CHAPTER THREE THE WOOD BETWEEN THE WORLDS（第4/4页）

“There ！”said Digory．“That’s all right．Now for the adventure. Any pool will do．Come on．Let’s try that one．”

“Stop ！”said Polly. “Aren’t we going to mark this pool ？”

They stared at each other and turned quite white as they realized the dreadful thing that Digory had just been going to do．For there were any number of pools in the wood，and the pools were all alike and the trees were all alike，so that if they had once left behind the pool that led to our own world without making some sort of landmark，the chances would have been a hundred to one against their ever finding it again．

Digory’s hand was shaking as he opened his penknife and cut out a long strip of turf on the bank of the pool．The soil（which smelled nice）was of a rich reddish brown and showed up well against the green．“It’s a good thing one of us has some sense，”said Polly．

“Well don’t keep on gassing about it，”said Digory．“Come along，I want to see what’s in one of the other pools．”And Polly gave him a pretty sharp answer and he said something even nastier in reply．The quarrel lasted for several minutes but it would be dull to write it all down．Let us skip on to the moment at which they stood with beating hearts and rather scared faces on the edge of the unknown pool with their yellow rings on and held hands and once more said“One-Two-Three-Go ！”

Splash！ Once again it hadn’t worked．This pool，too，appeared to be only a puddle．Instead of reaching a new world they only got their feet wet and splashed their legs for the second time that morning（if it was a morning：it seems to be always the same time in the Wood between the Worlds）．

“Blast and botheration！”exclaimed Digory．“What’s gone wrong now ？ We’ve put our yellow rings on all right．He said yellow for the outward journey．”

Now the truth was that Uncle Andrew，who knew nothing about the Wood between the Worlds，had quite a wrong idea about the rings．The yellow ones weren’t “outward” rings and the green ones weren’t “homeward” rings；at least，not in the way he thought. The stuff of which both were made had all come from the wood. The stuff in the yellow rings had the power of drawing you into the wood；it was stuff that wanted to get back to its own place，the in-between place．But the stuff in the green rings is stuff that is trying to get out of its own place：so that a green ring would take you out of the wood into a world．Uncle Andrew，you see，was working with things he did not really understand；most magicians are．Of course Digory did not realize the truth quite clearly either，or not till later. But when they had talked it over，they decided to try their green rings on the new pool，just to see what happened．

“I’m game if you are，”said Polly．But she really said this because， in her heart of hearts，she now felt sure that neither kind of ring was going to work at all in the new pool，and so there was nothing worse to be afraid of than another splash．I am not quite sure that Digory had not the same feeling．At any rate，when they had both put on their greens and come back to the edge of the water，and taken hands again，they were certainly a good deal more cheerful and less solemn than they had been the first time.

“One-Two-Three-Go ！”said Digory．And they jumped．