Chapter 1 Lucy looks into a wardrobe （1） 英文

CHAPTER ONE

LUCY LOOKS INTO A WARDROBE

ONCE there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan,

Edmund and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them

when they were sent away from London during the war because of the airraids.

They were sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the

heart of the country, ten miles from the nearest railway station and two

miles from the nearest post office. He had no wife and he lived in a very

large house with a housekeeper called Mrs Macready and three servants.

(Their names were Ivy, Margaret and Betty, but they do not come into the

story much.) He himself was a very old man with shaggy white hair which

grew over most of his face as well as on his head, and they liked him

almost at once; but on the first evening when he came out to meet them at

the front door he was so odd-looking that Lucy (who was the youngest)

was a little afraid of him, and Edmund (who was the next youngest)

wanted to laugh and had to keep on pretending he was blowing his nose

to hide it.

As soon as they had said good night to the Professor and gone

upstairs on the first night, the boys came into the girls' room and they all

talked it over.

"We've fallen on our feet and no mistake," said Peter. "This is going to

be perfectly splendid. That old chap will let us do anything we like."

"I think he's an old dear," said Susan.

"Oh, come off it!" said Edmund, who was tired and pretending not to

be tired, which always made him bad-tempered. "Don't go on talking like

that."

"Like what?" said Susan; "and anyway, it's time you were in bed."

"Trying to talk like Mother," said Edmund. "And who are you to say

when I'm to go to bed? Go to bed yourself."

"Hadn't we all better go to bed?" said Lucy. "There's sure to be a row

if we're heard talking here."

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"No there won't," said Peter. "I tell you this is the sort of house where

no one's going to mind what we do. Anyway, they won't hear us. It's about

ten minutes' walk from here down to that dining-room, and any amount of

stairs and passages in between."

"What's that noise?" said Lucy suddenly. It was a far larger house than

she had ever been in before and the thought of all those long passages and

rows of doors leading into empty rooms was beginning to make her feel a

little creepy.

"It's only a bird, silly," said Edmund.

"It's an owl," said Peter. "This is going to be a wonderful place for

birds. I shall go to bed now. I say, let's go and explore tomorrow. You

might find anything in a place like this. Did you see those mountains as

we came along? And the woods? There might be eagles. There might be

stags. There'll be hawks."

"Badgers!" said Lucy.

"Foxes!" said Edmund.

"Rabbits!" said Susan.

But when next morning came there was a steady rain falling, so thick

that when you looked out of the window you could see neither the

mountains nor the woods nor even the stream in the garden.

"Of course it would be raining!" said Edmund. They had just finished

their breakfast with the Professor and were upstairs in the room he had

set apart for them—a long, low room with two windows looking out in one

direction and two in another.

"Do stop grumbling, Ed," said Susan. "Ten to one it'll clear up in an

hour or so. And in the meantime we're pretty well off. There's a wireless

and lots of books."

"Not for me"said Peter; "I'm going to explore in the house."

Everyone agreed to this and that was how the adventures began.