《魔法師的外甥》第74期:這個故事的結束及其他故事的開始(3)
About a week after this it was quite certain that Digory's Mother was getting better. About a fortnight later she was able to sit out in the garden. And a month later that whole house had become a different place. Aunt Letty did everything that Mother liked; windows were opened, frowsy curtains were drawn back to brighten up the rooms, there were new flowers everywhere, and nicer things to eat, and the old piano was tuned and Mother took up her singing again, and had such games with Digory and Polly that Aunt Letty would say "I declare, Mabel, you're the biggest baby of the three."
When things go wrong, you'll find they usually go on getting worse for some time; but when things once start going right they often go on getting better and better. After about six weeks of this lovely life there came a long letter from Father in India, which had wonderful news in it. Old Great-Uncle Kirke had died and this meant, apparently, that Father was now very rich. He was going to retire and come home from India forever and ever. And the great big house in the country, which Digory had heard of all his life and never seen would now be their home; the big house with the suits of armour, the stables, the kennels, the river, the park, the hot-houses, the vineries, the woods, and the mountains behind it. So that Digory felt just as sure as you that they were all going to live happily ever after. But perhaps you would like to know just one or two things more.
Polly and Digory were always great friends and she came nearly every holidays to stay with them at their beautiful house in the country; and that was where she learned to ride and swim and milk and bake and climb.
In Narnia the Beasts lived in great peace and joy and neither the Witch nor any other enemy came to trouble that pleasant land for many hundred years. King Frank and Queen Helen and their children lived happily in Narnia and their second son became King of Archenland. The boys married nymphs and the girls married woodgods and river-gods. The lamp-post which the Witch had planted (without knowing it) shone day and night in the Narnian forest, so that the place where it grew came to be called Lantern Waste; and when, many years later, another child from our world got into Narnia, on a snowy night, she found the light still burning. And that adventure was, in a way, connected with the ones I have just been telling you.
It was like this. The tree which sprang from the Apple that Digory planted in the back garden, lived and grew into a fine tree. Growing in the soil of our world, far out of the sound of Aslan's voice and far from the young air of Narnia, it did not bear apples that would revive a dying woman as Digory's Mother had been revived, though it did bear apples more beautiful than any others in England, and they were extremely good for you, though not fully magical. But inside itself, in the very sap of it, the tree (so to speak) never forgot that other tree in Narnia to which it belonged. Sometimes it would move mysteriously when there was no wind blowing: I think that when this happened there were high winds in Narnia and the English tree quivered because, at that moment, the Narnia tree was rocking and swaying in a strong south-western gale. However, that might be, it was proved later that there was still magic in its wood. For when Digory was quite middle-aged (and he was a famous learned man, a Professor, and a great traveller by that time) and the Ketterleys' old house belonged to him, there was a great storm all over the south of England which blew the tree down. He couldn't bear to have it simply chopped up for firewood, so he had part of the timber made into a wardrobe, which he put in his big house in the country. And though he himself did not discover the magic properties of that wardrobe, someone else did. That was the beginning of all the comings and goings between Narnia and our world, which you can read of in other books.
When Digory and his people went to live in the big country house, they took Uncle Andrew to live with them; for Digory's Father said, "We must try to keep the old fellow out of mischief, and it isn't fair that poor Letty should have him always on her hands." Uncle Andrew never tried any Magic again as long as he lived. He had learned his lesson, and in his old age he became a nicer and less selfish old man than he had ever been before. But he always liked to get visitors alone in the billiard-room and tell them stories about a mysterious lady, a foreign royalty, with whom he had driven about London. "A devilish temper she had," he would say. "But she was a dem fine woman, sir, a dem fine woman."
