第24章

Suddenly, just as he was sinking beneath the waves of slumber, he awoke in fierce pain.The birds were upon him - all over him - and had begun to tear him with beaks and claws.He had but time, however, to feel that he could not move under their weight, when they set up a hideous screaming, and scattered like a cloud.Lina was among them, snapping and striking with her paws, while her tail knocked them over and over.But they flew up, gathered, and descended on her in a swarm, perching upon every part of her body, so that he could see only a huge misshapen mass, which seemed to go rolling away into the darkness.He got up and tried to follow, but could see nothing, and after wandering about hither and thither for some time, found himself again beside the hawthorn.He feared greatly that the birds had been too much for Lina, and had torn her to pieces.In a little while, however, she came limping back, and lay down in her old place.Curdie also lay down, but, from the pain of his wounds, there was no sleep for him.When the light came he found his clothes a good deal torn and his skin as well, but gladly wondered why the wicked birds had not at once attacked his eyes.Then he turned, looking for Lina.She rose and crept to him.But she was in far worse plight than he - plucked and gashed and torn with the beaks and claws of the birds, especially about the bare part of her neck, so that she was pitiful to see.And those worst wounds she could not reach to lick.

'Poor Lina!' said Curdie, 'you got all those helping me.'

She wagged her tail, and made it clear she understood him.Then it flashed upon Curdie's mind that perhaps this was the companion the princess had promised him.For the princess did so many things differently from what anybody looked for! Lina was no beauty certainly, but already, the first night, she had saved his life.

'Come along, Lina,' he said, 'we want water.'

She put her nose to the earth, and after snuffing for a moment, darted off in a straight line.Curdie followed.The ground was so uneven, that after losing sight of her many times, at last he seemed to have lost her altogether.In a few minutes, however, he came upon her waiting for him.Instantly she darted off again.

After he had lost and found her again many times, he found her the last time lying beside a great stone.As soon as he came up she began scratching at it with her paws.When he had raised it an inch or two, she shoved in first her nose and then her teeth, and lifted with all the might of her neck.

When at length between them they got it up, there was a beautiful little well.He filled his cap with the clearest and sweetest water, and drank.Then he gave to Lina, and she drank plentifully.

Next he washed her wounds very carefully.And as he did so, he noted how much the bareness of her neck added to the strange repulsiveness of her appearance.Then he bethought him of the goatskin wallet his mother had given him, and taking it from his shoulders, tried whether it would do to make a collar of for the poor animal.He found there was just enough, and the hair so similar in colour to Lina's, that no one could suspect it of having grown somewhere else.

He took his knife, ripped up the seams of the wallet, and began trying the skin to her neck.it was plain she understood perfectly what he wished, for she endeavoured to hold her neck conveniently, turning it this way and that while he contrived, with his rather scanty material, to make the collar fit.As his mother had taken care to provide him with needles and thread, he soon had a nice gorget ready for her.He laced it on with one of his boot laces, which its long hair covered.Poor Lina looked much better in it.

Nor could any one have called it a piece of finery.If ever green eyes with a yellow light in them looked grateful, hers did.

As they had no longer any bag to carry them in, Curdie and Lina now ate what was left of the provisions.Then they set out again upon their journey.For seven days it lasted.They met with various adventures, and in all of them Lina proved so helpful, and so ready to risk her life for the sake of her companion, that Curdie grew not merely very fond but very trustful of her; and her ugliness, which at first only moved his pity, now actually increased his affection for her.One day, looking at her stretched on the grass before him, he said:

'Oh, Lina! If the princess would but burn you in her fire of roses!'

She looked up at him, gave a mournful whine like a dog, and laid her head on his feet.What or how much he could not tell, but clearly she had gathered something from his words.