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CHAPTER ONE

HOW SHASTA SET OUT ON HIS TRAVELS

THIS is the story of an adventure that happened in Narnia and Calore when Peter was High King in Narnia and his brother and his two sisters were King and Queens under him

In those days, far south in Calormen on a little creek of the sea, there lived a poor fisherman called Arsheesh, and with him there lived a boy who called him Father The boy's name was Shasta On , and in the afternoon he harnessed his donkey to a cart and loaded the cart with fish and went a e to sell it If it had sold well he would co to Shasta, but if it had sold badly he would find fault with hi to find fault with for Shasta had plenty of work to do,the cottage in which they both lived

Shasta was not at all interested in anything that lay south of his hoe with Arsheesh and he knew that there was nothing very interesting there In the village he only , dirty robes, and wooden shoes turned up at the toe, and turbans on their heads, and beards, talking to one another very slowly about things that sounded dull But he was very interested in everything that lay to the North because no one ever went that way and he was never allowed to go there hi the nets, and all alone, he would often look eagerly to the North One could see nothing but a grassy slope running up to a level ridge and beyond that the sky with perhaps a few birds in it

Sometimes if Arsheesh was there Shasta would say, "O my Father, what is there beyond that hill?" And then if the fisherman was in a bad temper he would box Shasta's ears and tell him to attend to his work Or if he was in a peaceable mood he would say, "O my son, do not allow your mind to be distracted by idle questions For one of the poets has said, `Application to business is the root of prosperity, but those who ask questions that do not concern theence'"

Shasta thought that beyond the hill there htful secret which his father wished to hide from him In reality, however, the fisherman talked like this because he didn't knohat lay to the North Neither did he care He had a very practical mind

One day there caer as unlike anydappled horse with flowing mane and tail and his stirrups and bridle were inlaid with silver The spike of a helmet projected from the middle of his silken turban and he wore a shirt of chainsci at his back, and his right hand grasped a lance His face was dark, but this did not surprise Shasta because all the people of Calormen are like that; what did surprise hileaold on the stranger's bare ar before hins to Shasta to kneel also

The stranger deht which of course the fisherman dared not refuse All the best they had was set before the Tarkaan for supper (and he didn't think much of it) and Shasta, as always happened when the fisheriven a hunk of bread and turned out of the cottage On these occasions he usually slept with the donkey in its little thatched stable But it was o to sleep yet, and Shasta, who had never learned that it is wrong to listen behind doors, sat doith his ear to a crack in the wooden wall of the cottage to hear what the grown-ups were talking about And this is what he heard

"And now, O my host," said the Tarkaan, "I have a mind to buy that boy of yours"

"O my master," replied the fisherreedy look that was probably co into his face as he said it), "what price could induce your servant, poor though he is, to sell into slavery his only child and his own flesh? Has not one of the poets said, `Natural affection is stronger than soup and offspring more precious than carbuncles?"'

"It is even so," replied the guest dryly "But another poet has likewise said, "He who atte his own back for the scourge" Do not load your aged mouth with falsehoods This boy is manifestly no son of yours, for your cheek is as dark as mine but the boy is fair and white like the accursed but beautiful barbarians who inhabit the remote North"

"Hoell it was said," answered the fisherman, "that Swords can be kept off with shields but the Eye of Wisdouest, that because of my extreme poverty I have never married and have no child But in that saan his august and beneficent reign, on a night when the ods to deprive me of my sleep Therefore I arose from my bed in this hovel and went forth to the beach to refreshthe cool air And presently I heard a noise as of oars co to me across the water and then, as it were, a weak cry And shortly after, the tide brought to the land a little boat in which there was nothing but a er and thirst who seemed to have died but a few moments before (for he was still war "Doubtless," said I, "these unfortunates have escaped frons of the gods, the elder has starved hiht of land" Accordingly, reods never fail to reward those who befriend the destitute, and being moved by compassion (for your servant is a man of tender heart) -"

"Leave out all these idle words in your own praise," interrupted the Tarkaan "It is enough to know that you took the child - and have had ten times the worth of his daily bread out of him in labour, as anyone can see And now tell me at once what price you put on him, for I am wearied with your loquacity"

"You yourself have wisely said," answered Arsheesh, "that the boy's labour has been to me of inesti the price For if I sell the boy I must undoubtedly either buy or hire another to do his work"

"I'll give you fifteen crescents for him," said the Tarkaan

"Fifteen!" cried Arsheesh in a voice that was so between a whine and a screaht of h you be My price is seventy"

At this point Shasta got up and tiptoed away He had heard all he wanted, for he had open listened when e and kneas done He was quite certain that Arsheesh would sell hi much more than fifteen crescents and much less than seventy, but that he and the Tarkaan would take hours in getting to an agreement

You ine that Shasta felt at all as you and I would feel if we had just overheard our parents talking about selling us for slaves For one thing, his life was already little better than slavery; for all he knew, the lordly stranger on the great horse ht be kinder to him than Arsheesh For another, the story about his own discovery in the boat had filled him with excitement and with a sense of relief He had often been uneasy because, try as he ht, he had never been able to love the fisherht to love his father And now, apparently, he was no relation to Arsheesh at all That took a great weight off his ht be the son of a Tarkaan myself - or the son of the Tisroc (may he live for ever) or o

f a god!"

He was standing out in the grassy place before the cottage while he thought these things Twilight was co on apace and a star or tas already out, but the remains of the sunset could still be seen in the west Not far away the stranger's horse, loosely tied to an iron ring in the wall of the donkey's stable, was grazing Shasta strolled over to it and patted its neck It went on tearing up the grass and took no notice of him

Then another thought came into Shasta's mind "I wonder what sort of a man that Tarkaan is," he said out loud "It would be splendid if he was kind So to do They wear lovely clothes and eat meat every day Perhaps he'd take me to the wars and I'd save his life in a battle and then he'd set ive me a palace and a chariot and a suit of arht send me to work on the fields in chains I wish I kne can I know? I bet this horse knows, if only he could tell me"

The Horse had lifted its head Shasta stroked its smooth-as-satin nose and said, "I wish you could talk, old fellow"

And then for a second he thought he was dreah in a low voice, the Horse said, "But I can"

Shasta stared into its great eyes and his own grew al, with astonishment

"How ever did you learn to talk?" he asked

"Hush! Not so loud," replied the Horse "Where I come from, nearly all the animals talk"

"Wherever is that?" asked Shasta