Quote 4
The children were walking on hour after hour into what seemed a delicious dream. Long ago they had left the coats behind them. And by now they had even stopped saying to one another, "Look! There's a kingfisher!" or "I say, bluebells!" or "What was that lovely smell?" or "Just listen to that thrush!" They walked on in silence drinking it all in, passing through patches of warm sunlight into cool, green thickets and out again into wide mossy glades where tall elms raised the leafy roof far overhead, and then into dense masses of flowering currant and among hawthorn bushes where the sweet smell was almost overpowering. (12.1)
Peter, Susan, and Lucy have an innate appreciation for the beauties of nature.
Quote 5
"It's an owl," said Peter. "This is going to be a wonderful place for birds. I shall go to bed now. I say, let's go and explore to-morrow. You might find anything in a place like this. Did you see those mountains as we came along? And the woods? There might be eagles. There might be stags. There'll be hawks."
"Badgers!" said Lucy.
"Snakes!" said Edmund.
"Foxes!" said Susan. (1.12-15)
As soon as the children arrive at the Professor's house in the country, they are excited about the possibility of exploring the wilderness around them. What they don't realize is that they will be exploring a wilderness – but in a completely different world.
Quote 6
"Not for me," said Peter, "I'm going to explore in the house."
Everyone agreed to this and that was how the adventures began. It was the sort of house that you never seem to come to the end of, and it was full of unexpected places. (1.19-20)
Even though the children become confined to the house, they find out that staying inside can offer just as many opportunities for exploration as going out.