The story happened a long time ago, when your grandpa was a kid.This story is very important because it tells us how everything between our own world and the kingdom of Narnia happened in the first place. At that time, Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street, and the Bastables were hunting for treasure on Lewisham Road.Back then, if you were a little boy, you had to wear a stiff Eton collar every day, and school was usually worse than it is now.However, the food is better than it is now; and when it comes to sweets, I don't want to tell you how cheap and delicious they are, because that will only make your mouth water for nothing.At that time, there was living in Lunby a girl named Polly Plummer.

Her house is in a long row with other houses.One morning, in the back garden, she saw a boy climbing up the wall from the next garden, with only his face showing.Polly was surprised because, so far.There were no children in the house except Mr Ketterley, an old bachelor, and Miss Ketterley, a spinster.She raised her head curiously, the strange boy's face was extremely dirty, even if he wiped his hands in the soil first, then cried a lot, and then wiped his face with muddy hands, it would not be so dirty.In fact, that's pretty much what he'd just done. "Hello!" said Polly.

"Hello!" the boy replied, "What's your name?" "Polly," said Polly, "and you?" "Digory," replied the boy. "Oh, what a funny name!" said Polly. "Polly is much funnier." "It's just funny," said Polly again. "It's not funny," the boy retorted. "I wash, anyway," said Polly, "and you need to wash now, especially when you...   She stopped. She was about to say "after you've wailed," but didn't think it was very polite. "Exactly, I just cried." Digory raised his voice a lot.Like a sad boy who doesn't care who knows he cried. "You'd cry, too," he continued, "if you'd been living in the country, with a pony, and a little river at the end of the garden, and you'd been made to live in such a wretched den."

"London is not a very bad place," said Polly bitterly.But the boy was too excited to notice her tone.He went on to say: "How can you be happy if your father is away in India and you have to come and live with your aunt and crazy uncle? And it's because they're looking after your mother, and your mother is sick and going to ...I'm going to die." He made a strange expression on his face when he wanted to hold back his tears. "I'm sorry, I don't know anything about it," Polly apologized humbly.Then, at a loss for what to say, and in order to divert Digory to a pleasant subject, she asked:

"Has Mr. Ketterley gone mad?" "Either mad," answered Digory, "or there is some secret. He has a study upstairs, and Aunt Letty has told me not to go there. It looks suspicious. Besides, he never follows Letty talk to Aunt Letty, and whenever he tried to say something to me at mealtimes, she stopped him. She would say, 'Andrew, leave the kid alone', or, 'I'm sure Digory doesn't want to know about that ', or, 'Digory, don't you want to play outside in the garden?'” "What is he trying to say?" "I don't know. He never said much. Oh, and one night, last night, when I was passing under the attic stairs to bed (I don't like to walk there), I'm sure I heard a shout."

"He probably kept a crazy wife there?" "I think so too." "Otherwise, he is counterfeiting money." "Perhaps he was a pirate before, like the man at the beginning of Treasure Island, always avoiding his fellow shipmates." "That's very interesting!" said Polly. "I never knew your house was so interesting." "You may find it amusing," said Digory, "but you won't be if you live in it. You don't want to be half asleep when you hear Uncle Andrew's footsteps whispering across the corridor towards you." Come on? And his eyes are so nasty.",

That was how Polly and Digory got to know each other when the summer holidays had just begun.They saw each other almost every day, and neither of them went to the seaside that year. Their expedition began that summer, one of the wettest and coldest in years, and they were confined to indoors, that is to say, indoors.There is something wonderful in prowling around a large house or row of houses with a stump of candle.Polly had discovered long ago that when she opened the little door in the attic of her house where all the storage was empty, she could see a dark place behind the cistern.You can drill in carefully.The inside is like a long tunnel, with a brick wall on one side and a sloping roof on the other.There are gaps between the stone slabs on the top of the house, allowing light to shine through.There is no floor in the tunnel.You have to go from rafter to acorn with nothing but stucco in between.Step on the stucco and you'll fall into the room below.Polly had referred to the part of the tunnel near the pool as "the smuggler's cave".She took scraps of old packing boxes and the seats of broken kitchen chairs and things up there, and laid them between the rafters to make the floor.She also kept a cash box that contained various treasures, a novel she was writing, and usually a few apples.She used to go in for a sneaky bottle of ginger beer, which was made more like a "smuggler's cave" by the discarded bottles.

