CHAPTER ONE BY CALDRON POOL（第4/4页）

“But isn’t everything right already ？”said Puzzle．

“What!”cried Shift.“Everything right ？-when there are no oranges or bananas ？”

“Well，you know，”said Puzzle，“there aren’t many people-in fact，I don’t think there’s anyone but yourself-who wants those sort of things.”

“There’s sugar too，”said Shift．

“H’m yes，”said the Ass.“It would be nice if there was more sugar.”

“Well then，that’s settled，”said the Ape.“You will pretend to be Aslan，and I’ll tell you what to say.”

“No，no，no，”said Puzzle.“Don’t say such dreadful things. It would be wrong，Shift. I maybe not very clever but I know that much. What would become of us if the real Aslan turned up ？”

“I expect he’d be very pleased，”said Shift.“Probably he sent us the lion-skin on purpose，so that we could set things to right. Anyway，he never does turn up，you know. Not nowadays.”

At that moment there came a great thunderclap right overhead and the ground trembled with a small earthquake. Both the animals lost their balance and were flung on their faces．

“There!”gasped Puzzle，as soon as he had breath to speak.“It’s a sign，a warning. I knew we were doing something dreadfully wicked. Take this wretched skin off me at once.”

“No， no，”said the Ape (whose mind worked very quickly).“It’s a sign the other way. I was just going to say that if the real Aslan，as you call him，meant us to go on with this，he would send us a thunderclap and an earth-tremor. It was just on the tip of my tongue，only the sign itself came before I could get the words out. You’ve got to do it now，Puzzle. And please don’t let us have any more arguing. You know you don’t understand these things. What could a donkey know about signs ？”