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1.13 + Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister
1.14 +on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had
1.15 +peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no
1.16 +pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,'
1.17 +thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?'
1.18 +
1.19 + So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could,
1.20 +for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether
1.21 +the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble
1.22 +of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White
1.23 +Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
1.24 +
1.25 + There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice
1.26 +think it so VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to
1.27 +itself, `Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought
1.28 +it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have
1.29 +wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural);
1.30 +but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-
1.31 +POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to
1.32 +her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never
1.33 +before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to
1.34 +take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the
1.35 +field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop
1.36 +down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
1.37 +
1.38 + In another moment down went Alice after it, never once
1.39 +considering how in the world she was to get out again.
1.40 +
1.41 + The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way,
1.42 +and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a
1.43 +moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself
1.44 +falling down a very deep well.
1.45 +
1.46 + Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she
1.47 +had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to
1.48 +wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look
1.49 +down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to
1.50 +see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well, and
1.51 +noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves;
1.52 +here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She
1.53 +took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was
1.54 +labelled `ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great disappointment it
1.55 +was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing
1.56 +somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she
1.57 +fell past it.
1.58 +
1.59 + `Well!' thought Alice to herself, `after such a fall as this, I
1.60 +shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll
1.61 +all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it,
1.62 +even if I fell off the top of the house!' (Which was very likely
1.63 +true.)
1.64 +
1.65 + Down, down, down. Would the fall NEVER come to an end! `I
1.66 +wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud.
1.67 +`I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let
1.68 +me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think--' (for,
1.69 +you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her
1.70 +lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a VERY good
1.71 +opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to
1.72 +listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) `--yes,
1.73 +that's about the right distance--but then I wonder what Latitude
1.74 +or Longitude I've got to?' (Alice had no idea what Latitude was,
1.75 +or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to
1.76 +say.)
1.77 +
1.78 + Presently she began again. `I wonder if I shall fall right
1.79 +THROUGH the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the
1.80 +people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I
1.81 +think--' (she was rather glad there WAS no one listening, this
1.82 +time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) `--but I shall
1.83 +have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know.
1.84 +Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?' (and she tried
1.85 +to curtsey as she spoke--fancy CURTSEYING as you're falling
1.86 +through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) `And what
1.87 +an ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll
1.88 +never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.'
1.89 +
1.90 + Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon
1.91 +began talking again. `Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I
1.92 +should think!' (Dinah was the cat.) `I hope they'll remember
1.93 +her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were
1.94 +down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but
1.95 +you might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know.
1.96 +But do cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice began to get
1.97 +rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of
1.98 +way, `Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, `Do
1.99 +bats eat cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either
1.100 +question, it didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt
1.101 +that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she
1.102 +was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very
1.103 +earnestly, `Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a
1.104 +bat?' when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of
1.105 +sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.
1.106 +
1.107 + Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a
1.108 +moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her
1.109 +was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in
1.110 +sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost:
1.111 +away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it
1.112 +say, as it turned a corner, `Oh my ears and whiskers, how late
1.113 +it's getting!' She was close behind it when she turned the
1.114 +corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found
1.115 +herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps
1.116 +hanging from the roof.
1.117 +
1.118 + There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked;
1.119 +and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the
1.120 +other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle,
1.121 +wondering how she was ever to get out again.
1.122 +
1.123 + Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of
1.124 +solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key,
1.125 +and Alice's first thought was that it might belong to one of the
1.126 +doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or
1.127 +the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of
1.128 +them. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low
1.129 +curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little
1.130 +door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key
1.131 +in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!
1.132 +
1.133 + Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small
1.134 +passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and
1.135 +looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw.
1.136 +How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about
1.137 +among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but
1.138 +she could not even get her head though the doorway; `and even if
1.139 +my head would go through,' thought poor Alice, `it would be of
1.140 +very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish
1.141 +I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only
1.142 +know how to begin.' For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things
1.143 +had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few
1.144 +things indeed were really impossible.
1.145 +
1.146 + There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she
1.147 +went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on
1.148 +it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like
1.149 +telescopes: this time she found a little bottle on it, (`which
1.150 +certainly was not here before,' said Alice,) and round the neck
1.151 +of the bottle was a paper label, with the words `DRINK ME'
1.152 +beautifully printed on it in large letters.
1.153 +
1.154 + It was all very well to say `Drink me,' but the wise little
1.155 +Alice was not going to do THAT in a hurry. `No, I'll look
1.156 +first,' she said, `and see whether it's marked "poison" or not';
1.157 +for she had read several nice little histories about children who
1.158 +had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant
1.159 +things, all because they WOULD not remember the simple rules
1.160 +their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker
1.161 +will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your
1.162 +finger VERY deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had
1.163 +never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked
1.164 +`poison,' it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or
1.165 +later.
1.166 +
1.167 + However, this bottle was NOT marked `poison,' so Alice ventured
1.168 +to taste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort
1.169 +of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast
1.170 +turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished
1.171 +it off.
1.172 +
1.173 + * * * * * * *
1.174 +
1.175 + * * * * * *
1.176 +
1.177 + * * * * * * *
1.178 +
1.179 + `What a curious feeling!' said Alice; `I must be shutting up
1.180 +like a telescope.'
1.181 +
1.182 + And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and
1.183 +her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right
1.184 +size for going through the little door into that lovely garden.
1.185 +First, however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was
1.186 +going to shrink any further: she felt a little nervous about
1.187 +this; `for it might end, you know,' said Alice to herself, `in my
1.188 +going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be
1.189 +like then?' And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle is
1.190 +like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember
1.191 +ever having seen such a thing.
1.192 +
1.193 + After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided
1.194 +on going into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice!
1.195 +when she got to the door, she found she had forgotten the
1.196 +little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it,
1.197 +she found she could not possibly reach it: she could see it
1.198 +quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her best to climb
1.199 +up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery;
1.200 +and when she had tired herself out with trying,
1.201 +the poor little thing sat down and cried.
1.202 +
1.203 + `Come, there's no use in crying like that!' said Alice to
1.204 +herself, rather sharply; `I advise you to leave off this minute!'
1.205 +She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very
1.206 +seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so
1.207 +severely as to bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered
1.208 +trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game
1.209 +of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious
1.210 +child was very fond of pretending to be two people. `But it's no
1.211 +use now,' thought poor Alice, `to pretend to be two people! Why,
1.212 +there's hardly enough of me left to make ONE respectable
1.213 +person!'
1.214 +
1.215 + Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under
1.216 +the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on
1.217 +which the words `EAT ME' were beautifully marked in currants.
1.218 +`Well, I'll eat it,' said Alice, `and if it makes me grow larger,
1.219 +I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep
1.220 +under the door; so either way I'll get into the garden, and I
1.221 +don't care which happens!'
1.222 +
1.223 + She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, `Which
1.224 +way? Which way?', holding her hand on the top of her head to
1.225 +feel which way it was growing, and she was quite surprised to
1.226 +find that she remained the same size: to be sure, this generally
1.227 +happens when one eats cake, but Alice had got so much into the
1.228 +way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen,
1.229 +that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the
1.230 +common way.
1.231 +
1.232 + So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.
1.233 +
1.234 + * * * * * * *
1.235 +
1.236 + * * * * * *
1.237 +
1.238 + * * * * * * *
1.239 +
1.240 +
1.241 +
1.242 +
1.243 + CHAPTER II
1.244 +
1.245 + The Pool of Tears
1.246 +
1.247 +
1.248 + `Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much
1.249 +surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good
1.250 +English); `now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that
1.251 +ever was! Good-bye, feet!' (for when she looked down at her
1.252 +feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so
1.253 +far off). `Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on
1.254 +your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I'm sure _I_ shan't
1.255 +be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself
1.256 +about you: you must manage the best way you can; --but I must be
1.257 +kind to them,' thought Alice, `or perhaps they won't walk the
1.258 +way I want to go! Let me see: I'll give them a new pair of
1.259 +boots every Christmas.'
