《最後一戰》第29期:關於小矮人(4)
Everyone crowded round him and welcomed him and praised him and slapped him on the back. Of course one single Dwarf could not make a very great difference, but it was somehow very cheering to have even one. The whole party brightened up. But Jill and Eustace didn't stay bright for very long, for they were now yawning their heads off and too tired to think about anything but bed.
It was at the coldest hour of the night, just before dawn, that they got back to the Tower. If there had been a meal ready for them they would have been glad enough to eat, but the bother and delay of getting one was not to be thought of. They drank from a stream, splashed their faces with water, and tumbled into their bunks, except for Puzzle and Jewel who said they'd be more comfortable outside. This perhaps was just as well, for a Unicorn and a fat, full-grown Donkey indoors always make a room feel rather crowded.
Narnian Dwarfs, though less than four feet high, are for their size about the toughest and strongest creatures there are, so that Poggin, in spite of a heavy day and a late night, woke fully refreshed before any of the others. He at once took Jill's bow, went out and shot a couple of wood pigeons. Then he sat plucking them on the doorstep and chatting to Jewel and Puzzle. Puzzle looked and felt a good deal better this morning. Jewel, being a Unicorn and therefore one of the noblest and delicatest of beasts, had been very kind to him, talking to him about things of the sort they could both understand like grass and sugar and the care of one's hoofs. When Jill and Eustace came out of the Tower yawning and rubbing their eyes at almost half past ten, the Dwarf showed them where they could gather plenty of a Narnian weed called Wild Fresney, which looks rather like our wood-sorrel but tastes a good deal nicer when cooked. (It needs a little butter and pepper to make it perfect, but they hadn't got these.) So that what with one thing and another, they had the makings of a capital stew for their breakfast or dinner, whichever you choose to call it. Tirian went a little further off into the wood with an axe and brought back some branches for fuel. While the meal was cooking - which seemed a very long time, especially as it smelled nicer and nicer the nearer it came to being done - the King found a complete Dwarfish outfit for Poggin: mail shirt, helmet, shield, sword, belt, and dagger. Then he inspected Eustace's sword and found that Eustace had put it back in the sheath all messy from killing the Calormene. He was scolded for that and made to clean and polish it.
All this while Jill went to and fro, sometimes stirring the pot and sometimes looking out enviously at the Donkey and the Unicorn who were contentedly grazing. How many times that morning she wished she could eat grass!
But when the meal came everyone felt it had been worth waiting for, and there were second helpings all round. When everyone had eaten as much as he could, the three humans and the Dwarf came and sat on the doorstep, the four-footed ones lay down facing them, the Dwarf (with permission both from Jill and from Tirian) lit his pipe, and the King said:
"Now, friend Poggin, you have more news of the enemy, belike, than we. Tell us all you know. And first, what tale do they tell of my escape?"
"As cunning a tale, Sire, as ever was devised," said Poggin. "It was the Cat, Ginger, who told it, and most likely made it up too. This Ginger, Sire - oh, he's a slyboots if ever a cat was - said he was walking past the tree to which those villains bound your Majesty. And he said (saving your reverence) that you were howling and swearing and cursing Aslan: 'language I wouldn't like to repeat' were the words he used, looking ever so prim and proper you know the way a Cat can when it pleases. And then, says Ginger, Aslan himself suddenly appeared in a flash of lightning and swallowed your Majesty up at one mouthful. All the Beasts trembled at this story and some fainted right away. And of course the Ape followed it up. There, he says, see what Aslan does to those who don't respect him. Let that be a warning to you all. And the poor creatures wailed and whined and said, it will, it will. So that in the upshot your Majesty's escape has not set them thinking whether you still have loyal friends to aid you, but only made them more afraid and more obedient to the Ape."
