Narnia again, and fans of The Magician's Nephew will remember the "perky jackdaw" who, thinking he had MADE the land's first joke, is informed by Aslan that he had only BEEN the first joke. The other creatures' laughter quickly follows after the Lion reassures them by echoing a thought from Sir Gibbie. That novel, one of Lewis's favorites, is the most popular of MacDonald's realistic works, and is quoted no fewer than sixteen times in his George MacDonald anthology, including the second of these excerpts below.
“Laugh and fear not, creatures. Now that you are no longer dumb and witless, you need not always be grave. For jokes as well as justice come in with speech.
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“It is the heart that is not yet sure of its God, that is afraid to laugh in his presence.
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