1.260 +
1.261 + And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it.
1.262 +`They must go by the carrier,' she thought; `and how funny it'll
1.263 +seem, sending presents to one's own feet! And how odd the
1.264 +directions will look!
1.265 +
1.266 + ALICE'S RIGHT FOOT, ESQ.
1.267 + HEARTHRUG,
1.268 + NEAR THE FENDER,
1.269 + (WITH ALICE'S LOVE).
1.270 +
1.271 +Oh dear, what nonsense I'm talking!'
1.272 +
1.273 + Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall: in
1.274 +fact she was now more than nine feet high, and she at once took
1.275 +up the little golden key and hurried off to the garden door.
1.276 +
1.277 + Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one
1.278 +side, to look through into the garden with one eye; but to get
1.279 +through was more hopeless than ever: she sat down and began to
1.280 +cry again.
1.281 +
1.282 + `You ought to be ashamed of yourself,' said Alice, `a great
1.283 +girl like you,' (she might well say this), `to go on crying in
1.284 +this way! Stop this moment, I tell you!' But she went on all
1.285 +the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool
1.286 +all round her, about four inches deep and reaching half down the
1.287 +hall.
1.288 +
1.289 + After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the
1.290 +distance, and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming.
1.291 +It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a
1.292 +pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a large fan in the
1.293 +other: he came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to
1.294 +himself as he came, `Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! won't she
1.295 +be savage if I've kept her waiting!' Alice felt so desperate
1.296 +that she was ready to ask help of any one; so, when the Rabbit
1.297 +came near her, she began, in a low, timid voice, `If you please,
1.298 +sir--' The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid
1.299 +gloves and the fan, and skurried away into the darkness as hard
1.300 +as he could go.
1.301 +
1.302 + Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very
1.303 +hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking:
1.304 +`Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday
1.305 +things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in
1.306 +the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this
1.307 +morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little
1.308 +different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in
1.309 +the world am I? Ah, THAT'S the great puzzle!' And she began
1.310 +thinking over all the children she knew that were of the same age
1.311 +as herself, to see if she could have been changed for any of
1.312 +them.
1.313 +
1.314 + `I'm sure I'm not Ada,' she said, `for her hair goes in such
1.315 +long ringlets, and mine doesn't go in ringlets at all; and I'm
1.316 +sure I can't be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she,
1.317 +oh! she knows such a very little! Besides, SHE'S she, and I'm I,
1.318 +and--oh dear, how puzzling it all is! I'll try if I know all the
1.319 +things I used to know. Let me see: four times five is twelve,
1.320 +and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is--oh dear!
1.321 +I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the
1.322 +Multiplication Table doesn't signify: let's try Geography.
1.323 +London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome,
1.324 +and Rome--no, THAT'S all wrong, I'm certain! I must have been
1.325 +changed for Mabel! I'll try and say "How doth the little--"'
1.326 +and she crossed her hands on her lap as if she were saying lessons,
1.327 +and began to repeat it, but her voice sounded hoarse and
1.328 +strange, and the words did not come the same as they used to do:--
1.329 +
1.330 + `How doth the little crocodile
1.331 + Improve his shining tail,
1.332 + And pour the waters of the Nile
1.333 + On every golden scale!
1.334 +
1.335 + `How cheerfully he seems to grin,
1.336 + How neatly spread his claws,
1.337 + And welcome little fishes in
1.338 + With gently smiling jaws!'
1.339 +
1.340 + `I'm sure those are not the right words,' said poor Alice, and
1.341 +her eyes filled with tears again as she went on, `I must be Mabel
1.342 +after all, and I shall have to go and live in that poky little
1.343 +house, and have next to no toys to play with, and oh! ever so
1.344 +many lessons to learn! No, I've made up my mind about it; if I'm
1.345 +Mabel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no use their putting their
1.346 +heads down and saying "Come up again, dear!" I shall only look
1.347 +up and say "Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I
1.348 +like being that person, I'll come up: if not, I'll stay down
1.349 +here till I'm somebody else"--but, oh dear!' cried Alice, with a
1.350 +sudden burst of tears, `I do wish they WOULD put their heads
1.351 +down! I am so VERY tired of being all alone here!'
1.352 +
1.353 + As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was
1.354 +surprised to see that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little
1.355 +white kid gloves while she was talking. `How CAN I have done
1.356 +that?' she thought. `I must be growing small again.' She got up
1.357 +and went to the table to measure herself by it, and found that,
1.358 +as nearly as she could guess, she was now about two feet high,
1.359 +and was going on shrinking rapidly: she soon found out that the
1.360 +cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped it
1.361 +hastily, just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether.
1.362 +
1.363 +`That WAS a narrow escape!' said Alice, a good deal frightened at
1.364 +the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in
1.365 +existence; `and now for the garden!' and she ran with all speed
1.366 +back to the little door: but, alas! the little door was shut
1.367 +again, and the little golden key was lying on the glass table as
1.368 +before, `and things are worse than ever,' thought the poor child,
1.369 +`for I never was so small as this before, never! And I declare
1.370 +it's too bad, that it is!'
1.371 +
1.372 + As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another
1.373 +moment, splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. Her first
1.374 +idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea, `and in that
1.375 +case I can go back by railway,' she said to herself. (Alice had
1.376 +been to the seaside once in her life, and had come to the general
1.377 +conclusion, that wherever you go to on the English coast you find
1.378 +a number of bathing machines in the sea, some children digging in
1.379 +the sand with wooden spades, then a row of lodging houses, and
1.380 +behind them a railway station.) However, she soon made out that
1.381 +she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine
1.382 +feet high.
1.383 +
1.384 + `I wish I hadn't cried so much!' said Alice, as she swam about,
1.385 +trying to find her way out. `I shall be punished for it now, I
1.386 +suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That WILL be a queer
1.387 +thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.'
1.388 +
1.389 + Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a
1.390 +little way off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was: at
1.391 +first she thought it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then
1.392 +she remembered how small she was now, and she soon made out that
1.393 +it was only a mouse that had slipped in like herself.
1.394 +
1.395 + `Would it be of any use, now,' thought Alice, `to speak to this
1.396 +mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should
1.397 +think very likely it can talk: at any rate, there's no harm in
1.398 +trying.' So she began: `O Mouse, do you know the way out of
1.399 +this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!'
1.400 +(Alice thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse:
1.401 +she had never done such a thing before, but she remembered having
1.402 +seen in her brother's Latin Grammar, `A mouse--of a mouse--to a
1.403 +mouse--a mouse--O mouse!' The Mouse looked at her rather
1.404 +inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little
1.405 +eyes, but it said nothing.
1.406 +
1.407 + `Perhaps it doesn't understand English,' thought Alice; `I
1.408 +daresay it's a French mouse, come over with William the
1.409 +Conqueror.' (For, with all her knowledge of history, Alice had
1.410 +no very clear notion how long ago anything had happened.) So she
1.411 +began again: `Ou est ma chatte?' which was the first sentence in
1.412 +her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden leap out of the
1.413 +water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. `Oh, I beg
1.414 +your pardon!' cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the
1.415 +poor animal's feelings. `I quite forgot you didn't like cats.'
1.416 +
1.417 + `Not like cats!' cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate
1.418 +voice. `Would YOU like cats if you were me?'
1.419 +
1.420 + `Well, perhaps not,' said Alice in a soothing tone: `don't be
1.421 +angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah:
1.422 +I think you'd take a fancy to cats if you could only see her.
