登陆注册
9830000000003

第3章 The Wood Between The Worlds

Uncle Andrew and his study vanished instantly. Then, for a moment, everything became muddled. The next thing Digory knew was that there was a soft green light coming down on him from above, and darkness below. He didn't seem to be standing on anything, or sitting, or lying. Nothing appeared to be touching him. "I believe I'm in water," said Digory. "Or under water." This frightened him for a second, but almost at once he could feel that he was rushing upwards. Then his head suddenly came out into the air and he found himself scrambling ashore, out on to smooth grassy ground at the edge of a pool.

As he rose to his feet he noticed that he was neither dripping nor panting for breath as anyone would expect after being under water. His clothes were perfectly dry. He was standing by the edge of a small pool-not more than ten feet from side to side-in a wood. The trees grew close together and were so leafy that he could get no glimpse of the sky. All the light was green light that came through the leaves: but there must have been a very strong sun overhead, for this green daylight was bright and warm. It was the quietest wood you could possibly imagine. There were no birds, no insects, no animals, and no wind. You could almost feel the trees growing. The pool he had just got out of was not the only pool. There were dozens of others-a pool every few yards as far as his eyes could reach. You could almost feel the trees drinking the water up with their roots. This wood was very much alive. When he tried to describe it afterwards Digory always said, "It was a rich place: as rich as plum cake."

The strangest thing was that, almost before he had looked about him, Digory had half forgotten how he had come there. At any rate, he was certainly not thinking about Polly, or Uncle Andrew, or even his Mother. He was not in the least frightened, or excited, or curious. If anyone had asked him "Where did you come from?" he would probably have said, "I've always been here." That was what it felt like-as if one had always been in that place and never been bored although nothing had ever happened. As he said long afterwards, "It's not the sort of place where things happen. The trees go on growing, that's all."

After Digory had looked at the wood for a long time he noticed that there was a girl lying on her back at the foot of a tree a few yards away. Her eyes were nearly shut but not quite, as if she were just between sleeping and waking. So he looked at her for a long time and said nothing. And at last she opened her eyes and looked at him for a long time and she also said nothing. Then she spoke, in a dreamy, contented sort of voice.

"I think I've seen you before," she said.

"I rather think so too," said Digory. "Have you been here long?"

"Oh, always," said the girl. "At least-I don't know-a very long time."

"So have I," said Digory.

"No, you haven't," said she. "I've just seen you come up out of that pool."

"Yes, I suppose I did," said Digory with a puzzled air. "I'd forgotten."

Then for quite a long time neither said any more.

"Look here," said the girl presently, "I wonder, did we ever really meet before? I had a sort of idea-a sort of picture in my head-of a boy and a girl, like us-living somewhere quite different-and doing all sorts of things. Perhaps it was only a dream."

"I've had that same dream, I think," said Digory. "About a boy and a girl, living next door-and something about crawling among rafters. I remember the girl had a dirty face."

"Aren't you getting it mixed? In my dream it was the boy who had the dirty face."

"I can't remember the boy's face," said Digory and then added, "Hullo! What's that?"

"Why! it's a guinea-pig," said the girl. And it was-a fat guinea-pig, nosing about in the grass.

But round the middle of the guinea-pig there ran a tape, and tied on to it by the tape, was a bright yellow ring.

"Look! look," cried Digory. "The ring! And look! You've got one on your finger. And so have I."

The girl now sat up, really interested at last. They stared very hard at one another, trying to remember. And then, at exactly the same moment, she shouted out, "Mr Ketterley", and he shouted out, "Uncle Andrew" , and they knew who they were and began to remember the whole story. After a few minutes' hard talking they had got it straight. Digory explained how beastly Uncle Andrew had been.

"What do we do now?" said Polly. "Take the guinea-pig and go home?"

"There's no hurry," said Digory, with a huge yawn.

"I think there is," said Polly. "This place is too quiet. It's so-so dreamy. You're almost asleep. If we once give in to it we shall just lie down and drowse for ever and ever."

"It's very nice here," said Digory.

