CHAPTER ELEVEN THE LION ROARS（第3/3页）

“Is it a Romp，Aslan？”cried the youth．And apparently it was．But nearly everyone seemed to have a different idea as to what they were playing．It may have been Tig，but Lucy never discovered who was It．It was rather like Blind Man’s Buff，only everyone behaved as if they were blindfolded．It was not unlike Hunt the Slipper，but the slipper was never found．What made it more complicated was that the man on the donkey，who was old and enormously fat，began calling out at once，“Refreshments！ Time for refreshments，”and falling off his donkey and being bundled on to it again by the others，while the donkey was under the impression that the whole thing was a circus and tried to give a display of walking on its hind legs．And all the time there were more and more vine leaves everywhere．And soon not only leaves but vines．They were climbing up everything．They were running up the legs of the tree people and circling round their necks．Lucy put up her hands to push back her hair and found she was pushing back vine branches．The donkey was a mass of them．His tail was completely entangled and something dark was nodding between his ears．Lucy looked again and saw it was a bunch of grapes．After that it was mostly grapes—overhead and underfoot and all around．

“Refreshments！ Refreshments，”roared the old man．

Everyone began eating，and whatever hothouses your people may have，you have never tasted such grapes．Really good grapes，firm and tight on the outside，but bursting into cool sweetness when you put them into your mouth，were one of the things the girls had never had quite enough of before．Here，there were more than anyone could possibly want，and rib table-manners at all．One saw sticky and stained fingers everywhere，and，though mouths were full，the laughter never ceased nor the yodelling cries of Euan，euan，eu-oi-oi-oi-oi，till all of a sudden everyone felt at the same moment that the game (whatever it was)，and the feast，ought to be over，and everyone flopped down breathless on the ground and turned their faces to Aslan to hear what he would say next．

At that moment the sun was just rising and Lucy remembered something and whispered to Susan，

“I say，Su，I know who they are．”

“Who？”

“The boy with the wild face is Bacchus and the old one on the donkey is Silenus．Don’t you remember Mr.. Tumnus telling us about them long ago？”

“Yes，of course．But I say，Lu”

“What？”

“I wouldn’t have felt safe with Bacchus and all his wild girls if we’d met them without Aslan．”

“I should think not，”said Lucy．