1.423 +She is such a dear quiet thing,' Alice went on, half to herself,
1.424 +as she swam lazily about in the pool, `and she sits purring so
1.425 +nicely by the fire, licking her paws and washing her face--and
1.426 +she is such a nice soft thing to nurse--and she's such a capital
1.427 +one for catching mice--oh, I beg your pardon!' cried Alice again,
1.428 +for this time the Mouse was bristling all over, and she felt
1.429 +certain it must be really offended. `We won't talk about her any
1.430 +more if you'd rather not.'
1.431 +
1.432 + `We indeed!' cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end
1.433 +of his tail. `As if I would talk on such a subject! Our family
1.434 +always HATED cats: nasty, low, vulgar things! Don't let me hear
1.435 +the name again!'
1.436 +
1.437 + `I won't indeed!' said Alice, in a great hurry to change the
1.438 +subject of conversation. `Are you--are you fond--of--of dogs?'
1.439 +The Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly: `There is
1.440 +such a nice little dog near our house I should like to show you!
1.441 +A little bright-eyed terrier, you know, with oh, such long curly
1.442 +brown hair! And it'll fetch things when you throw them, and
1.443 +it'll sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts of things--I
1.444 +can't remember half of them--and it belongs to a farmer, you
1.445 +know, and he says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds!
1.446 +He says it kills all the rats and--oh dear!' cried Alice in a
1.447 +sorrowful tone, `I'm afraid I've offended it again!' For the
1.448 +Mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it could go, and
1.449 +making quite a commotion in the pool as it went.
1.450 +
1.451 + So she called softly after it, `Mouse dear! Do come back
1.452 +again, and we won't talk about cats or dogs either, if you don't
1.453 +like them!' When the Mouse heard this, it turned round and swam
1.454 +slowly back to her: its face was quite pale (with passion, Alice
1.455 +thought), and it said in a low trembling voice, `Let us get to
1.456 +the shore, and then I'll tell you my history, and you'll
1.457 +understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.'
1.458 +
1.459 + It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded
1.460 +with the birds and animals that had fallen into it: there were a
1.461 +Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious
1.462 +creatures. Alice led the way, and the whole party swam to the
1.463 +shore.
1.464 +
1.465 +
1.466 +
1.467 + CHAPTER III
1.468 +
1.469 + A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale
1.470 +
1.471 +
1.472 + They were indeed a queer-looking party that assembled on the
1.473 +bank--the birds with draggled feathers, the animals with their
1.474 +fur clinging close to them, and all dripping wet, cross, and
1.475 +uncomfortable.
1.476 +
1.477 + The first question of course was, how to get dry again: they
1.478 +had a consultation about this, and after a few minutes it seemed
1.479 +quite natural to Alice to find herself talking familiarly with
1.480 +them, as if she had known them all her life. Indeed, she had
1.481 +quite a long argument with the Lory, who at last turned sulky,
1.482 +and would only say, `I am older than you, and must know better';
1.483 +and this Alice would not allow without knowing how old it was,
1.484 +and, as the Lory positively refused to tell its age, there was no
1.485 +more to be said.
1.486 +
1.487 + At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among
1.488 +them, called out, `Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL
1.489 +soon make you dry enough!' They all sat down at once, in a large
1.490 +ring, with the Mouse in the middle. Alice kept her eyes
1.491 +anxiously fixed on it, for she felt sure she would catch a bad
1.492 +cold if she did not get dry very soon.
1.493 +
1.494 + `Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, `are you all ready?
1.495 +This is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please!
1.496 +"William the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was
1.497 +soon submitted to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been
1.498 +of late much accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and
1.499 +Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria--"'
1.500 +
1.501 + `Ugh!' said the Lory, with a shiver.
1.502 +
1.503 + `I beg your pardon!' said the Mouse, frowning, but very
1.504 +politely: `Did you speak?'
1.505 +
1.506 + `Not I!' said the Lory hastily.
1.507 +
1.508 + `I thought you did,' said the Mouse. `--I proceed. "Edwin and
1.509 +Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared for him:
1.510 +and even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found
1.511 +it advisable--"'
1.512 +
1.513 + `Found WHAT?' said the Duck.
1.514 +
1.515 + `Found IT,' the Mouse replied rather crossly: `of course you
1.516 +know what "it" means.'
1.517 +
1.518 + `I know what "it" means well enough, when I find a thing,' said
1.519 +the Duck: `it's generally a frog or a worm. The question is,
1.520 +what did the archbishop find?'
1.521 +
1.522 + The Mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedly went on,
1.523 +`"--found it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet William
1.524 +and offer him the crown. William's conduct at first was
1.525 +moderate. But the insolence of his Normans--" How are you
1.526 +getting on now, my dear?' it continued, turning to Alice as it
1.527 +spoke.
1.528 +
1.529 + `As wet as ever,' said Alice in a melancholy tone: `it doesn't
1.530 +seem to dry me at all.'
1.531 +
1.532 + `In that case,' said the Dodo solemnly, rising to its feet, `I
1.533 +move that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more
1.534 +energetic remedies--'
1.535 +
1.536 + `Speak English!' said the Eaglet. `I don't know the meaning of
1.537 +half those long words, and, what's more, I don't believe you do
1.538 +either!' And the Eaglet bent down its head to hide a smile:
1.539 +some of the other birds tittered audibly.
1.540 +
1.541 + `What I was going to say,' said the Dodo in an offended tone,
1.542 +`was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.'
1.543 +
1.544 + `What IS a Caucus-race?' said Alice; not that she wanted much
1.545 +to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that SOMEBODY
1.546 +ought to speak, and no one else seemed inclined to say anything.
1.547 +
1.548 + `Why,' said the Dodo, `the best way to explain it is to do it.'
1.549 +(And, as you might like to try the thing yourself, some winter
1.550 +day, I will tell you how the Dodo managed it.)
1.551 +
1.552 + First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, (`the
1.553 +exact shape doesn't matter,' it said,) and then all the party
1.554 +were placed along the course, here and there. There was no `One,
1.555 +two, three, and away,' but they began running when they liked,
1.556 +and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know
1.557 +when the race was over. However, when they had been running half
1.558 +an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called
1.559 +out `The race is over!' and they all crowded round it, panting,
1.560 +and asking, `But who has won?'
1.561 +
1.562 + This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of
1.563 +thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon
1.564 +its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare,
1.565 +in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At
1.566 +last the Dodo said, `EVERYBODY has won, and all must have
1.567 +prizes.'
1.568 +
1.569 + `But who is to give the prizes?' quite a chorus of voices
1.570 +asked.
1.571 +
1.572 + `Why, SHE, of course,' said the Dodo, pointing to Alice with
1.573 +one finger; and the whole party at once crowded round her,
1.574 +calling out in a confused way, `Prizes! Prizes!'
1.575 +
1.576 + Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand
1.577 +in her pocket, and pulled out a box of comfits, (luckily the salt
1.578 +water had not got into it), and handed them round as prizes.
1.579 +There was exactly one a-piece all round.
1.580 +
1.581 + `But she must have a prize herself, you know,' said the Mouse.
1.582 +
1.583 + `Of course,' the Dodo replied very gravely. `What else have
1.584 +you got in your pocket?' he went on, turning to Alice.
1.585 +
1.586 + `Only a thimble,' said Alice sadly.
1.587 +
1.588 + `Hand it over here,' said the Dodo.
1.589 +
1.590 + Then they all crowded round her once more, while the Dodo
1.591 +solemnly presented the thimble, saying `We beg your acceptance of
1.592 +this elegant thimble'; and, when it had finished this short
1.593 +speech, they all cheered.
