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The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

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He led them rapidly through the wood, and before they had gone many paces, the wall <strong>of</strong><br />

Experiment House appcared before them. <strong>The</strong>n Aslan roared so that the sun shook <strong>in</strong> the<br />

sky and thirty feet <strong>of</strong> the wall fell down before them. <strong>The</strong>y looked through the gap, down<br />

<strong>in</strong>to the school shrubbery and on to the ro<strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong> the gym, all under the same dull autumn<br />

sky which they had seen before their adventures began. Aslan turned to Jill and Eustace<br />

and breathed upon them and touched their foreheads with his tongue. <strong>The</strong>n he lay down<br />

amid the gap he had made <strong>in</strong> the wall and turned his golden back to England, and his<br />

lordly face towards his own lands. At the same moment Jill saw figures whom she knew<br />

only too well runn<strong>in</strong>g up through the laurels towards them. Most <strong>of</strong> the gang were there<br />

Adela Pennyfather and Cholmondely Major, Edith W<strong>in</strong>terblott, `Spotty' Sorrier, big<br />

Bannister, and the two loathsome Garrett tw<strong>in</strong>s. But suddenly they stopped. <strong>The</strong>ir faces<br />

changed, and all the meanness, conceit, cruelty, and sneakishness almost disappeared <strong>in</strong><br />

one s<strong>in</strong>gle expression <strong>of</strong> terror. For they saw the wall fallen down, and a lion as large as a<br />

young elephant ly<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the gap, and three figures <strong>in</strong> glitter<strong>in</strong>g clothes with weapons <strong>in</strong><br />

their hands rush<strong>in</strong>g down upon them. For, with the strength <strong>of</strong> Aslan <strong>in</strong> them, Jill plied<br />

her crop on the girls and Caspian and Eustace plied the flats <strong>of</strong> their swords on the boys<br />

so well that <strong>in</strong> two m<strong>in</strong>utes all the bullies were runn<strong>in</strong>g like mad, cry<strong>in</strong>g out, `Murder!<br />

Fascists! Lions! It isn't fair.' And then the Head (who was, by the way, a woman) came<br />

runn<strong>in</strong>g out to see what was happen<strong>in</strong>g. And when she saw the lion and the broken wall<br />

and Caspian and Jill and Eustace (whom she quite failed to recognize) she had hysterics<br />

and went back to the house and began r<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g up the police with stories about a lion<br />

escaped from a circus, and escaped convicts who broke down walls and carried drawn<br />

swords. In the midst <strong>of</strong> all this fuss Jill and Eustace slipped quietly <strong>in</strong>doors and changed<br />

out <strong>of</strong> their bright clothes <strong>in</strong>to ord<strong>in</strong>ary th<strong>in</strong>gs, and Caspian went back <strong>in</strong>to his own<br />

world. And the wall, at Aslan's word, was made whole aga<strong>in</strong>. When the police arrived<br />

and found no lion, no broken wall, and no convicts, and the Head behav<strong>in</strong>g like a lunatic,<br />

there was an <strong>in</strong>quiry <strong>in</strong>to the whole th<strong>in</strong>g. And <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>quiry all sorts <strong>of</strong> th<strong>in</strong>gs about<br />

Experiment House came out, and about ten people got expelled. After that, the Head's<br />

friends saw that the Head was no use as a Head, so they got her made an Inspector to<br />

<strong>in</strong>terfere with other Heads. And when they found she wasn't much good even at that, they<br />

got her <strong>in</strong>to Parliament where she lived happily ever after.<br />

Eustace buried his f<strong>in</strong>e clothes secretly one night <strong>in</strong> the school grounds, but Jill smuggled<br />

hers home and wore them at a fancy-dress ball next holidays. And from that day forth<br />

th<strong>in</strong>gs changed for the better at Experiment House, and it became quite a good school.<br />

And Jill and Eustace were always friends.<br />

But far <strong>of</strong>f <strong>in</strong> <strong>Narnia</strong>, K<strong>in</strong>g Rilian buried his father, Caspian the Navigator, Tenth <strong>of</strong> that<br />

name, and mourned for him. He himself ruled <strong>Narnia</strong> well and the land was happy <strong>in</strong> his<br />

days, though Puddleglum (whose foot was as good as new <strong>in</strong> three weeks) <strong>of</strong>ten po<strong>in</strong>ted<br />

out that bright morn<strong>in</strong>gs brought on wet afternoons, and that you couldn't expect good<br />

times to last. <strong>The</strong> open<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to the hillside was left open, and <strong>of</strong>ten <strong>in</strong> hot summer days<br />

the <strong>Narnia</strong>ns go <strong>in</strong> there with ships and lanterns and down to the water and sail to and fro,<br />

s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g, on the cool, dark underground sea, tell<strong>in</strong>g each other stories <strong>of</strong> the cities that lie

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