"Yes, it is," said Polly. "But we've got to get back." She stood up and began to go cautiously towards the guinea-pig. But then she changed her mind.

"We might as well leave the guinea-pig," she said. "It's perfectly happy here, and your uncle will only do something horrid to it if we take it home."

"I bet he would," answered Digory. "Look at the way he's treated us. By the way, how do we get home?"

"Go back into the pool, I expect."

They came and stood together at the edge, looking down into the smooth water. It was full of the reflection of the green, leafy branches; they made it look very deep.

"We haven't any bathing things," said Polly.

"We shan't need them, silly," said Digory. "We're going in with our clothes on. Don't you remember it didn't wet us on the way up?"

"Can you swim?"

"A bit. Can you?"

"Well-not much."

"I don't think we shall need to swim," said Digory. "We want to go down, don't we?"

Neither of them much liked the idea of jumping into that pool, but neither said so to the other. They took hands and said "One-Two-Three-Go" and jumped. There was a great splash and of course they closed their eyes. But when they opened them again they found they were still standing, hand in hand, in the green wood, and hardly up to their ankles in water. The pool was apparently only a couple of inches deep. They splashed back on to the dry ground.

"What on earth's gone wrong?" said Polly in a frightened voice; but not quite so frightened as you might expect, because it is hard to feel really frightened in that wood. The place is too peaceful.

"Oh! I know," said Digory. "Of course it won't work. We're still wearing our yellow rings. They're for the outward journey, you know. The green ones take you home. We must change rings. Have you got pockets? Good. Put your yellow ring in your left. I've got two greens. Here's one for you."

They put on their green rings and came back to the pool. But before they tried another jump Digory gave a long "O-o-oh!"

"What's the matter?" said Polly.

"I've just had a really wonderful idea," said Digory. "What are all the other pools?"

"How do you mean?"

"Why, if we can get back to our own world by jumping into this pool, mightn't we get somewhere else by jumping into one of the others? Supposing there was a world at the bottom of every pool."

"But I thought we were already in your Uncle Andrew's Other World or Other Place or whatever he called it. Didn't you say-"

"Oh, bother Uncle Andrew," interrupted Digory. "I don't believe he knows anything about it. He never had the pluck to come here himself. He only talked of one Other World. But suppose there were dozens?"

"You mean, this wood might be only one of them?"

"No, I don't believe this wood is a world at all. I think it's just a sort of in-between place."

Polly looked puzzled.

"Don't you see?" said Digory. "No, do listen. Think of our tunnel under the slates at home. It isn't a room in any of the houses. In a way, it isn't really part of any of the houses. But once you're in the tunnel you can go along it and come into any of the houses in the row. Mightn't this wood be the same?-a place that isn't in any of the worlds, but once you've found that place you can get into them all."

"Well, even if you can-" began Polly, but Digory went on as if he hadn't heard her.

"And of course that explains everything," he said. "That's why it is so quiet and sleepy here. Nothing ever happens here. Like at home. It's in the houses that people talk, and do things, and have meals. Nothing goes on in the in-between places, behind the walls and above the ceilings and under the floor, or in our own tunnel. But when you come out of our tunnel you may find yourself in any house. I think we can get out of this place into jolly well anywhere! We don't need to jump back into the same pool we came up by. Or not just yet."

"The Wood between the Worlds," said Polly dreamily. "It sounds rather nice."

"Come on," said Digory. "Which pool shall we try?"

"Look here," said Polly, "I'm not going to try any new pool till we've made sure that we can get back by the old one. We're not even sure if it'll work yet."

"Yes," said Digory. "And get caught by Uncle Andrew and have our rings taken away before we've had any fun. No thanks."

"Couldn't we just go part of the way down into our own pool?" said Polly. "Just to see if it works. Then if it does, we'll change rings and come up again before we're really back in Mr Ketterley's study."

"Can we go part of the way down?"

"Well, it took time coming up. I suppose it'll take a little time going back."