1.594 +
1.595 + Alice thought the whole thing very absurd, but they all looked
1.596 +so grave that she did not dare to laugh; and, as she could not
1.597 +think of anything to say, she simply bowed, and took the thimble,
1.598 +looking as solemn as she could.
1.599 +
1.600 + The next thing was to eat the comfits: this caused some noise
1.601 +and confusion, as the large birds complained that they could not
1.602 +taste theirs, and the small ones choked and had to be patted on
1.603 +the back. However, it was over at last, and they sat down again
1.604 +in a ring, and begged the Mouse to tell them something more.
1.605 +
1.606 + `You promised to tell me your history, you know,' said Alice,
1.607 +`and why it is you hate--C and D,' she added in a whisper, half
1.608 +afraid that it would be offended again.
1.609 +
1.610 + `Mine is a long and a sad tale!' said the Mouse, turning to
1.611 +Alice, and sighing.
1.612 +
1.613 + `It IS a long tail, certainly,' said Alice, looking down with
1.614 +wonder at the Mouse's tail; `but why do you call it sad?' And
1.615 +she kept on puzzling about it while the Mouse was speaking, so
1.616 +that her idea of the tale was something like this:--
1.617 +
1.618 + `Fury said to a
1.619 + mouse, That he
1.620 + met in the
1.621 + house,
1.622 + "Let us
1.623 + both go to
1.624 + law: I will
1.625 + prosecute
1.626 + YOU. --Come,
1.627 + I'll take no
1.628 + denial; We
1.629 + must have a
1.630 + trial: For
1.631 + really this
1.632 + morning I've
1.633 + nothing
1.634 + to do."
1.635 + Said the
1.636 + mouse to the
1.637 + cur, "Such
1.638 + a trial,
1.639 + dear Sir,
1.640 + With
1.641 + no jury
1.642 + or judge,
1.643 + would be
1.644 + wasting
1.645 + our
1.646 + breath."
1.647 + "I'll be
1.648 + judge, I'll
1.649 + be jury,"
1.650 + Said
1.651 + cunning
1.652 + old Fury:
1.653 + "I'll
1.654 + try the
1.655 + whole
1.656 + cause,
1.657 + and
1.658 + condemn
1.659 + you
1.660 + to
1.661 + death."'
1.662 +
1.663 + Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister
1.664 +on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had
1.665 +peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no
1.666 +pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,'
1.667 +thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?'
1.668 +
1.669 + So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could,
1.670 +for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether
1.671 +the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble
1.672 +of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White
1.673 +Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
1.674 +
1.675 + There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice
1.676 +think it so VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to
1.677 +itself, `Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought
1.678 +it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have
1.679 +wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural);
1.680 +but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-
1.681 +POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to
1.682 +her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never
1.683 +before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to
1.684 +take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the
1.685 +field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop
1.686 +down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
1.687 +
1.688 + In another moment down went Alice after it, never once
1.689 +considering how in the world she was to get out again.
1.690 +
1.691 + The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way,
1.692 +and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a
1.693 +moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself
1.694 +falling down a very deep well.
1.695 +
1.696 + Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she
1.697 +had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to
1.698 +wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look
1.699 +down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to
1.700 +see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well, and
1.701 +noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves;
1.702 +here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She
1.703 +took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was
1.704 +labelled `ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great disappointment it
1.705 +was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing
1.706 +somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she
1.707 +fell past it.
1.708 +
1.709 + `Well!' thought Alice to herself, `after such a fall as this, I
1.710 +shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll
1.711 +all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it,
1.712 +even if I fell off the top of the house!' (Which was very likely
1.713 +true.)
1.714 +
1.715 + Down, down, down. Would the fall NEVER come to an end! `I
1.716 +wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud.
1.717 +`I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let
1.718 +me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think--' (for,
1.719 +you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her
1.720 +lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a VERY good
1.721 +opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to
1.722 +listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) `--yes,
1.723 +that's about the right distance--but then I wonder what Latitude
1.724 +or Longitude I've got to?' (Alice had no idea what Latitude was,
1.725 +or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to
1.726 +say.)
1.727 +
1.728 + Presently she began again. `I wonder if I shall fall right
1.729 +THROUGH the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the
1.730 +people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I
1.731 +think--' (she was rather glad there WAS no one listening, this
1.732 +time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) `--but I shall
1.733 +have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know.
1.734 +Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?' (and she tried
1.735 +to curtsey as she spoke--fancy CURTSEYING as you're falling
1.736 +through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) `And what
1.737 +an ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll
1.738 +never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.'
1.739 +
1.740 + Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon
1.741 +began talking again. `Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I
1.742 +should think!' (Dinah was the cat.) `I hope they'll remember
1.743 +her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were
1.744 +down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but
1.745 +you might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know.
1.746 +But do cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice began to get
1.747 +rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of
1.748 +way, `Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, `Do
1.749 +bats eat cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either
1.750 +question, it didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt
1.751 +that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she
1.752 +was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very
1.753 +earnestly, `Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a
1.754 +bat?' when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of
1.755 +sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.
1.756 +
1.757 + Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a
1.758 +moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her
1.759 +was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in
1.760 +sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost:
1.761 +away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it
1.762 +say, as it turned a corner, `Oh my ears and whiskers, how late
1.763 +it's getting!' She was close behind it when she turned the
1.764 +corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found
1.765 +herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps
1.766 +hanging from the roof.
1.767 +
1.768 + There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked;
1.769 +and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the
1.770 +other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle,
1.771 +wondering how she was ever to get out again.
1.772 +
1.773 + Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of
1.774 +solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key,
1.775 +and Alice's first thought was that it might belong to one of the
1.776 +doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or
1.777 +the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of
1.778 +them. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low
1.779 +curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little
1.780 +door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key
1.781 +in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!
1.782 +
1.783 + Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small
1.784 +passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and
1.785 +looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw.
1.786 +How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about
1.787 +among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but
1.788 +she could not even get her head though the doorway; `and even if
1.789 +my head would go through,' thought poor Alice, `it would be of
1.790 +very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish
1.791 +I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only
1.792 +know how to begin.' For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things
1.793 +had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few
1.794 +things indeed were really impossible.
1.795 +
1.796 + There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she
1.797 +went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on
1.798 +it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like
1.799 +telescopes: this time she found a little bottle on it, (`which
1.800 +certainly was not here before,' said Alice,) and round the neck
1.801 +of the bottle was a paper label, with the words `DRINK ME'
1.802 +beautifully printed on it in large letters.
1.803 +
1.804 + It was all very well to say `Drink me,' but the wise little
1.805 +Alice was not going to do THAT in a hurry. `No, I'll look
1.806 +first,' she said, `and see whether it's marked "poison" or not';
1.807 +for she had read several nice little histories about children who
1.808 +had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant
1.809 +things, all because they WOULD not remember the simple rules
1.810 +their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker
1.811 +will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your
1.812 +finger VERY deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had
1.813 +never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked
1.814 +`poison,' it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or
1.815 +later.
1.816 +
1.817 + However, this bottle was NOT marked `poison,' so Alice ventured
1.818 +to taste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort
1.819 +of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast
1.820 +turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished
1.821 +it off.
1.822 +
1.823 + * * * * * * *
1.824 +
1.825 + * * * * * *
1.826 +
1.827 + * * * * * * *
1.828 +
1.829 + `What a curious feeling!' said Alice; `I must be shutting up
1.830 +like a telescope.'
1.831 +
1.832 + And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and
1.833 +her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right
1.834 +size for going through the little door into that lovely garden.
1.835 +First, however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was
1.836 +going to shrink any further: she felt a little nervous about
1.837 +this; `for it might end, you know,' said Alice to herself, `in my
1.838 +going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be
1.839 +like then?' And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle is
1.840 +like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember
1.841 +ever having seen such a thing.
