jump. But as soon as they seemed to be getting back to Uncle Andrew's study, or even to 
their own world, Polly was to shout "Change" and they would slip off their greens and put 
on their yellows. Digory wanted to be the one who shouted "Change" but Polly wouldn't 
agree.
    
    They put on the green rings, took hands, and once more shouted "One-Two-Three-Go". 
This time it worked. It is very hard to tell you what it felt like, for everything 
happened so quickly. At first there were bright lights moving about in a black sky; 
Digory always thinks these were stars and even swears that he saw Jupiter quite 
close-close enough to see its moon. But almost at once there were rows and rows of roofs 
and chimney pots about them, and they could see St Paul's and knew they were looking at 
London. But you could see through the walls of all the houses. Then they could see Uncle 
Andrew, very vague and shadowy, but getting clearer and more solid-looking all the time, 
just as if he were coming into focus. But before he became quite real Polly shouted 
"Change", and they did change, and our world faded away like a dream, and the green light 
above grew stronger and stronger, till their heads came out of the pool and they 
scrambled ashore. And there was the wood all about them, as green and bright and still as 
ever. The whole thing had taken less than a minute.
    
    "There!" said Digory. "That's alright. 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.
    
    
    
    CHAPTER FOUR
    
    THE BELL AND THE HAMMER
    
    THERE was no doubt about the Magic this time. Down and down they rushed, first 
through darkness and then through a mass of vague and whirling shapes which might have 
been almost anything. It grew lighter. Then suddenly they felt that they were standing on 
something solid. A moment later everything came into focus and they were able to look 
about them.
    
    "What a queer place!" said Digory.
    
    "I don't like it," said Polly with something like a shudder.
    
    What they noticed first was the light. It wasn't like sunlight, and it wasn't like 
electric light, or lamps, or candles, or any other light they had ever seen. It was a 
dull, rather red light, not at all cheerful. It was steady and did not flicker. They were 
standing on a flat paved surface and buildings rose all around them. There was no roof 
overhead; they were in a sort of courtyard. The sky was extraordinarily dark-a blue that 
was almost black. When you had seen that sky you wondered that there should be any light 
at all.
    
    "It's very funny weather here," said Digory. "I wonder if we've arrived just in time 
for a thunderstorm; or an eclipse."
    
    "I don't like it," said Polly.