大家都向他圍攏來，歡迎他，稱讚他，拍拍他的背脊。當然，光是一個小矮人也不能使局面有多大的不同，但，哪怕只有一個小矮人，畢竟也是令人高興的。大夥兒爲之面有喜色。但吉爾和尤斯塔斯容光煥發可並不長久；因爲他們哈欠連連，頭昏腦漲，疲倦得只能想些不幸的事情了。
他們回到堡壘時，正是夜間最寒冷的時刻，天色快要破曉了。如果早已爲他們準備了食物，他們會高高興興地吃一頓的，但沒有想到弄一頓飯吃要那麼費事和費時。他們在一條小溪裏喝了點水，把水潑在臉上洗了一洗，便倒在牀鋪上睡覺，只有迷惑和珍寶說是它們待在戶外倒更加舒服。或許這樣正好，因爲一頭獨角獸和一頭胖胖的長足了肉體的驢子，都待在室內，總是會使人感覺到房間裏很擁擠的。
納尼亞的小矮人，雖然身高不到四英尺，就其身材而言，卻是最吃苦耐勞和最強壯有力的動物；所以，波金雖然過了沉重的一天，夜間又睡得很晚，卻比任何人都醒得早，醒來時體力完全恢復，已經神清氣爽了。他立刻拿着吉爾的弓箭，走出去射中了兩隻林中野鴿。然後他坐在門前石階上一邊給鴿子拔毛，邊跟珍寶和迷惑閒談。迷惑在這天早晨感到好得多了，珍寶是頭獨角獸，因而是獸類中最高貴而又最嬌嫩的一種動物，它對待小矮人十分和藹可親，跟他說些雙方都能理解的事情，例如青草呀、糖呀、對蹄子的愛護呀。在快要十點半的時候，吉爾和尤斯塔斯打着哈欠擦着眼睛，從堡壘裏走出來，小矮人給他們看一種叫做野弗雷斯尼的納尼亞野草；他們在那兒可以採集到許許多多，看起來外形像我們的漿草，但煮熟了吃起來，味道要好得多。(要使它盡善盡美，就需要加點兒黃油和胡椒，但他們手頭沒有這些玩意兒。)再加點兒這個那個的，他們就燉成了一個精美的菜餚作爲他們的早餐或正餐(你願意管它叫什麼就叫什麼)。蒂蓮帶着斧頭稍稍深入樹林，砍了些樹枝帶回來當柴火。那菜餚正燉着的時候——似乎燉的時間很長久——特別是接近於燉熟、香味愈來愈美妙時，更覺得燉久了，國王替波金找到了一整套小矮人裝備鎖子甲、頭盔、盾牌、劍、劍帶和匕首。然後國王又檢查了尤斯塔斯的劍，發現尤斯塔斯殺死了卡樂門士兵後就把血污的劍插進劍鞠裏去了。國王責備他，叫他把劍揩乾淨擦亮。
在這一段時間裏，吉爾走來走去，有時攪攪鍋裏燉着的食物，有時妒忌地望着正在心滿意足地吃草的驢子和獨角獸。那天早晨，她好幾次但願她也能吃草哩。
但，當菜餚端上來的時候，大家都覺得是值得等待的了，而且一圈分過來後大家還有第二份可吃。誰都儘量吃了個暢快後，三個人和一個小矮人便來到門口臺階上坐下，兩個四足動物面向着他們躺下，而小矮人得到吉爾和蒂蓮的允許，點上了他的菸斗，於是國王開言道：
"哦，朋友波金，你所知道的關於敵人的消息，極可能比我們多。把你所知道的，統統告訴我們吧。第一，對於我的脫身逃走，他們在編些什麼故事?"
"陛下，編了個空前狡猾的故事，"波金說道，"故事是貓兒金格講出來的，說不定也是它編造出來的。陛下，這個金格——啊，如果貓是滑頭，那麼它就是個老滑頭——它說它正走過惡棍們把你綁在上面的那棵樹。它說(我是冒昧如實彙報)你正在號叫罵人，詛咒阿斯蘭。原話我不想重複了，儘管它用的詞兒，看上去很正經很得體——你知道，一隻貓兒如果高興的話，它是能夠說得這樣的。據金格說，阿斯蘭突然在一陣閃電中親自出現了，一口就把陛下吞到他肚子裏去了。所有的野獸聽到這故事都哆哆嗦嗦，有的當場嚇昏過去。當然，無尾猿就跟着添油加醬地發揮了。行了，無尾猿說，瞧瞧阿斯蘭是怎麼對待那些不尊敬他的人的吧!要把這件事看做是對你們大家的一個警告。於是可憐的野獸們號啕嗚咽，說道，是呀，是呀。所以，陛下脫身逃遁的結果，並沒使野獸們考慮你是否仍有王室的朋友在幫助你，卻僅僅使野獸們更加害怕，對無尾猿更加俯首帖耳了。"