Digory liked the "cave" very much (polly would not let him see the novel), but he wanted more to explore. "Why, how long is this tunnel, I mean, does it end at the edge of your house?" asked Digory. "No," said Polly, "the wall doesn't stop at the roof. I don't know how long the tunnel is." "Then we can pass through the whole row of houses." "Yes," said Polly, "why!" "What's wrong?" "We can go to other people's houses!" "Yes, and then being caught as a burglar! It's no fun."

"Don't be smart, I was just thinking about the house behind your house." "What's the meaning?" "Well, it's an empty house. Pa said it's been empty since we moved here." "Then we should do some reconnaissance," said Digory.You couldn't tell from the way he spoke that he was much more agitated.Of course, probably like you, he was also wondering why the house was empty for so long.He thought over all possible reasons, and Polly thought too.However, no one mentioned the word 'haunted'. Both felt that it would be too weak not to talk about things once they were spoken out.

"Shall we go now?" asked Digory. "Yes," said Polly. "If you don't want to, don't force it." "If you want to. I will," replied Polly. "But how do we know we just happened to be in the house next door?" They decide.Go out to the storage room first, and take the distance between two rafters as a step. If you walk like this, you will know how many rafters you have to cross to complete a room.They allowed a little more than four rafters for the passage between Polly's two attics, and as many rafters for the maid's bedroom as the storeroom.Add them up, and that's the total length of the house.After twice the distance, the Digory house ended.Further on, any door they walked through would lead to the attic of the empty house.