Digory made rather a fuss about agreeing to this, but he had to in the end because Polly absolutely refused to do any exploring in new worlds until she had made sure about getting back to the old one. She was quite as brave as he about some dangers (wasps, for instance) but she was not so interested in finding out things nobody had ever heard of before; for Digory was the sort of person who wants to know everything, and when he grew up he became the famous Professor Kirke who comes into other books.

After a good deal of arguing they agreed to put on their green rings ("Green for safety," said Digory, "so you can't help remembering which is which" ) and hold hands and 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 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.

同类推荐
  • 生气的小茉莉

    生气的小茉莉

    小茉莉因生气而凭空消失,从墙上的古画进入一个叫阿巴图的神奇世界,迷失了回家的路。整日活得担心吊胆的水巫婆告诉她,如果要重新回到家,必须走到世界的尽头,因为那里是快乐的源头,可以通往世界任何地方。于是,小茉莉决定去寻找世界的尽头。她经过木偶城堡、尘埃镇、杜小姐山、地下王国……在这个旅程中,她遇到了各种快乐和不快乐的人,经历了许多稀奇古怪的事。最终,她成功抵达世界的尽头了吗?她寻找到快乐的真谛了吗?
  • 圆桌小骑士(绿绿的小蚂蚱)

    圆桌小骑士(绿绿的小蚂蚱)

    小蚂蚱因为受到“不公正的待遇”离家出走了,还打电话告诉绿绿老师说他被一个坏老头绑架了。5555,绿绿老师急得差点在大街上哭了起来——差点哭不等于真哭,勇敢的绿绿老师居然单枪匹马地把小蚂蚱救了出来,可出来一看,“绑架犯”和赶来救援的警察正紧紧地拥抱在一起——这世界真叫人看不懂哦!可勇敢的绿绿老师有时也挺软弱的,他生病了,自说自话地以为得了禽流感,把自己关在家里,自怨自艾:这么年轻还这么帅,就要……关键时刻,小蚂蚱出现了——真是一对亲密无间的难兄难弟哦!
  • 每天学一点哲学常识

    每天学一点哲学常识

    本书策划出版是立意于让更多的人打破学科壁垒,推广学科常识。常识能提升人的文化素养,改善一个人的文化形象。人文学科本来就没有很严格的区分,而掌握更多的学科常识对于我们成为一个有文化素养的人很有意义。这虽然未必是我们对知识分工所带来的局限作抗争,但不同的学科常识使我们更能成为一个丰富而有趣的人。这不免使我们想起培根先生那段著名的论述,“读史使人明智,读诗使人聪慧,演算使人精密,哲理使人深刻,伦理学使人有修养,逻辑修辞使人善辩。总之,知识能塑造人的性格。不仅如此,精神上的各种缺陷,都可以通过求知来改善--正如身体上的缺陷,可以通过运动来改善一样。这些话语所蕴涵的深刻含义,令人咀嚼不尽。
  • 布鲁克林大桥

    布鲁克林大桥

    14岁的男孩约瑟夫·密德姆从小在布鲁克林长大,在外人看来,他是一个很幸福的孩子,因为他的父母创造了世界上第一只泰迪熊,他们家的糖果店变成了玩具熊加工厂,金钱滚滚而来,生活似乎什么也不缺。可是约瑟夫却不这么认为,他厌烦了没完没了的干活儿和枯燥无味的生活,渴望生活能有些变化,一心想着到康尼岛的月神乐园去痛快玩一场。在最爱的歌尔达姑妈不幸病逝后,在莫名“失恋”后,在弟弟病重、垂死挣扎时,在老鼠姑妈也要离开时,约瑟夫的身心一次次受到折磨,内心的想法也在慢慢发生着变化……
  • 神奇图书室(魔力校园)

    神奇图书室(魔力校园)

    英国伦敦一所小学的学生代表来到白云小学进行为期一个月的交流。白云小学一个古老的图书室的秘密也因此揭开。能够将人带入另一个世界的奇妙之书引领着安小小等人去发掘影子城市的秘密,而巨大的危机也在悄然逼近!拥有树洞里的面具意味着什么样的使命?最后的结局是生存还是死亡?
热门推荐
  • 龙瞳战神

