She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, - Which way?
Which way?', holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it
was growing, and she was quite surprised to find that she remained the
same size: to be sure, this generally happens when one eats cake, but
Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way
things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on
in the common way.
So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.
* * * * * * *
* * * * * *
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER II
The Pool of Tears
- Curiouser and curiouser! - cried Alice (she was so much surprised,
that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); - now I'm
opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet! -
(for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of
sight, they were getting so far off). - Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder
who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I'm sure _I_
shan't be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself
about you: you must manage the best way you can; - but I must be kind to
them, - thought Alice, - or perhaps they won't walk the way I want to go!
Let me see: I'll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas.
And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it. - They
must go by the carrier, - she thought; - and how funny it'll seem, sending
presents to one's own feet! And how odd the directions will look!
ALICE'S RIGHT FOOT, ESQ.
HEARTHRUG,
NEAR THE FENDER,
(WITH ALICE'S LOVE).
Oh dear, what nonsense I'm talking!
Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall: in fact she
was now more than nine feet high, and she at once took up the little
golden key and hurried off to the garden door.
Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one side,
to look through into the garden with one eye; but to get through was more
hopeless than ever: she sat down and began to cry again.
- You ought to be ashamed of yourself, - said Alice, - a great girl
like you, - (she might well say this), - to go on crying in this way! Stop
this moment, I tell you! - But she went on all the same, shedding gallons
of tears, until there was a large pool all round her, about four inches
deep and reaching half down the hall.
After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the distance,
and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming. It was the White
Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in
one hand and a large fan in the other: he came trotting along in a great
hurry, muttering to himself as he came, - Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess!
Oh! won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting! - Alice felt so
desperate that she was ready to ask help of any one; so, when the Rabbit
came near her, she began, in a low, timid voice, - If you please, sir -
The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid gloves and the fan,
and skurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go.
Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she
kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: - Dear, dear! How
queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I
wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same
when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little
different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world
am I? Ah, THAT'S the great puzzle! - And she began thinking over all the
children she knew that were of the same age as herself, to see if she
could have been changed for any of them.
- I'm sure I'm not Ada, - she said, - for her hair goes in such long
ringlets, and mine doesn't go in ringlets at all; and I'm sure I can't be
Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she, oh! she knows such a very
little! Besides, SHE'S she, and I'm I, and - oh dear, how puzzling it all
is! I'll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me see: four
times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven
is - oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the
Multiplication Table doesn't signify: let's try Geography. London is the
capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and Rome - no, THAT'S
all wrong, I'm certain! I must have been changed for Mabel! I'll try and
say - How doth the little - and she crossed her hands on her lap as if she
were saying lessons, and began to repeat it, but her voice sounded hoarse
and strange, and the words did not come the same as they used to do:
- How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
- How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spread his claws,
And welcome little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!
- I'm sure those are not the right words, - said poor Alice, and her
eyes filled with tears again as she went on, - I must be Mabel after all,
and I shall have to go and live in that poky little house, and have next
to no toys to play with, and oh! ever so many lessons to learn! No, I've
made up my mind about it; if I'm Mabel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no
use their putting their heads down and saying
- Come up again, dear! - I shall only look up and say - Who am I
then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I'll come
up: if not, I'll stay down here till I'm somebody else - but, oh dear! -
cried Alice, with a sudden burst of tears, - I do wish they WOULD put
their heads down! I am so VERY tired of being all alone here!
As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was surprised to
see that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little white kid gloves while
she was talking. - How CAN I have done that? - she thought. - I must be
growing small again. - She got up and went to the table to measure herself
by it, and found that, as nearly as she could guess, she was now about two
feet high, and was going on shrinking rapidly: she soon found out that the
cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped it hastily,
just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether.
- That WAS a narrow escape! - said Alice, a good deal frightened at
the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence;
- and now for the garden! - and she ran with all speed back to the
little door: but, alas! the little door was shut again, and the little
golden key was lying on the glass table as before, - and things are worse
than ever, - thought the poor child, - for I never was so small as this
before, never! And I declare it's too bad, that it is!
As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another moment,
splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. He first idea was that she
had somehow fallen into the sea, - and in that case I can go back by
railway, - she said to herself. (Alice had been to the seaside once in her
life, and had come to the general conclusion, that wherever you go to on
the English coast you find a number of bathing machines in the sea, some
children digging in the sand with wooden spades, then a row of lodging
houses, and behind them a railway station.) However, she soon made out
that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine
feet high.
- I wish I hadn't cried so much! - said Alice, as she swam about,
trying to find her way out. - I shall be punished for it now, I suppose,
by being drowned in my own tears! That WILL be a queer thing, to be sure!
However, everything is queer to-day.
Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little
way off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was: at first she thought
it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she
was now, and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped
in like herself.
- Would it be of any use, now, - thought Alice, - to speak to this
mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think very
likely it can talk: at any rate, there's no harm in trying. - So she
began: - O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of
swimming about here, O Mouse! - (Alice thought this must be the right way
of speaking to a mouse: she had never done such a thing before, but she
remembered having seen in her brother's Latin Grammar, - A mouse - of a
mouse - to a mouse - a mouse - O mouse! - The Mouse looked at her rather
inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but
it said nothing.
- Perhaps it doesn't understand English, - thought Alice; - I daresay
it's a French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror. - (For, with
all her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion how long ago
anything had happened.) So she began again: - Ou est ma chatte? - which
was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden
leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. - Oh, I
beg your pardon! - cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor
animal's feelings. - I quite forgot you didn't like cats.
- Not like cats! - cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice. -
Would YOU like cats if you were me? - Well, perhaps not, - said Alice in a
soothing tone: - don't be angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you
our cat Dinah: I think you'd take a fancy to cats if you could only see
her. She is such a dear quiet thing, - Alice went on, half to herself, as
she swam lazily about in the pool, - and she sits purring so nicely by the
fire, licking her paws and washing her face - and she is such a nice soft
thing to nurse - and she's such a capital one for catching mice - oh, I
beg your pardon! - cried Alice again, for this time the Mouse was
bristling all over, and she felt certain it must be really offended.
- We won't talk about her any more if you'd rather not. - We indeed!
- cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end of his tail. - As if
I would talk on such a subject! Our family always HATED cats: nasty, low,
vulgar things! Don't let me hear the name again!
- I won't indeed! - said Alice, in a great hurry to change the
subject of conversation. - Are you - are you fond - of - of dogs? - The
Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly: - There is such a nice
little dog near our house I should like to show you! A little bright-eyed
terrier, you know, with oh, such long curly brown hair! And it'll fetch
things when you throw them, and it'll sit up and beg for its dinner, and
all sorts of thins - I can't remember half of them - and it belongs to a
farmer, you know, and he says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds!
He says it kills all the rats and - oh dear!
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