The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

ut his tongue was so very large and red, and came out so unexpectedly, that it gave Jill
quite a shock.
"Oh, what good children!" said the Queen. ("Perhaps she's the nice one after all," thought
Jill.)
"Yes indeed," said the King. "Quite excellent children. We welcome you to our court.
Give me your hands."
He stretched down his great right hand - very clean and with any number of rings on the
fingers, but also with terrible pointed nails. He was much too big to shake the hands
which the children, in turn, held up to him; but he shook the arms.
"And what's that?" asked the King, pointing to Puddleglum.
"Reshpeckobiggle," said Puddleglum.
"Oh!" screamed the Queen, gathering her skirts close about her ankles. "The horrid thing!
It's alive."
"He's quite all right, your Majesty, really, he is," said Scrubb hastily. "You'll like him
much better when you get to know him. I'm sure you will."
I hope you won't lose all interest in Jill for the rest of the book if I tell you that at this
moment she began to cry. There was a good deal of excuse for her. Her feet and hands
and ears and nose were still only just beginning to thaw; melted snow was trickling off
her clothes; she had had hardly anything to eat or drink that day; and her legs were aching
so that she felt she could not go on standing much longer. Anyway, it did more good at
the moment than anything else would have done, for the Queen said:
"Ah, the poor child! My lord, we do wrong to keep our guests standing. Quick, some of
you! Take them away. Give them food and wine and baths. Comfort the little girl. Give
her lollipops, give her dolls, give her physics, give her all you can think of - possets and
comfits and caraways and lullabies and toys. Don't cry, little girl, or you won't be good
for anything when the feast comes."
Jill was just as indignant as you and I would have been at the mention of toys and dolls;
and, though lollipops and comfits might be all very well in their way, she very much
hoped that something more solid would be provided. The Queen's foolish speech,
however, produced excellent results, for Puddleglum and Scrubb were at once picked up
by gigantic gentlemen-in-waiting, and Jill by a gigantic maid of honour, and carried off to
their rooms.
Jill's room was about the size of a church, and would have been rather grim if it had not
had a roaring fire on the hearth and a very thick crimson carpet on the floor. And here
delightful things began to happen to her. She was handed over to the Queen's old Nurse,