    龙瞳战神

    天门七大至尊之一,攻击最强的战尊,重生为秦家公子。前世他改良武学,开创炼药手法,亿万修士拜其为师。这一世他融合绝世龙瞳,再次崛起,开启一段逆天之旅。
  • 相宗八要

    相宗八要

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 鲸鱼寄情大海

    鲸鱼寄情大海

    一条路,一段时光,会有人一起相约而行,也会有握手说再见的时候;问时光,怎么样?暖风送来低语。
  • 步步生情

    步步生情

    深爱的男人布下层层以爱为名的局,原来只为了最后予以她最沉重的一击;深爱的女人被自己一手逼到绝境,他却自觉身受的痛楚未曾减少半分;到最后惊觉自己一错再错,造成的伤害不知是否还来得及弥补……一场情事,是否美好收场?
  • 四海鲸骑(第二部)

    四海鲸骑(第二部)

    故事以大明落难太子建文为主角,讲述了建文在鲸骑商团老板铜雀的资助下、与少女忍者百地七里、蒙古蛮子腾格斯、西洋学者哈罗德一起寻找佛岛的海上冒险故事。
  • 无须讨好世界,且让自己欢喜

    无须讨好世界,且让自己欢喜

    本书从事业、爱情及其生活方式等各个方面,探讨如何可以做自己喜欢的事、爱自己爱的人、过自己想要过的生活,以及如何与焦虑、抑郁、悲伤、孤独等负面情绪相处,如何寻找更为积极的方式与态度应对成长过程与生命本身必须应对的困境与麻烦。作者的心理咨询师身份和专业素养让这本书充满哲学思辨与积极心理学的味道。相信这本书能够陪伴读者寻找成长与改变的可能和契机,找到自己生命中的幸福与快乐。
  • 新译大乘起信论

    新译大乘起信论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 青梅难负竹马情

    青梅难负竹马情

    【完结文!很腐,慎入。】当傻子的好处:一,能常人所不能,傻常人所不傻。二,没有缺点,缺点就是最大的优点。三,吃陌生美男的豆腐不会喊非礼!例如,戏弄太子,消遣王爷,撞撞书生。重点PS:那个倾城倾国的“邪魅丫鬟”,能不能独占为已用?*本书简体出版名:《一生一世:青梅难负竹马情》(上、下册,亲们购一本可好?)
  • 灭荼演义前传

    灭荼演义前传

    一个是安逸祥和的云端秘境,一个是猖獗可恨的凡间邪教。当秘境被邪教毁灭,凡间的众生又会怎么做呢?追求美好的人必然肩负着一个使命,那就是无论自己能力如何,都要将那些妄图消灭美好的势力取缔,并求索于漫漫正道。本书尽管穿插了一些真实的历史时间点,但含有大量虚构,切勿当真对待。
  • 腹黑竹马

    腹黑竹马

    所谓青梅竹马,就是相亲相爱共度一生,可是自从她遇见了梁自白之后,就断送了一生。偏偏有这么一个小丫头片子不给面子,软硬不吃。她曾小遥怕过谁,偏偏有个人就是她的地域,躲也躲不掉。片段一:某女正在奉家里老佛爷的命,跟一位可谓青年才俊的男子相亲,两人聊的很嗨皮。不料,某男可怜兮兮的跑过来,趴着她:”老婆,就算我们吵架了,你也用不着跑出来跟人家相亲吧?“青年才俊毫不留情的,不留一片云朵的转身就走,某女把某男拖到角落里一顿暴打。片段二:某男日思夜想设计一个超浪漫的求婚现场,集结各路人马,前来助阵,一番海誓山盟之后。“曾小遥,嫁给我吧!”某女脑子瞬间死机,半天没反应过来,转身想逃,发现四周都是他梁自白的人,想起昨晚丫给她发的短信,砰的一声坐在地上,“爷,给条活路。”当腹黑遇上腹黑,当火星撞上地球,当一个男人瞎了眼,那么就证明有个女人要遭殃了,此文男主腹黑,女主搞笑,青梅竹马文,有爱有爱……