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Monday & Tuesday Literature Student Materials The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
CHAPTER ONE
THE PICTURE IN THE BEDROOM
THERE was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb , and he almost deserved it. His parents called him Eustace Clarence and masters called him Scrubb. I can't tell you how his friends spoke to him, for he had none. He didn't call his Father and Mother "Father" and "Mother" , but Harold and Alberta. They were very up-to-date and advanced people. They were vegetarians, non-smokers and teetotallers and wore a special kind of underclothes. In their house there was very little furniture and very few clothes on beds and the windows were always open.
Eustace Clarence liked animals , especially beetles, if they were dead and pinned on a card. He liked books if they were books of information and had pictures of grain elevators or of fat foreign children doing exercises in model schools.
Eustace Clarence disliked his cousins the four Pevensies, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. But he was quite glad when he heard that Edmund and Lucy were coming to stay. For deep down inside him he liked bossing and bullying; and , though he was a puny little person who couldn't have stood up even to Lucy, let alone Edmund , in a fight, he knew that there are dozens of ways to give people a bad time if you are in your own home and they are only visitors.
Edmund and Lucy did not at all want to come and stay with Uncle Harold and Aunt Alberta. But it really couldn't be helped. Father had got a job lecturing in America for sixteen weeks that summer , and Mother was to go with him because she hadn't had a real holiday for ten years. Peter was working very hard for an exam and he was to spend the holidays being coached by old Professor Kirke in whose house these four children had had wonderful adventures long ago in the war years. If he had still been in that house he would have had them all to stay. But he had somehow become poor since the old days and was
living in a small cottage with only one bedroom to spare. It would have cost too much money to take the
other three all to America, and Susan had gone.
Grown-ups thought her the pretty one of the family and she was no good at school work (though otherwise very old for her age) and Mother said she "would get far more out of a trip to America than the youngsters". Edmund and Lucy tried not to grudge Susan her luck, but it was dreadful having to spend the summer holidays at their Aunt's. "But it's far worse for me," said Edmund, "because you'll at least have a room of your own and I shall have to share a bedroom with that record stinker , Eustace."
The story begins on an afternoon when Edmund and Lucy were stealing a few precious minutes alone
together. And of course they were talking about Namia, which was the name of their own private and
secret country. Most of us, I suppose, have a secret country but for most of us it is only an imaginary
country. Edmund and Lucy were luckier than other people in that respect. Their secret country was real.
They had already visited it twice; not in a game or a dream but in reality. They had got there of course
by Magic, which is the only way of getting to Narnia. And a promise, or very nearly a promise , had been
made them in Narnia itself that they would some day get back. You may imagine that they talked about
it a good deal, when they got the chance.
They were in Lucy's room, sitting on the edge of her bed and looking at a picture on the opposite wall. It
was the only picture in the house that they liked. Aunt Alberta didn't like it at all (that was why it was
put away in a little back room upstairs), but she couldn't get rid of it because it had been a wedding
present from someone she did not want to offend.
It was a picture of a ship - a ship sailing straight towards you. Her prow was gilded and shaped like the
head of a dragon with wide-open mouth. She had only one mast and one large, square sail which was a
rich purple. The sides of the ship - what you could see of them where the gilded wings of the dragon
ended-were green. She had just run up to the top of one glorious blue wave, and the nearer slope of that
wave came down towards you, with streaks and bubbles on it. She was obviously running fast before a
gay wind, listing over a little on her port side. (By the way, if you are going to read this story at all, and
if you don't know already, you had better get it into your head that the left of a ship when you are
looking ahead , is port, and the right is starboard .) All the sunlight fell on her from that side, and the
water on that side was full of greens and purples. On the other, it was darker blue from the shadow of the
ship.
"The question is," said Edmund, "whether it doesn't make things worse, looking at a Narnian ship when
you can't get there."
"Even looking is better than nothing," said Lucy. "And she is such a very Narnian ship."
