The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

"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