The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

"Get up," said the leader of the Earthmen.
There was nothing else to be done. The three travellers scrambled to their feet and joined
hands. One wanted the touch of a friend's hand at a moment like that. And the Earthmen
came all round them, padding on large, soft feet, on which some had ten toes, some
twelve, and others none.
"March," said the Warden: and march they did.
The cold light came from a large ball on the top of a long pole, and the tallest of the
gnomes carried this at the head of the procession. By its cheerless rays they could see that
they were in a natural cavern; the walls and roof were knobbed, twisted, and gashed into
a thousand fantastic shapes, and the stony floor sloped downward as they proceeded. It
was worse for Jill than for the others, because she hated dark, underground places. And
when, as they went on, the cave got lower and narrower, and when, at last, the lightbearer
stood aside, and the gnomes, one by one, stooped down (all except the very
smallest ones) and stepped into a little dark crack and disappeared, she felt she could bear
it no longer.
"I can't go in there, I can't! I can't! I won't," she panted. The Earthmen said nothing but
they all lowered their spears and pointed them at her.
"Steady, Pole," said Puddleglum. "Those big fellows wouldn't be crawling in there if it
didn't get wider later on. And there's one thing about this underground work, we shan't
get any rain."
"Oh, you don't understand. I can't," wailed Jill.
"Think how 1 felt on that cliff, Pole," said Scrubb. "You go first, Puddleglum, and I'll
come after her."
"That's right," said the Marsh-wiggle, getting down on his hands and knees. "You keep a
grip of my heels, Pole, and Scrubb will hold on to yours. Then we'll all be comfortable."
"Comfortable!" said Jill. But she got down and they crawled in on their elbows. It was a
nasty place. You had to go flat on your face for what seemed like half an hour, though it
may really have been only five minutes. It was hot. Jill felt she was being smothered. But
at last a dim light showed ahead, the tunnel grew wider and higher, and they came out,
hot, dirty, and shaken, into a cave so large that it scarcely seemed like a cave at all.
It was full of a dim, drowsy radiance, so that here they had no need of the Earthmen's
strange lantern. The floor was soft with some kind of moss and out of this grew many
strange shapes, branched and tall like trees, but flabby like mushrooms. They stood too
far apart to make a forest; it was more like a park. The light (a greenish grey) seemed to
come both from them and from the moss, and it was not strong enough to reach the roof