"Still playing your old game?" said Eustace Clarence, who had been listening outside the door and now
came grinning into the room. Last year, when he had been staying with the Pevensies , he had managed
to hear them all talking ofNarnia and he loved teasing them about it. He thought of course that they
were making it all up; and as he was far too stupid to make anything up himself, he did not approve of
that.
"You're not wanted here," said Edmund curtly.
"I'm trying to think of a limerick ," said Eustace. "Something like this:
"Some kids who played games about Narnia Got gradually balmier and balmier - "
air and water. But it was the smell , the wild, briny smell, which really convinced Lucy that she was not dreaming.
"Stop it," came Eustace's voice, squeaky with fright and bad temper. "It's some silly trick you two are playing. Stop it. I'll tell Alberta - Ow!"
The other two were much more accustomed to adventures, but, just exactly as Eustace Clarence said "Ow," they both said "Ow" too. The reason was that a great cold, salt splash had broken right out of the frame and they were breathless from the smack of it, besides being wet through.
"I'll smash the rotten thing," cried Eustace; and then several things happened at the same time. Eustace rushed towards the picture. Edmund, who knew something about magic, sprang after him, warning him to look out and not to be a fool. Lucy grabbed at him from the other side and was dragged forward. And by this time either they had grown much smaller or the picture had grown bigger. Eustace jumped to try to pull it off the wall and found himself standing on the frame ; in front of him was not glass but real sea, and wind and waves rushing up to the frame as they might to a rock. He lost his head and clutched at the other two who had jumped up beside him. There was a second of struggling and shouting, and just as they thought they had got their balance a great blue roller surged up round them, swept them off their feet, and drew them down into the sea. Eustace's despairing cry suddenly ended as the water got into his mouth.
Lucy thanked her stars that she had worked hard at her swimming last summer term. It is true that she would have got on much better if she had used a slower stroke, and also that the water felt a great deal colder than it had looked while it was only a picture. Still, she kept her head and kicked her shoes off, as everyone ought to do who falls into deep water in their clothes. She even kept her mouth shut and her eyes open. They were still quite near the ship; she saw its green side towering high above them, and people looking at her from the deck. Then, as one might have expected, Eustace clutched at her in a panic and down they both went.
When they came up again she saw a white figure diving off the ship's side. Edmund was close beside her now, treading water, and had caught the arms of the howling Eustace. Then someone else, whose face was vaguely familiar, slipped an arm under her from the other side. There was a lot of shouting going on from the ship, heads crowding together above the bulwarks , ropes being thrown. Edmund and the stranger were fastening ropes round her. After that followed what seemed a very long delay during which her face got blue and her teeth began chattering. In reality the delay was not very long; they were waiting till the moment when she could be got on board the ship without being dashed against its side. Even with all their best endeavours she had a bruised knee when she finally stood, dripping and shivering, on the deck. After her Edmund was heaved up, and then the miserable Eustace. Last of all came the stranger - a golden-headed boy some years older than herself.
"Ca - Ca - Caspian!" gasped Lucy as soon as she had breath enough. For Caspian it was; Caspian, the
boy king ofNarnia whom they had helped to set on the throne during their last visit. Immediatel y
Edmund recognized him too. All three shook hands and clapped one another on the back with great
delight.
"But who is your friend?" said Caspian almost at once, turning to Eustace with his cheerfu l smile. But
Eustace was crying much harder than any boy of his age has a right to cry when nothing worse than a
wetting has happened to him, and would only yell out, "Let me go. Let me go back. I don't like it."
"Let you go?" said Caspian. "But where?"
Eustace rushed to the ship's side, as if he expected to see the picture frame hanging above the sea, and
perhaps a glimpse of Lucy's bedroom. What he saw was blue waves flecked with foam, and paler blue
sky, both spreading without a break to the horizon. Perhaps we can hardly blame him if his heart sank.
He was promptly sick.
