CHAPTER FOUR THE DWARF TELLS OF PRINCE CASPIAN

PRINCE CASPIAN lived in a great castle in the centre of Narnia with his uncle，Miraz，the King of Narnia，and his aunt，who had red hair and was called Queen Prunaprismia．His father and mother were dead and the person whom Caspian loved best was his nurse，and though (being a prince) he had wonderful toys which would do almost anything but talk，he liked best the last hour of the day when the toys had all been put back in their cupboards and Nurse would tell him stories．

He did not care much for his uncle and aunt，but about twice a week his uncle would send for him and they would walk up and down together for half an hour on the terrace at the south side of the castle．One day，while they were doing this，the King said to him，

“Well，boy，we must soon teach you to ride and use a sword．You know that your aunt and I have no children，so it looks as if you might have to be King when I’m gone．How shall you like that，eh？”

“I don’t know，Uncle，”said Caspian．

“Don’t know，eh？”said Miraz．“Why，I should like to know what more anyone could wish for！”

“All the same，I do wish，”said Caspian．

“What do you wish？”asked the King．

“I wish—I wish—I wish I could have lived in the Old Days，”said Caspian．(He was only a very little boy at the time．)

Up till now King Miraz had been talking in the tiresome way that some grown-ups have，which makes it quite clear that they are not really interested in what you are saying，but now he suddenly gave Caspian a very sharp look．

“Eh？ What’s that？”he said．“What old days do you mean？”

“Oh，don’t you know，Uncle？”said Caspian．“When everything was quite different．When all the animals could talk，and there were nice people who lived in the streams and the trees．Naiads and Dryads they were called．And there were Dwarfs．And there were lovely little Fauns in all the woods．They had feet like goats．And—”

“That’s all nonsense，for babies，”said the King sternly．“Only fit for babies，do you hear？ You’re getting too old for that sort of stuff．At your age you ought to be thinking of battles and adventures，not fairy tales．”

“Oh，but there were battles and adventures in those days，”said Caspian．“Wonderful adventures．Once there was a White Witch and she made herself Queen of the whole country．And she made it so that it was always winter．And then two boys and two girls came from somewhere and so they killed the Witch and they were made Kings and Queens of Narnia，and their names were Peter and Susan and Edmund and Lucy．And so they reigned for ever so long and everyone had a lovely time，and it was all because of Aslan—”

“Who’s he？”said Miraz．And if Caspian had been a very little older，the tone of his uncle’s voice would have warned him that it would be wiser to shut up．But he babbled on，

“Oh，don’t you know？”he said．“Aslan is the great Lion who comes from over the sea．”

“Who has been telling you all this nonsense？”said the King in a voice of thunder．Caspian was frightened and said nothing．

“Your Royal Highness，”said King Miraz，letting go of Caspian’s hand，which he had been holding till now，“I insist upon being answered．Look me in the face．Who has been telling you this pack of lies？”

“N-Nurse，”faltered Caspian，and burst into tears．

“Stop that noise，”said his uncle，taking Caspian by the shoulders and giving him a shake．“Stop it．And never let me catch you talking-or thinking either-about all those silly stories again．There never were those Kings and Queens．How could there be two Kings at the same time？ And there’s no such person as Aslan．And there are no such things as lions．And there never was a time when animals could talk．Do you hear？”

“Yes，Uncle，”sobbed Caspian．

“Then let’s have no more of it，”said the King．Then he called to one of the gentlemen-in-waiting who were standing at the far end of the terrace and said in a cold voice，“Conduct His Royal Highness to his apartments and send His Royal Highness’s nurse to me AT ONCE．”