1.842 +
1.843 + After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided
1.844 +on going into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice!
1.845 +when she got to the door, she found she had forgotten the
1.846 +little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it,
1.847 +she found she could not possibly reach it: she could see it
1.848 +quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her best to climb
1.849 +up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery;
1.850 +and when she had tired herself out with trying,
1.851 +the poor little thing sat down and cried.
1.852 +
1.853 + `Come, there's no use in crying like that!' said Alice to
1.854 +herself, rather sharply; `I advise you to leave off this minute!'
1.855 +She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very
1.856 +seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so
1.857 +severely as to bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered
1.858 +trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game
1.859 +of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious
1.860 +child was very fond of pretending to be two people. `But it's no
1.861 +use now,' thought poor Alice, `to pretend to be two people! Why,
1.862 +there's hardly enough of me left to make ONE respectable
1.863 +person!'
1.864 +
1.865 + Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under
1.866 +the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on
1.867 +which the words `EAT ME' were beautifully marked in currants.
1.868 +`Well, I'll eat it,' said Alice, `and if it makes me grow larger,
1.869 +I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep
1.870 +under the door; so either way I'll get into the garden, and I
1.871 +don't care which happens!'
1.872 +
1.873 + She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, `Which
1.874 +way? Which way?', holding her hand on the top of her head to
1.875 +feel which way it was growing, and she was quite surprised to
1.876 +find that she remained the same size: to be sure, this generally
1.877 +happens when one eats cake, but Alice had got so much into the
1.878 +way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen,
1.879 +that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the
1.880 +common way.
1.881 +
1.882 + So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.
1.883 +
1.884 + * * * * * * *
1.885 +
1.886 + * * * * * *
1.887 +
1.888 + * * * * * * *
1.889 +
1.890 +
1.891 +
1.892 +
1.893 + CHAPTER II
1.894 +
1.895 + The Pool of Tears
1.896 +
1.897 +
1.898 + `Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much
1.899 +surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good
1.900 +English); `now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that
1.901 +ever was! Good-bye, feet!' (for when she looked down at her
1.902 +feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so
1.903 +far off). `Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on
1.904 +your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I'm sure _I_ shan't
1.905 +be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself
1.906 +about you: you must manage the best way you can; --but I must be
1.907 +kind to them,' thought Alice, `or perhaps they won't walk the
1.908 +way I want to go! Let me see: I'll give them a new pair of
1.909 +boots every Christmas.'
1.910 +
1.911 + And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it.
1.912 +`They must go by the carrier,' she thought; `and how funny it'll
1.913 +seem, sending presents to one's own feet! And how odd the
1.914 +directions will look!
1.915 +
1.916 + ALICE'S RIGHT FOOT, ESQ.
1.917 + HEARTHRUG,
1.918 + NEAR THE FENDER,
1.919 + (WITH ALICE'S LOVE).
1.920 +
1.921 +Oh dear, what nonsense I'm talking!'
1.922 +
1.923 + Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall: in
1.924 +fact she was now more than nine feet high, and she at once took
1.925 +up the little golden key and hurried off to the garden door.
1.926 +
1.927 + Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one
1.928 +side, to look through into the garden with one eye; but to get
1.929 +through was more hopeless than ever: she sat down and began to
1.930 +cry again.
1.931 +
1.932 + `You ought to be ashamed of yourself,' said Alice, `a great
1.933 +girl like you,' (she might well say this), `to go on crying in
1.934 +this way! Stop this moment, I tell you!' But she went on all
1.935 +the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool
1.936 +all round her, about four inches deep and reaching half down the
1.937 +hall.
1.938 +
1.939 + After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the
1.940 +distance, and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming.
1.941 +It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a
1.942 +pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a large fan in the
1.943 +other: he came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to
1.944 +himself as he came, `Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! won't she
1.945 +be savage if I've kept her waiting!' Alice felt so desperate
1.946 +that she was ready to ask help of any one; so, when the Rabbit
1.947 +came near her, she began, in a low, timid voice, `If you please,
1.948 +sir--' The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid
1.949 +gloves and the fan, and skurried away into the darkness as hard
1.950 +as he could go.
1.951 +
1.952 + Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very
1.953 +hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking:
1.954 +`Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday
1.955 +things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in
1.956 +the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this
1.957 +morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little
1.958 +different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in
1.959 +the world am I? Ah, THAT'S the great puzzle!' And she began
1.960 +thinking over all the children she knew that were of the same age
1.961 +as herself, to see if she could have been changed for any of
1.962 +them.
1.963 +
1.964 + `I'm sure I'm not Ada,' she said, `for her hair goes in such
1.965 +long ringlets, and mine doesn't go in ringlets at all; and I'm
1.966 +sure I can't be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she,
1.967 +oh! she knows such a very little! Besides, SHE'S she, and I'm I,
1.968 +and--oh dear, how puzzling it all is! I'll try if I know all the
1.969 +things I used to know. Let me see: four times five is twelve,
1.970 +and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is--oh dear!
1.971 +I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the
1.972 +Multiplication Table doesn't signify: let's try Geography.
1.973 +London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome,
1.974 +and Rome--no, THAT'S all wrong, I'm certain! I must have been
1.975 +changed for Mabel! I'll try and say "How doth the little--"'
1.976 +and she crossed her hands on her lap as if she were saying lessons,
1.977 +and began to repeat it, but her voice sounded hoarse and
1.978 +strange, and the words did not come the same as they used to do:--
1.979 +
1.980 + `How doth the little crocodile
1.981 + Improve his shining tail,
1.982 + And pour the waters of the Nile
1.983 + On every golden scale!
1.984 +
1.985 + `How cheerfully he seems to grin,
1.986 + How neatly spread his claws,
1.987 + And welcome little fishes in
1.988 + With gently smiling jaws!'
1.989 +
1.990 + `I'm sure those are not the right words,' said poor Alice, and
1.991 +her eyes filled with tears again as she went on, `I must be Mabel
1.992 +after all, and I shall have to go and live in that poky little
1.993 +house, and have next to no toys to play with, and oh! ever so
1.994 +many lessons to learn! No, I've made up my mind about it; if I'm
1.995 +Mabel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no use their putting their
1.996 +heads down and saying "Come up again, dear!" I shall only look
1.997 +up and say "Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I
1.998 +like being that person, I'll come up: if not, I'll stay down
1.999 +here till I'm somebody else"--but, oh dear!' cried Alice, with a
1.1000 +sudden burst of tears, `I do wish they WOULD put their heads
1.1001 +down! I am so VERY tired of being all alone here!'
1.1002 +
1.1003 + As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was
1.1004 +surprised to see that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little
1.1005 +white kid gloves while she was talking. `How CAN I have done
1.1006 +that?' she thought. `I must be growing small again.' She got up
1.1007 +and went to the table to measure herself by it, and found that,
1.1008 +as nearly as she could guess, she was now about two feet high,
1.1009 +and was going on shrinking rapidly: she soon found out that the
1.1010 +cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped it
1.1011 +hastily, just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether.
1.1012 +
1.1013 +`That WAS a narrow escape!' said Alice, a good deal frightened at
1.1014 +the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in
1.1015 +existence; `and now for the garden!' and she ran with all speed
1.1016 +back to the little door: but, alas! the little door was shut
1.1017 +again, and the little golden key was lying on the glass table as
1.1018 +before, `and things are worse than ever,' thought the poor child,
1.1019 +`for I never was so small as this before, never! And I declare
1.1020 +it's too bad, that it is!'