大約一週以後，迪格雷的媽媽明顯越來越好。兩週後，她便能坐在花園裏了。過了一個月，整幢房子都變了樣。凡是媽媽喜歡的事蕾蒂姨媽都做了；窗戶打開了，髒窗簾拉開後房間裏一片明亮，到處都有新採的鮮花。舊鋼琴調好音後，媽媽又開始了歌唱，而且和迪格雷以及波莉在一起玩耍，連蕾蒂姨媽都說：“我敢說，瑪貝爾，你是三個孩子中最大的一個。”
當事情不順心時，你會發現在一段時間裏會越變越糟，但當事情一旦開始好轉，又常常是越來越好。這種好日子大約過了六週之後，在印度的爸爸寫來一封長長的信，裏面有很多驚人的好消息。老叔祖父柯克去世了，這當然意味着爸爸現在非常富有。他即將從印度退休回家，再也不走了。迪格雷一生下來就聽說過但從未見過的那幢鄉下大房子現在成了他們的家。大房子裏有幾套盔甲，有馬廄、養狗場，有河流、公園、暖房、葡萄園和樹林，後面還有山。所以，迪格雷和你們一樣，十分肯定地認爲他們今後將過上幸福生活。但也許你想知道另外一兩件事情。
波莉和迪格雷一直是非常要好的朋友，幾乎每個假期她都到鄉下去，和他們一起住在那幢漂亮的房子裏：她在那兒學會了騎馬、游泳、擠奶、烤麪包和爬山。
在納尼亞，動物們非常快樂地生活在和平之中，幾百年裏，女巫和其他任何敵人都沒來騷擾那片樂土。弗蘭克國王與海倫王后以及他們的孩子也非常幸福地生活在納尼亞。他們的第二個兒子當了阿欽蘭的國王。兒子們娶了仙女，女兒們嫁了河神與樹神。女巫栽下(她自己並不知道)的路燈柱日夜照耀在納尼亞的森林裏，它長大的那片地方被叫作燈柱野林。幾百年後，另一個孩子在一個下雪的夜晚，從我們的世界走進納尼亞，發現那盞燈依然亮着。那次歷險在某種意義上與我剛剛告訴你們的故事緊密相聯。
事情是這樣的。迪格雷埋在後花園裏的蘋果核長成了一棵美麗的樹。因爲長在我們這個世界的土壤裏，遠離阿斯蘭的聲音和納尼亞年輕的空氣，雖然它的果實比英格蘭其他所有蘋果都要漂亮得多，而且對你極有益處，但卻沒有十足的魔力，也不會再像救活迪格雷的媽媽一樣使一個垂死的婦女恢復生機。但是，就這棵果樹的內在性質而言，在它的汁液之中，這棵樹(就這樣稱它吧)仍然沒有忘記它所屬的在納尼亞的那棵樹。有時沒有颳風，它也會神祕地搖動。我想，這種時候納尼亞一定在颳大風；在英格蘭的這棵樹之所以戰慄，是因爲納尼亞的母樹在強勁的西南風中搖擺晃動。然而，以後證明了，這棵樹的木材中仍然存在着魔法。當迪格雷到了中年(那時，他成了著名的學者、教授和大旅行家，凱特利家的老房子也歸他所有)，英格蘭南部的一場風暴吹倒了那棵樹。他不忍心讓人把它當柴燒了，便用一部分木料做了一個大衣櫃，放在他鄉下的大房子裏。他自己雖然沒有發現那衣櫃的魔力，另一個人卻發現了。那就是我們的世界和納尼亞之間所有故事的開端，你可以在這本書的其他故事裏讀到。
當迪格雷和他的家人搬往鄉下的大房子時，他們把安德魯舅舅帶了過去，與他們一起生活：因爲迪格雷的爸爸說：“我們必須阻止這老傢伙再搗亂，可憐的蕾蒂始終要照看他，太不公平。”安德魯舅舅此後再也沒有做過任何魔法試驗。他吸取了教訓，到了晚年，不再像從前那麼自私，變得比較可愛。但他總是喜歡在彈子房裏單獨會客，給他們講一個神祕的外國王族女人的故事，說他曾經和她一起駕着馬車在倫敦街上兜風。“她脾氣很壞，”他愛說，“可她是一個漂亮的貴婦人，先生，一個漂亮的貴婦人。”
