Jill. "And we may e to the feast tomorrow night, maynt we? Were so longing for tomorrow night! And we do love being here. And while youre out, we may ruhe whole castle and see everything, maynt we? Do say yes.”
The Queen did say yes, but the laughter of all the courtiers nearly drowned her voice.
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