1.1021 +
1.1022 + As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another
1.1023 +moment, splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. Her first
1.1024 +idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea, `and in that
1.1025 +case I can go back by railway,' she said to herself. (Alice had
1.1026 +been to the seaside once in her life, and had come to the general
1.1027 +conclusion, that wherever you go to on the English coast you find
1.1028 +a number of bathing machines in the sea, some children digging in
1.1029 +the sand with wooden spades, then a row of lodging houses, and
1.1030 +behind them a railway station.) However, she soon made out that
1.1031 +she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine
1.1032 +feet high.
1.1033 +
1.1034 + `I wish I hadn't cried so much!' said Alice, as she swam about,
1.1035 +trying to find her way out. `I shall be punished for it now, I
1.1036 +suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That WILL be a queer
1.1037 +thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.'
1.1038 +
1.1039 + Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a
1.1040 +little way off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was: at
1.1041 +first she thought it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then
1.1042 +she remembered how small she was now, and she soon made out that
1.1043 +it was only a mouse that had slipped in like herself.
1.1044 +
1.1045 + `Would it be of any use, now,' thought Alice, `to speak to this
1.1046 +mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should
1.1047 +think very likely it can talk: at any rate, there's no harm in
1.1048 +trying.' So she began: `O Mouse, do you know the way out of
1.1049 +this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!'
1.1050 +(Alice thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse:
1.1051 +she had never done such a thing before, but she remembered having
1.1052 +seen in her brother's Latin Grammar, `A mouse--of a mouse--to a
1.1053 +mouse--a mouse--O mouse!' The Mouse looked at her rather
1.1054 +inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little
1.1055 +eyes, but it said nothing.
1.1056 +
1.1057 + `Perhaps it doesn't understand English,' thought Alice; `I
1.1058 +daresay it's a French mouse, come over with William the
1.1059 +Conqueror.' (For, with all her knowledge of history, Alice had
1.1060 +no very clear notion how long ago anything had happened.) So she
1.1061 +began again: `Ou est ma chatte?' which was the first sentence in
1.1062 +her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden leap out of the
1.1063 +water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. `Oh, I beg
1.1064 +your pardon!' cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the
1.1065 +poor animal's feelings. `I quite forgot you didn't like cats.'
1.1066 +
1.1067 + `Not like cats!' cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate
1.1068 +voice. `Would YOU like cats if you were me?'
1.1069 +
1.1070 + `Well, perhaps not,' said Alice in a soothing tone: `don't be
1.1071 +angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah:
1.1072 +I think you'd take a fancy to cats if you could only see her.
1.1073 +She is such a dear quiet thing,' Alice went on, half to herself,
1.1074 +as she swam lazily about in the pool, `and she sits purring so
1.1075 +nicely by the fire, licking her paws and washing her face--and
1.1076 +she is such a nice soft thing to nurse--and she's such a capital
1.1077 +one for catching mice--oh, I beg your pardon!' cried Alice again,
1.1078 +for this time the Mouse was bristling all over, and she felt
1.1079 +certain it must be really offended. `We won't talk about her any
1.1080 +more if you'd rather not.'
1.1081 +
1.1082 + `We indeed!' cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end
1.1083 +of his tail. `As if I would talk on such a subject! Our family
1.1084 +always HATED cats: nasty, low, vulgar things! Don't let me hear
1.1085 +the name again!'
1.1086 +
1.1087 + `I won't indeed!' said Alice, in a great hurry to change the
1.1088 +subject of conversation. `Are you--are you fond--of--of dogs?'
1.1089 +The Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly: `There is
1.1090 +such a nice little dog near our house I should like to show you!
1.1091 +A little bright-eyed terrier, you know, with oh, such long curly
1.1092 +brown hair! And it'll fetch things when you throw them, and
1.1093 +it'll sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts of things--I
1.1094 +can't remember half of them--and it belongs to a farmer, you
1.1095 +know, and he says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds!
1.1096 +He says it kills all the rats and--oh dear!' cried Alice in a
1.1097 +sorrowful tone, `I'm afraid I've offended it again!' For the
1.1098 +Mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it could go, and
1.1099 +making quite a commotion in the pool as it went.
1.1100 +
1.1101 + So she called softly after it, `Mouse dear! Do come back
1.1102 +again, and we won't talk about cats or dogs either, if you don't
1.1103 +like them!' When the Mouse heard this, it turned round and swam
1.1104 +slowly back to her: its face was quite pale (with passion, Alice
1.1105 +thought), and it said in a low trembling voice, `Let us get to
1.1106 +the shore, and then I'll tell you my history, and you'll
1.1107 +understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.'
1.1108 +
1.1109 + It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded
1.1110 +with the birds and animals that had fallen into it: there were a
1.1111 +Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious
1.1112 +creatures. Alice led the way, and the whole party swam to the
1.1113 +shore.
1.1114 +
1.1115 +
1.1116 +
1.1117 + CHAPTER III
1.1118 +
1.1119 + A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale
1.1120 +
1.1121 +
1.1122 + They were indeed a queer-looking party that assembled on the
1.1123 +bank--the birds with draggled feathers, the animals with their
1.1124 +fur clinging close to them, and all dripping wet, cross, and
1.1125 +uncomfortable.
1.1126 +
1.1127 + The first question of course was, how to get dry again: they
1.1128 +had a consultation about this, and after a few minutes it seemed
1.1129 +quite natural to Alice to find herself talking familiarly with
1.1130 +them, as if she had known them all her life. Indeed, she had
1.1131 +quite a long argument with the Lory, who at last turned sulky,
1.1132 +and would only say, `I am older than you, and must know better';
1.1133 +and this Alice would not allow without knowing how old it was,
1.1134 +and, as the Lory positively refused to tell its age, there was no
1.1135 +more to be said.
1.1136 +
1.1137 + At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among
1.1138 +them, called out, `Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL
1.1139 +soon make you dry enough!' They all sat down at once, in a large
1.1140 +ring, with the Mouse in the middle. Alice kept her eyes
1.1141 +anxiously fixed on it, for she felt sure she would catch a bad
1.1142 +cold if she did not get dry very soon.
1.1143 +
1.1144 + `Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, `are you all ready?
1.1145 +This is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please!
1.1146 +"William the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was
1.1147 +soon submitted to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been
1.1148 +of late much accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and
1.1149 +Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria--"'
1.1150 +
1.1151 + `Ugh!' said the Lory, with a shiver.
1.1152 +
1.1153 + `I beg your pardon!' said the Mouse, frowning, but very
1.1154 +politely: `Did you speak?'
1.1155 +
1.1156 + `Not I!' said the Lory hastily.
1.1157 +
1.1158 + `I thought you did,' said the Mouse. `--I proceed. "Edwin and
1.1159 +Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared for him:
1.1160 +and even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found
1.1161 +it advisable--"'
1.1162 +
1.1163 + `Found WHAT?' said the Duck.
1.1164 +
1.1165 + `Found IT,' the Mouse replied rather crossly: `of course you
1.1166 +know what "it" means.'
1.1167 +
1.1168 + `I know what "it" means well enough, when I find a thing,' said
1.1169 +the Duck: `it's generally a frog or a worm. The question is,
1.1170 +what did the archbishop find?'
1.1171 +
1.1172 + The Mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedly went on,
1.1173 +`"--found it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet William
1.1174 +and offer him the crown. William's conduct at first was
1.1175 +moderate. But the insolence of his Normans--" How are you
1.1176 +getting on now, my dear?' it continued, turning to Alice as it
1.1177 +spoke.
1.1178 +
1.1179 + `As wet as ever,' said Alice in a melancholy tone: `it doesn't
1.1180 +seem to dry me at all.'
1.1181 +
1.1182 + `In that case,' said the Dodo solemnly, rising to its feet, `I
1.1183 +move that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more
1.1184 +energetic remedies--'
1.1185 +
1.1186 + `Speak English!' said the Eaglet. `I don't know the meaning of
1.1187 +half those long words, and, what's more, I don't believe you do
1.1188 +either!' And the Eaglet bent down its head to hide a smile:
1.1189 +some of the other birds tittered audibly.
