The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

expeditions usually end that way: knifing one another, I shouldn't wonder, before all's
done. But the longer we can keep off it-"
"Well, if you feel it's so hopeless," interrupted Scrubb, "I think you'd better stay behind.
Pole and I can go on alone, can't we, Pole?"
"Shut up and don't be an ass, Scrubb," said Jill hastily, terrified lest the Marsh-wiggle
should take him at his word.
"Don't you lose heart, Pole," said Puddleglum. "I'm coming, sure and certain. I'm not
going to lose an opportunity like this. It will do me good. They all say - I mean, the other
wiggles all say-that I'm too flighty; don't take life seriously enough. If they've said it
once, they've said it a thousand times. 'Puddleglum,' they've said, `you're altogether too
full of bobance and bounce and high spirits. You've got to learn that life isn't all
fricasseed frogs and eel pie. You want something to sober you down a bit. We're only
saying it for your own good, Puddleglum.' That's what they say. Now a job like this - a
journey up north just as winter's beginning, looking for a Prince that probably isn't there,
by way of a ruined city that no one has ever seen - will be just the thing. If that doesn't
steady a chap, I don't know what will." And he rubbed his big frog-like hands together as
if he were talking of going to a party or a pantomime. "And now," he added, "let's see
how those eels are getting on."
When the meal came it was delicious and the children had two large helpings each. At
first the Marsh-wiggle wouldn't believe that they really liked it, and when they had eaten
so much that he had to believe them, he fell back on saying that it would probably
disagree with them horribly. "What's food for wiggles may be poison for humans, I
shouldn't wonder," he said. After the meal they had tea, in tins (as you've seen men
having it who are working on the road), and Puddleglum had a good many sips out of a
square black bottle. He offered the children some of it, but they thought it very nasty.
The rest of the day was spent in preparations for an early start tomorrow morning.
Puddleglum, being far the biggest, said he would carry three blankets, with a large bit of
bacon rolled up inside them. Jill was to carry the remains of the eels, some biscuit, and
the tinder-box. Scrubb was to carry both his own cloak and Jill's when they didn't want to
wear them. Scrubb (who had learned some shooting when he sailed to the East under
Caspian) had Puddleglum's secondbest bow, and Puddleglum had his best one; though he
said that what with winds, and damp bowstrings, and bad light, and cold fingers, it was a
hundred to one against either of them hitting anything. He and Scrubb both had swords
Scrubb had brought the one which had been left out for him in his room at Cair Paravel,
but Jill had to be content with her knife. There would have been a quarrel about this, but
as soon as they started sparring the wiggle rubbed his hands and said, "Ah, there you are.
I thought as much. That's what usually happens on adventures." This made them both
shut up.
All three went to bed early in the wigwam. This time the children really had a rather bad
night. That was because Puddleglum, after saying, "You'd better try for some sleep, you