CHAPTER TWELVE THE QUEEN OF UNDERLAND（第2/5页）

“No,”said Puddleglum，struggling a little to get his breath. “It’s in Overworld.”

“And what，or where，pray is this...how do you call it...Overworld ？”

“Oh，don’t be so silly,”said Scrubb，who was fighting hard against the enchantment of the sweet smell and the thrumming. “As if you didn’t know ！ It’s up above，up where you can see the sky and the sun and the stars. Why，you’ve been there yourself. We met you there.”

“I cry you mercy，little brother,”laughed the Witch（you couldn’t have heard a lovelier laugh）. “I have no memory of that meeting. But we often meet our friends in strange places when we dream. And unless all dreamed alike，you must not ask them to remember it.”

“Madam,”said the Prince sternly，“I have already told your Grace that I am the King’s son of Narnia.”

“And shalt be，dear friend,”said the Witch in a soothing voice，as if she was humouring a child，“shalt be king of many imagined lands in thy fancies.”

“We’ve been there，too,”snapped Jill. She was very angry because she could feel enchantment getting hold of her every moment. But of course the very fact that she could still feel it， showed that it had not yet fully worked.

“And thou art Queen of Narnia too，I doubt not，pretty one,”said the Witch in the same coaxing，half-mocking tone.

“I’m nothing of the sort,”said Jill，stamping her foot. “We come from another world.”

“Why，this is a prettier game than the other,”said the Witch. “Tell us，little maid，where is this other world ？ What ships and chariots go between it and ours ？”

Of course a lot of things darted into Jill’s head at once： Experiment House，Adela Pennyfather，her own home，radio-sets，cinemas，cars，aeroplanes，ration-books，queues. But they seemed dim and far away. （Thrum—thrum—thrum—went the strings of the Witch’s instrument.）Jill couldn’t remember the names of the things in our world. And this time it didn’t come into her head that she was being enchanted，for now the magic was in its full strength；and of course，the more enchanted you get，the more certain you feel that you are not enchanted at all. She found herself saying（and at the moment it was a relief to say）：

“No. I suppose that other world must be all a dream.”

“Yes. It is all a dream,”said the Witch，always thrumming.

“Yes，all a dream,”said Jill.

“There never was such a world,”said the Witch.

“No,”said Jill and Scrubb，“never was such a world.”

“There never was any world but mine,”said the Witch.

“There never was any world but yours,”said they.

Puddleglum was still fighting hard. “I don’t know rightly what you all mean by a world,”he said，talking like a man who hasn’t enough air. “But you can play that fiddle till your fingers drop off，and still you won’t make me forget Narnia；and the whole Overworld too. We’ll never see it again，I shouldn’t wonder. You may have blotted it out and turned it dark like this，for all I know. Nothing more likely. But I know I was there once. I’ve seen the sky full of stars. I’ve seen the sun coming up out of the sea of a morning and sinking behind the mountains at night. And I’ve seen him up in the midday sky when I couldn’t look at him for brightness.”

Puddleglum’s words had a very rousing effect. The other three all breathed again and looked at one another like people newly awaked.

“Why，there it is ！”cried the Prince. “Of course ！The blessing of Aslan upon this honest Marsh-wiggle. We have all been dreaming，these last few minutes. How could we have forgotten it ？ Of course we’ve all seen the sun.”

“By Jove，so we have ！”said Scrubb. “Good for you， Puddleglum ！You’re the only one of us with any sense，I do believe.”

Then came the Witch’s voice，cooing softly like the voice of a wood-pigeon from the high elms in an old garden at three o’clock in the middle of a sleepy，summer afternoon；and it said：