1.1190 +
1.1191 + `What I was going to say,' said the Dodo in an offended tone,
1.1192 +`was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.'
1.1193 +
1.1194 + `What IS a Caucus-race?' said Alice; not that she wanted much
1.1195 +to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that SOMEBODY
1.1196 +ought to speak, and no one else seemed inclined to say anything.
1.1197 +
1.1198 + `Why,' said the Dodo, `the best way to explain it is to do it.'
1.1199 +(And, as you might like to try the thing yourself, some winter
1.1200 +day, I will tell you how the Dodo managed it.)
1.1201 +
1.1202 + First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, (`the
1.1203 +exact shape doesn't matter,' it said,) and then all the party
1.1204 +were placed along the course, here and there. There was no `One,
1.1205 +two, three, and away,' but they began running when they liked,
1.1206 +and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know
1.1207 +when the race was over. However, when they had been running half
1.1208 +an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called
1.1209 +out `The race is over!' and they all crowded round it, panting,
1.1210 +and asking, `But who has won?'
1.1211 +
1.1212 + This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of
1.1213 +thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon
1.1214 +its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare,
1.1215 +in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At
1.1216 +last the Dodo said, `EVERYBODY has won, and all must have
1.1217 +prizes.'
1.1218 +
1.1219 + `But who is to give the prizes?' quite a chorus of voices
1.1220 +asked.
1.1221 +
1.1222 + `Why, SHE, of course,' said the Dodo, pointing to Alice with
1.1223 +one finger; and the whole party at once crowded round her,
1.1224 +calling out in a confused way, `Prizes! Prizes!'
1.1225 +
1.1226 + Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand
1.1227 +in her pocket, and pulled out a box of comfits, (luckily the salt
1.1228 +water had not got into it), and handed them round as prizes.
1.1229 +There was exactly one a-piece all round.
1.1230 +
1.1231 + `But she must have a prize herself, you know,' said the Mouse.
1.1232 +
1.1233 + `Of course,' the Dodo replied very gravely. `What else have
1.1234 +you got in your pocket?' he went on, turning to Alice.
1.1235 +
1.1236 + `Only a thimble,' said Alice sadly.
1.1237 +
1.1238 + `Hand it over here,' said the Dodo.
1.1239 +
1.1240 + Then they all crowded round her once more, while the Dodo
1.1241 +solemnly presented the thimble, saying `We beg your acceptance of
1.1242 +this elegant thimble'; and, when it had finished this short
1.1243 +speech, they all cheered.
1.1244 +
1.1245 + Alice thought the whole thing very absurd, but they all looked
1.1246 +so grave that she did not dare to laugh; and, as she could not
1.1247 +think of anything to say, she simply bowed, and took the thimble,
1.1248 +looking as solemn as she could.
1.1249 +
1.1250 + The next thing was to eat the comfits: this caused some noise
1.1251 +and confusion, as the large birds complained that they could not
1.1252 +taste theirs, and the small ones choked and had to be patted on
1.1253 +the back. However, it was over at last, and they sat down again
1.1254 +in a ring, and begged the Mouse to tell them something more.
1.1255 +
1.1256 + `You promised to tell me your history, you know,' said Alice,
1.1257 +`and why it is you hate--C and D,' she added in a whisper, half
1.1258 +afraid that it would be offended again.
1.1259 +
1.1260 + `Mine is a long and a sad tale!' said the Mouse, turning to
1.1261 +Alice, and sighing.
1.1262 +
1.1263 + `It IS a long tail, certainly,' said Alice, looking down with
1.1264 +wonder at the Mouse's tail; `but why do you call it sad?' And
1.1265 +she kept on puzzling about it while the Mouse was speaking, so
1.1266 +that her idea of the tale was something like this:--
1.1267 +
1.1268 + `Fury said to a
1.1269 + mouse, That he
1.1270 + met in the
1.1271 + house,
1.1272 + "Let us
1.1273 + both go to
1.1274 + law: I will
1.1275 + prosecute
1.1276 + YOU. --Come,
1.1277 + I'll take no
1.1278 + denial; We
1.1279 + must have a
1.1280 + trial: For
1.1281 + really this
1.1282 + morning I've
1.1283 + nothing
1.1284 + to do."
1.1285 + Said the
1.1286 + mouse to the
1.1287 + cur, "Such
1.1288 + a trial,
1.1289 + dear Sir,
1.1290 + With
1.1291 + no jury
1.1292 + or judge,
1.1293 + would be
1.1294 + wasting
1.1295 + our
1.1296 + breath."
1.1297 + "I'll be
1.1298 + judge, I'll
1.1299 + be jury,"
1.1300 + Said
1.1301 + cunning
1.1302 + old Fury:
1.1303 + "I'll
1.1304 + try the
1.1305 + whole
1.1306 + cause,
1.1307 + and
1.1308 + condemn
1.1309 + you
1.1310 + to
1.1311 + death."'
1.1312 +
1.1313 + Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister
1.1314 +on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had
1.1315 +peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no
1.1316 +pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,'
1.1317 +thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?'
1.1318 +
1.1319 + So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could,
1.1320 +for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether
1.1321 +the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble
1.1322 +of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White
1.1323 +Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
1.1324 +
1.1325 + There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice
1.1326 +think it so VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to
1.1327 +itself, `Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought
1.1328 +it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have
1.1329 +wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural);
1.1330 +but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-
1.1331 +POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to
1.1332 +her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never
1.1333 +before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to
1.1334 +take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the
1.1335 +field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop
1.1336 +down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
1.1337 +
1.1338 + In another moment down went Alice after it, never once
1.1339 +considering how in the world she was to get out again.
1.1340 +
1.1341 + The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way,
1.1342 +and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a
1.1343 +moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself
1.1344 +falling down a very deep well.
1.1345 +
1.1346 + Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she
1.1347 +had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to
1.1348 +wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look
1.1349 +down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to
1.1350 +see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well, and
1.1351 +noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves;
1.1352 +here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She
1.1353 +took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was
1.1354 +labelled `ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great disappointment it
1.1355 +was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing
1.1356 +somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she
1.1357 +fell past it.
1.1358 +
1.1359 + `Well!' thought Alice to herself, `after such a fall as this, I
1.1360 +shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll
1.1361 +all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it,
1.1362 +even if I fell off the top of the house!' (Which was very likely
1.1363 +true.)
1.1364 +
1.1365 + Down, down, down. Would the fall NEVER come to an end! `I
1.1366 +wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud.
1.1367 +`I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let
1.1368 +me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think--' (for,
1.1369 +you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her
1.1370 +lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a VERY good
1.1371 +opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to
1.1372 +listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) `--yes,
1.1373 +that's about the right distance--but then I wonder what Latitude
1.1374 +or Longitude I've got to?' (Alice had no idea what Latitude was,
1.1375 +or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to
1.1376 +say.)
1.1377 +
1.1378 + Presently she began again. `I wonder if I shall fall right
1.1379 +THROUGH the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the
1.1380 +people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I
1.1381 +think--' (she was rather glad there WAS no one listening, this
1.1382 +time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) `--but I shall
1.1383 +have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know.
1.1384 +Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?' (and she tried
1.1385 +to curtsey as she spoke--fancy CURTSEYING as you're falling
1.1386 +through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) `And what
1.1387 +an ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll
1.1388 +never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.'
1.1389 +
1.1390 + Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon
1.1391 +began talking again. `Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I
1.1392 +should think!' (Dinah was the cat.) `I hope they'll remember
1.1393 +her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were
1.1394 +down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but
1.1395 +you might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know.
