CHAPTER FOURTEEN HOW ALL WERE VERY BUSY（第5/5页）

At Beaversdam they re-crossed the river and came east again along the southern bank．They came to a little cottage where a child stood in the doorway crying．“Why are you crying，my love？”asked Aslan．The child，who had never seen a picture of a lion，was not afraid of him．“Auntie’s very ill，”she said．“She’s going to die．”Then Aslan went to go in at the door of the cottage，but it was too small for him．So，when he had got his head through，he pushed with his shoulders (Lucy and Susan fell off when he did this) and lifted the whole house up and it fell backwards and apart．And there，still in her bed，though the bed was now in the open air，lay a little old woman who looked as if she had Dwarf blood in her．She was at death’s door，but when she opened her eyes and saw the bright，hairy head of the lion staring into her face，she did not scream or faint．She said，“Oh，Aslan！ I knew it was true．I’ve been waiting for this all my life.Have you come to take me away？”

“Yes，Dearest，”said Aslan．“But not the long journey yet．”And as he spoke，like the flush creeping along the underside of a cloud at sunrise，the colour came back to her white face and her eyes grew bright and she sat up and said，“Why，I do declare I feel that better．I think I could take a little breakfast this morning．”

“Here you are，mother，”said Bacchus，dipping a pitcher in the cottage well and handing it to her．But what was in it now was not water but the richest wine，red as red-currant jelly，smooth as oil，strong as beef，warming as tea，cool as dew．

“Eh，you’ve done something to our well，”said the old woman.“That makes a nice change，that does．”And she jumped out of bed.

“Ride on me，”said Aslan，and added to Susan and Lucy，“You two queens will have to run now．”

“But we’d like that just as well，”said Susan．And off they went again．

And so at last，with leaping and dancing and singing，with music and laughter and roaring and barking and neighing，they all came to the place where Miraz’s army stood flinging down their swords and holding up their hands，and Peter’s army，still holding their weapons and breathing hard，stood round them with stern and glad faces．And the first thing that happened was that the old woman slipped off Aslan’s back and ran across to Caspian and they embraced one another; for she was his old nurse．