"Hey! Rynelf," said Caspian to one of the sailors. "Bring spiced wine for their Majesties. You'll need
something to warm you after that dip." He called Edmund and Lucy their Majesties because they and
Peter and Susan had all been Kings and Queens ofNarnia long before his time. Narnian time flows
differently from ours. If you spent a hundred years in Narnia, you would still come back to our world at
the very same hour of the very same day on which you left. And then, if you went back to Narnia after
spending a week here, you might find that a thousand N amian years had passed, or only a day, or no
time at all. You never know till you get there. Consequently, when the Pevensie children had returned to
Namia last time for their second visit, it was (for the Namians) as if King Arthur came back to Britain,
as some people say he will. And I say the sooner the better.
Rynelf returned with the spiced wine steaming in a flagon and four silver cups. It was just what one
wanted, and as Lucy and Edmund sipped it they could feel the warmth going right down to their toes.
But Eustace made faces and spluttered and spat it out and was sick again and began to cry again and
asked if they hadn't any Plumptree's Vitaminized Nerve Food and could it be made with distilled water
and anyway he insisted on being put ashore at the next station.
"This is a merry shipmate you've brought us, Brother," whispered Caspian to Edmund with a chuckle;
but before he could say anything more Eustace burst out again.
"Oh! Ugh! What on earth's that! Take it away, the horrid thing."
He really had some excuse this time for feeling a little surprised. Something very curious indeed had
come out of the cabin in the poop and was slowly approaching them. You might call it - and indeed it
was - a Mouse. But then it was a Mouse on its hind legs and stood about two feet high. A thin band of
gold passed round its head under one ear and over the other and in this was stuck a long crimson feather.
manage. His shoes , sandals and sea-boots were hopelessl y big but she did not mind going barefoot on board ship. When she had finished dressing she looked out of her window at the water rushing past and took a long deep breath. She felt quite sure they were in for a lovely time.
Ehapter 1
Washington Becomes
President
Home at Mount Vernon The
candles in the windows of George
Washington's home at Mount Vernon
shone brightly on Christmas Eve
1783, as they did every Christmas
Eve. This Christmas Eve, though,
The_Big_Question_ Whywas George Washingtonchosen to be the first president of the UnitedStates?
was different. One month earlier the United States and
Great Britain had signed a peace treaty ending the
Revolutionary War.
get them through the hard work ahead. They turned to George Washington to serve as chairman of the convention. Again, Washington agreed to serve. And now, with the Constitution ratified by the states,Washington knew he would be^ Vocabulary ........... ratify, v. to approve called to serve again. As expected, he was everyone's choice to be the nation's first president. Once again, he knew he could not say no. Forever would have to wait. He would serve the republic again to make sure the new nation got off to a good start. On April 16, Washington said goodbye to Mount Vernon once again and set out for New York, the nation 's temporary capital. There his inauguration would take place. An inauguration is a formal ceremony at the start of a term of office.
George Washington was sworn in as president on April 30, 1789.
The trip from Mount Vernon to New York City took far longer than Washington expected. In every village and town he traveled through, he had to attend speeches, parades, and dinners in his honor. Citizens lined the streets to cheer as his carriage passed by. On the country roads, men on horseback rode in front of, behind, and alongside Washington 's carriage. The traffic filled the count ry air with dust as the journey became one long parade. After eight days, Washington finally arrived in New York. Inauguration Day-April 30, 1789-dawned bright and sunny in New York City. A crowd of thousands assembled in front of the building known as Federal Hall. Shortly after noon, George Washington and a^ Vocabulary ........... small group of officials stepped out on^ oath of office,^ n. a promise made the balcony. Placing his hand on a Bible, by a government Washington repeated the oath of office offi cial to obey the law and fulfill the written in the new Constitution: "I do responsibilities of solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute his or her j ob the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability , preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." Because there were no loudspeakers in 1789,few people on the street below could hear the words. Nevertheless, they knew they had wit nessed a historic moment. After Washington spoke the final words of the oath, an official called out , "Long live George Washington, President of the United States!" The crowd cheered wildly.
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