《魔法師的外甥》第53期:迪格雷和他的舅舅又陷困境(3)

The two Moles settled that part of the business pretty quickly. There was some dispute as to which way up Uncle Andrew ought to be put into the hole, and he had a very narrow escape from being put in head foremost. Several animals said his legs must be his branches and therefore the grey, fluffy thing (they meant his head) must be his root. But then others said that the forked end of him was the muddier and that it spread out more, as roots ought to do. So finally he was planted right way up. When they had patted down the earth it came up above his knees.

"It looks dreadfully withered," said the Donkey.

"Of course it wants some watering," said the Elephant. "I think I might say (meaning no offence to anyone present) that, perhaps, for that sort of work, my kind of nose -"

"I object to that remark very strongly," said the Bulldog. But the Elephant walked quietly to the river, filled her trunk with water, and came back to attend to Uncle Andrew. The sagacious animal went on doing this till gallons of water had been squirted over him, and water was running out of the skirts of his frock-coat as if he had been for a bath with all his clothes on. In the end it revived him. He awoke from his faint. What a wake it was! But we must leave him to think over his wicked deed (if he was likely to do anything so sensible) and turn to more important things.

Strawberry trotted on with Digory on his back till the noise of the other animals died away, and now the little group of Aslan and his chosen councillors was quite close. Digory knew that he couldn't possibly break in on so solemn a meeting, but there was no need to do so. At a word from Aslan, the He-Elephant, the Ravens, and all the rest of them drew aside. Digory slipped off the horse and found himself face to face with Aslan. And Aslan was bigger and more beautiful and more brightly golden and more terrible than he had thought. He dared not look into the great eyes.

"Please - Mr Lion - Aslan - Sir," said Digory, "could you - may I - please, will you give me some magic fruit of this country to make Mother well?"

He had been desperately hoping that the Lion would say "Yes"; he had been horribly afraid it might say "No". But he was taken aback when it did neither.

"This is the Boy," said Aslan, looking, not at Digory, but at his councillors. "This is the Boy who did it."

"Oh dear," thought Digory, "what have I done now?"

"Son of Adam," said the Lion. "There is an evil Witch abroad in my new land of Narnia. Tell these good Beasts how she came here."

兩隻鼴鼠迅速完成了任務。對該栽哪一頭意見不一，安德魯舅舅很難避免要被頭朝下栽進土裏了。有幾個動物說他的腿一定是樹枝，因此，那團灰色的毛茸茸的東西(指他的頭)一定是根。但其他動物說，叉開的那一端沾了更多的泥土，而且伸得長些，更像根部。最後，他直立着被栽了起來，栽好以後，泥土掩到了他的膝蓋。

“它看上去很乾枯。”驢子說。

“當然，它需要澆水，”象說，“我想我可以說(並非要冒犯在場的各位)，也許，對這項工作，我的這種鼻子……”

“我強烈反對。”公狗說。但大象默默地走到河邊，用鼻子灌滿水，回來灑在安德魯舅舅身上。這有靈性的動物不斷地澆，直到好多好多水澆到他身上，又從他外衣的邊緣流了出來，猶如他穿着衣服洗了一次澡。最後，他恢復了理智，從昏迷中醒了過來，徹徹底底地清醒了！但我們必須將他撇開，讓他慢慢去想他做過的壞事(如果他還有可能做出如此有理智的事的話)，我們去講些更重要的事情。

“草莓”馱着迪格雷，一路小跑着前進，其他動物的聲音漸漸遠去，而阿斯蘭和它選出來的那羣動物們則很近。迪格雷知道他不能干擾這樣一個嚴肅的會議，而且也沒有必要。阿斯蘭說了句什麼，公象、渡鴉以及其他所有的動物都閃開了。迪格雷翻身下馬，發現阿斯蘭與他面對面地站在那裏，比他想像的更大、更美，更加金光閃閃，也更加可怕。他不敢注視它那雙大眼睛。

“對不起——獅子先生——阿斯蘭——閣下，”迪格雷說，“能否——能否請您，您能否給我一些這裏的神奇果子來治我媽媽的病？”

他非常希望獅子會說“好的”，非常害怕它說“不”。但當獅子既沒有說“好”也沒有說“不”時，迪格雷吃了一驚。

“這就是那個男孩，”阿斯蘭沒有看迪格雷，而是看着它的顧問們說，“是這個男孩乾的。”

“天哪，”迪格雷想，“我做了什麼？”

“亞當的兒子，”獅子說，“有個惡魔般的女巫踏上了我新的國土納尼亞。告訴這些好動物們她是怎麼到這兒的。”