cs lewis

[mercifulserpent]

"There!" said several voices. "It isn't an animal at all. It's not alive."
"I tell you, it is an animal," said the Bulldog. "Smell it for yourself."
"Smelling isn't everything," said the Elephant.
"Why," said the Bulldog, "if a fellow can't trust his nose, what is he to trust?"
"Well, his brains perhaps," she replied mildly.

C. S. Lewis in The Magician's Nephew

"Then it was you who wounded Aravis?"
"It was I."
"But what for?"
"Child, I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no-one any story but his own."

in The Horse and his Boy, by C. S. Lewis.