CHAPTER EIGHT WHAT NEWS THE EAGLE BROUGHT（第3/4页）

Ho，rumble，rumble，rumble，Rumble drum belaboured．

After the King came Eustace and Poggin the Dwarf. Poggin was telling Eustace the names of all the Narnian trees，birds，and plants which he didn’t know already. Sometimes Eustace would tell him about English ones．

After them came Puzzle，and after him Jill and Jewel walking very close together. Jill had，as you might say，quite fallen in love with the Unicorn. She thought-and she wasn’t far wrong-that he was the shiningest，delicatest，most graceful animal she had ever met：and he was so gentle and soft of speech that，if you hadn’t known，you would hardly have believed how fierce and terrible he could be in battle．

“Oh，this is nice!”said Jill.“Just walking along like this. I wish there could be more of this sort of adventure. It’s a pity there’s always so much happening in Narnia.”

But the Unicorn explained to her that she was quite mistaken. He said that the Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve were brought out of their own strange world into Narnia only at times when Narnia was stirred and upset，but she mustn’t think it was always like that. In between their visits there were hundreds and thousands of years when peaceful King followed peaceful King till you could hardly remember their names or count their numbers，and there was really hardly anything to put into the History Books. And he went on to talk of old Queens and heroes whom she had never heard of. He spoke of Swanwhite the Queen who had lived before the days of the White Witch and the Great Winter，who was so beautiful that when she looked into any forest pool the reflection of her face shone out of the water like a star by night for a year and a day afterwards. He spoke of Moonwood the Hare who had such ears that he could sit by Caldron Pool under the thunder of the great waterfall and hear what men spoke in whispers at Cair Paravel. He told how King Gale，who was ninth in descent from Frank the first of all Kings，had sailed far away into the Eastern seas and delivered the Lone Islanders from a dragon and how，in return，they had given him the Lone Islands to be part of the royal lands of Narnia for ever. He talked of whole centuries in which all Narnia was so happy that notable dances and feasts，or at most tournaments，were the only things that could be remembered，and every day and week had been better than the last. And as he went on，the picture of all those happy years，all the thousands of them，piled up in Jill’s mind till it was rather like looking down from a high hill on to a rich，lovely plain full of woods and waters and cornfields，which spread away and away till it got thin and misty from distance. And she said：

“Oh，I do hope we can soon settle the Ape and get back to those good，ordinary times. And then I hope they’ll go on for ever and ever and ever. Our world is going to have an end some day. Perhaps this one won’t. Oh Jewel wouldn’t it be lovely if Narnia just went on and on-like what you said it has been ？”

“Nay，sister，”answered Jewel，“all worlds draw to an end， except Aslan’s own country.”

“Well，at least，”said Jill，“I hope the end of this one is millions of millions of millions of years away-hallo! what are we stopping for ？”

The King and Eustace and the Dwarf were all staring up at the sky. Jill shuddered，remembering what horrors they had seen already. But it was nothing of that sort this time. It was small，and looked black against the blue．

“I dare swear，”said the Unicorn，“from its flight，that it is a Talking bird.”

“So think I，”said the King.“But is it a friend，or a spy of the Ape’s ？”

“To me，Sire，”said the Dwarf，“it has a look of Far-sight the Eagle.”

“Ought we to hide under the trees ？”said Eustace．

“Nay，”said Tirian，“best stand still as rocks. He would see us for certain if we moved.”

“Look! He wheels，he has seen us already，”said Jewel.“He is coming down in wide circles.”