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he?” asked four voices all at once.
    “Caspian the Tenth, King of Narnia, and long may he reign!” answered the Dwarf. “That is to say, he ought to be King of Narnia and we hope he will be. At present he is only King of us Old Narnians—”
    “What do you mean by old Narnians, please?” asked Lucy.
    “Why, that’s us,” said the Dwarf. “We’re a kind of rebellion, I suppose.”
    “I see,” said Peter. “And Caspian is the chief Old Narnian.”
    “Well, in a manner of speaking,” said the Dwarf, scratching his head. “But he’s really a NewNarnian himself, a Telmarine, if you follow me.”
    “I don’t,” said Edmund.
    “It’s worse than the Wars of the Roses,” said Lucy.
    “Oh dear,” said the Dwarf. “I’m doing this very badly. Look here: I think I’ll have to go right back to the beginning and tell you how Caspian grew up in his uncle’s court and how he comes to be on our side at all. But it’ll be a long story.”
    “All the better,” said Lucy. “We love stories.”
    So the Dwarf settled down and told his tale. I shall not give it to you in his words, putting in all the children’s questions and interruptions, because it would take too long and be confusing, and, even so, it would leave out some points that the children only heard later. But the gist of the story, as they knew it in the end, was as follows.

Four

THE DWARF TELLS OF PRINCE CASPIAN
    PRINCE CASPIAN LIVED IN A GREAT CASTLE in the center of Narnia with his uncle, Miraz, the King of Narnia, and his aunt, who had red hair and was called Queen Prunaprismia. His father and mother were dead and the person whom Caspian loved best was his nurse, and though (being a prince) he had wonderful toys which would do almost anything but talk, he liked best the last hour of the day when the toys had all been put back in their cupboards and Nurse would tell him stories.
    He did not care much for his uncle and aunt, but about twice a week his uncle would send for him and they would walk up and down together for half an hour on the terrace at the south side of the castle. One day, while they were doing this, the King said to him,
    “Well, boy, we must soon teach you to ride and use a sword. You know that your aunt and I haveno children, so it looks as if you might have to be King when I’m gone. How shall you like that, eh?”
    “I don’t know, Uncle,” said Caspian.
    “Don’t know, eh?” said Miraz. “Why, I should like to know what more anyone could wish for!”
    “All the same, I do wish,” said Caspian.
    “What do you wish?” asked the King.
    “I wish—I wish—I wish I could have lived in the Old Days,” said Caspian. (He was only a very little boy at the time.)
    Up till now King Miraz had been talking in the tiresome way that some grown-ups have, which makes it quite clear that they are not really interested in what you are saying, but now he suddenly gave Caspian a very sharp look.
    “Eh? What’s that?” he said. “What old days do you mean?”
    “Oh, don’t you know, Uncle?” said Caspian. “When everything was quite different. When all the animals could talk, and there were nice people who lived in the streams and the trees. Naiads and Dryads they were called. And there were Dwarfs. And there were lovely little Fauns in all the woods. They had feet like goats. And—”
    “That’s all nonsense, for babies,” said the King sternly. “Only fit for babies, do you hear? You’re getting too old for that sort of stuff. At your age you ought to be thinking of battles and adventures, not fairy tales.”
    “Oh, but there were battles and adventures in those days,” said Caspian. “Wonderful adventures. Once there was a White Witch and she made herself Queen of the whole country. And she made it so that it was always winter. And then two boys and two girls came from somewhere and so they killed the Witch and they were made Kings and Queens of Narnia, and their names were Peter and Susan and Edmund and Lucy.