"But I don't think the house is really empty," said Digory. "Then what do you think?" "Someone, I suppose, lived there in seclusion, coming in and out after dark with a dim lantern. We might find a gang of desperate criminals, and be rewarded for it. A house that has been vacant for years has no secrets." , that would be stupid." "Papa thinks it must be a sewer," said Polly. "Why! Your grown-ups' ideas are always dull!" said Digory.Because they were talking by candlelight in the attic during the day, not in the "smuggler's cave".The chances of an empty house being haunted seem very small. After they measured the length of the attic, they took out their pencils and calculated the total length.At first, they didn't agree, but even if they did, I doubted they were right.For both were eager to get on the road, to start their great adventure. " "We mustn't make noise," said Polly, as they made their way down the tunnel again from behind the pool.Each held a candle in their hand (Polly hid a lot in her "cave"). A thick layer of dust accumulated in the dark and airy tunnel.They crept along the rafters, occasionally whispering to each other "opposite your attic," or "in the middle of my house."Neither of them ever fell, nor did the candle go out, until at last they stopped and saw a small door in the brick wall to the right.This side of the door has neither latch nor handle, Obviously, the door was made to let people in, not out.But there was a hook on the door (like the ones you usually find on wardrobe doors) and they thought they could open it perfectly. "Shall I drive?" asked Digory. "As long as you want, I will." Polly repeated her catchphrase.Both knew they were in a pinch, but neither backed down.With some difficulty Digory opened the hook.As soon as the door opened, the sudden natural light made them blink.Then, to their great surprise, they found that instead of an abandoned attic, they found a fully furnished room.But it seemed to be empty again, dead silent.Driven by curiosity, Polly blew out the candle, and quietly walked into the strange room like a mouse. The house is shaped like a loft, but decorated like a living room.Along the walls were shelves filled with books.There was a fire burning in the fireplace, (you remember that summer was cold and wet?) and in front of it a high-backed armchair was placed with its back facing them both.Between Polly and the chair, which took up most of the space, was a large table piled with various things--books, note-pads, inkwells, pens, sealing-wax, and a microscope.However, the first thing she noticed was a shiny red wooden tray with several rings inside.These rings were placed in pairs, one yellow and one green next to each other at a distance, and another yellow and green next to each other.They were only the size of ordinary rings, but they were so bright that no one could see them.These little rings had the most beautiful splendor imaginable.If Polly had been younger, she might have put one in her mouth. The room is quiet, and soon you can clearly hear the ticking of the clock.But Polly discovered that Bimian was not absolutely silent, but had a faint humming sound.Had there been vacuum cleaners, Polly would have thought it was a vacuum cleaner working a few houses away or a few floors down.But the voice she heard was softer and more musical, but so faint it was barely audible. "Great, there's no one here," said Polly to Digory, turning her head a little above a whisper. "What?" said Digory, coming up, blinking. "It's not an empty house at all, and we'd better get out before anyone comes in." He looked terribly dirty, and so did Polly. "What do you say those are?" asked Polly, pointing to the colored rings. "Come here, hurry up..." Diggleu was about to continue, when something unexpected happened.Suddenly the high-backed chair in front of the fire moved, and like a clown in a pantomime through a trap door, Uncle Andrew loomed before them in terrible form.It was not an empty house where they were standing, but the forbidden study in Digory's house!The two children realized that they had made a serious mistake, and they both opened their mouths, "Oh-oh-" speechless.They feel that they should have felt that they had not gone far enough. Uncle Andrew was tall and thin, with wild gray hair and a long, clean-shaven face with a sharp nose and bright eyes. Digory did not dare to show his breath, for Uncle Andrew looked a thousand times more formidable than ever.Polly was not too frightened at first, but soon was, for Uncle Andrew went up to the door, shut it, and locked it.Then, he turned around, stared straight at the children, and smiled, his eyes full of teeth. " "Well now," said he, "my foolish sister can't find you." This is not like what adults should do!Polly's heart rose to her throat.She and Digory began to back away towards the little door through which they had come.But Uncle Andrew rushed behind them first, closed that door too, and stood in front of it.He rubbed his hands, making his knuckles snap.He has long, beautiful white fingers. "Nice to meet you," he said, "I'm in need of two children." "Mr Kettley," said Polly, "I'm going home, please let us out, will you?" "Not now, this opportunity is too good to pass up. I need two children. You see, my great experiment is only half done. Before, I used a guinea pig, which was fine, but the guinea pig can't talk to you ...and you can't tell it how to get back." "Uncle Andrew," said Digory, "it's dinner time, and they'll be looking for us soon. You must let us out." "Must?" said Uncle Endermi. Digory and Polly looked at each other.They were afraid to speak, but the eyes said, "This is terrible, isn't it?" We had to coax him. " "If you let us go to dinner, we'll be back when we're done," said Polly. "But, how do I know if you will come back?" Uncle Andrew smiled slyly, as if he was about to change his mind. "Well, well," he said, "if you have to go, I think you should go too. I don't expect two kids your age to like talking to an old fool like me." He sighed Tone, continued; "You don't understand how lonely I am sometimes. But, it's okay, let's go to dinner. But before you leave, I must give you a gift. I can't be in this dirty room every day. Seeing a little girl in a dirty old study, especially, let's say, a young girl as attractive as yourself." Polly began to think that he might not be crazy. "Don't you like rings, dear?" he asked Polly. "You mean those yellow and green rings, they are so lovely!" Polly was delighted. "Not the green one," said Uncle Andrew, "I don't think I can give anyone the green one yet. But I'd like to give you a yellow ring with a share of my heart in it. Come and try." Polly was not at all frightened at all, and she was quite sure that the old gentleman was not mad, and that there was something strange about those shiny rings, which lured her towards the tray. "Ah, I see!" said Polly. "The humming grows louder here, as if it were the rings." "What an interesting fantasy, my dear." Uncle Andrew laughed, and it sounded very natural.But Digory read in his face a look of urgency, even greed. "Don't be a fool, Polly," he cried, "don't touch the ring!" However, it was too late, and while he was speaking, Polly's hand had already reached out and touched one of the rings.Soon, without a flash, without a sound, without any warning, Polly disappeared, and only Digory and his Uncle Andrew were left in the house.