If he had heard that bit about the land of youth a fewdays ago he would have thought Aunt Letty was just talking without meaning anything in particular， the way grown.ups do， and it wouldn‘t have interested him. He almost thought so now. But suddenly it flashed upon his mind that he now knew （even if Aunt Letty didn’t） that there really were other worlds and that he himself had been in one of them. At that rate there might be a real Land of Youth somewhere. There might be almost anything. There might be fruit in some other world that would really cure his mother！ And oh， oh.Well， you know how it feels if you begin hoping for something that you want desperately badly； you almost fight against the hope because it is too good to be true； you‘ve been disappointed so often before. That was how Digory felt. But it was no good trying to throttle this hope. It might.really， really， it just might be true. So many odd things had happened already. And he had the magic rings. There must be worlds you could get to through every pool in the wood. He could hunt through them all. And then. Mother well again. Everything right again. He forgot all about watching for the Witch. His hand was already going into the pocket where he kept the yellow ring， when all at once he heard a sound of galloping.