1.1396 +But do cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice began to get
1.1397 +rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of
1.1398 +way, `Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, `Do
1.1399 +bats eat cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either
1.1400 +question, it didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt
1.1401 +that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she
1.1402 +was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very
1.1403 +earnestly, `Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a
1.1404 +bat?' when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of
1.1405 +sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.
1.1406 +
1.1407 + Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a
1.1408 +moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her
1.1409 +was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in
1.1410 +sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost:
1.1411 +away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it
1.1412 +say, as it turned a corner, `Oh my ears and whiskers, how late
1.1413 +it's getting!' She was close behind it when she turned the
1.1414 +corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found
1.1415 +herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps
1.1416 +hanging from the roof.
1.1417 +
1.1418 + There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked;
1.1419 +and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the
1.1420 +other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle,
1.1421 +wondering how she was ever to get out again.
1.1422 +
1.1423 + Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of
1.1424 +solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key,
1.1425 +and Alice's first thought was that it might belong to one of the
1.1426 +doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or
1.1427 +the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of
1.1428 +them. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low
1.1429 +curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little
1.1430 +door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key
1.1431 +in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!
1.1432 +
1.1433 + Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small
1.1434 +passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and
1.1435 +looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw.
1.1436 +How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about
1.1437 +among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but
1.1438 +she could not even get her head though the doorway; `and even if
1.1439 +my head would go through,' thought poor Alice, `it would be of
1.1440 +very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish
1.1441 +I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only
1.1442 +know how to begin.' For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things
1.1443 +had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few
1.1444 +things indeed were really impossible.
1.1445 +
1.1446 + There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she
1.1447 +went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on
1.1448 +it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like
1.1449 +telescopes: this time she found a little bottle on it, (`which
1.1450 +certainly was not here before,' said Alice,) and round the neck
1.1451 +of the bottle was a paper label, with the words `DRINK ME'
1.1452 +beautifully printed on it in large letters.
1.1453 +
1.1454 + It was all very well to say `Drink me,' but the wise little
1.1455 +Alice was not going to do THAT in a hurry. `No, I'll look
1.1456 +first,' she said, `and see whether it's marked "poison" or not';
1.1457 +for she had read several nice little histories about children who
1.1458 +had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant
1.1459 +things, all because they WOULD not remember the simple rules
1.1460 +their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker
1.1461 +will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your
1.1462 +finger VERY deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had
1.1463 +never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked
1.1464 +`poison,' it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or
1.1465 +later.
1.1466 +
1.1467 + However, this bottle was NOT marked `poison,' so Alice ventured
1.1468 +to taste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort
1.1469 +of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast
1.1470 +turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished
1.1471 +it off.
1.1472 +
1.1473 + * * * * * * *
1.1474 +
1.1475 + * * * * * *
1.1476 +
1.1477 + * * * * * * *
1.1478 +
1.1479 + `What a curious feeling!' said Alice; `I must be shutting up
1.1480 +like a telescope.'
1.1481 +
1.1482 + And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and
1.1483 +her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right
1.1484 +size for going through the little door into that lovely garden.
1.1485 +First, however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was
1.1486 +going to shrink any further: she felt a little nervous about
1.1487 +this; `for it might end, you know,' said Alice to herself, `in my
1.1488 +going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be
1.1489 +like then?' And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle is
1.1490 +like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember
1.1491 +ever having seen such a thing.
1.1492 +
1.1493 + After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided
1.1494 +on going into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice!
1.1495 +when she got to the door, she found she had forgotten the
1.1496 +little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it,
1.1497 +she found she could not possibly reach it: she could see it
1.1498 +quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her best to climb
1.1499 +up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery;
1.1500 +and when she had tired herself out with trying,
1.1501 +the poor little thing sat down and cried.
1.1502 +
1.1503 + `Come, there's no use in crying like that!' said Alice to
1.1504 +herself, rather sharply; `I advise you to leave off this minute!'
1.1505 +She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very
1.1506 +seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so
1.1507 +severely as to bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered
1.1508 +trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game
1.1509 +of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious
1.1510 +child was very fond of pretending to be two people. `But it's no
1.1511 +use now,' thought poor Alice, `to pretend to be two people! Why,
1.1512 +there's hardly enough of me left to make ONE respectable
1.1513 +person!'
1.1514 +
1.1515 + Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under
1.1516 +the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on
1.1517 +which the words `EAT ME' were beautifully marked in currants.
1.1518 +`Well, I'll eat it,' said Alice, `and if it makes me grow larger,
1.1519 +I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep
1.1520 +under the door; so either way I'll get into the garden, and I
1.1521 +don't care which happens!'
1.1522 +
1.1523 + She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, `Which
1.1524 +way? Which way?', holding her hand on the top of her head to
1.1525 +feel which way it was growing, and she was quite surprised to
1.1526 +find that she remained the same size: to be sure, this generally
1.1527 +happens when one eats cake, but Alice had got so much into the
1.1528 +way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen,
1.1529 +that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the
1.1530 +common way.
1.1531 +
1.1532 + So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.
1.1533 +
1.1534 + * * * * * * *
1.1535 +
1.1536 + * * * * * *
1.1537 +
1.1538 + * * * * * * *
1.1539 +
1.1540 +
1.1541 +
1.1542 +
1.1543 + CHAPTER II
1.1544 +
1.1545 + The Pool of Tears
1.1546 +
1.1547 +
1.1548 + `Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much
1.1549 +surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good
1.1550 +English); `now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that
1.1551 +ever was! Good-bye, feet!' (for when she looked down at her
1.1552 +feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so
1.1553 +far off). `Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on
1.1554 +your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I'm sure _I_ shan't
1.1555 +be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself
1.1556 +about you: you must manage the best way you can; --but I must be
1.1557 +kind to them,' thought Alice, `or perhaps they won't walk the
1.1558 +way I want to go! Let me see: I'll give them a new pair of
1.1559 +boots every Christmas.'
1.1560 +
1.1561 + And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it.
1.1562 +`They must go by the carrier,' she thought; `and how funny it'll
1.1563 +seem, sending presents to one's own feet! And how odd the
1.1564 +directions will look!
1.1565 +
1.1566 + ALICE'S RIGHT FOOT, ESQ.
1.1567 + HEARTHRUG,
1.1568 + NEAR THE FENDER,
1.1569 + (WITH ALICE'S LOVE).
1.1570 +
1.1571 +Oh dear, what nonsense I'm talking!'
1.1572 +
1.1573 + Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall: in
1.1574 +fact she was now more than nine feet high, and she at once took
1.1575 +up the little golden key and hurried off to the garden door.
1.1576 +
1.1577 + Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one
1.1578 +side, to look through into the garden with one eye; but to get
1.1579 +through was more hopeless than ever: she sat down and began to
1.1580 +cry again.
1.1581 +
1.1582 + `You ought to be ashamed of yourself,' said Alice, `a great
1.1583 +girl like you,' (she might well say this), `to go on crying in
1.1584 +this way! Stop this moment, I tell you!' But she went on all
1.1585 +the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool
1.1586 +all round her, about four inches deep and reaching half down the
1.1587 +hall.
1.1588 +
1.1589 + After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the
1.1590 +distance, and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming.
1.1591 +It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a
1.1592 +pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a large fan in the
1.1593 +other: he came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to
1.1594 +himself as he came, `Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! won't she
1.1595 +be savage if I've kept her waiting!' Alice felt so desperate
1.1596 +that she was ready to ask help of any one; so, when the Rabbit
1.1597 +came near her, she began, in a low, timid voice, `If you please,
1.1598 +sir--' The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid
1.1599 +gloves and the fan, and skurried away into the darkness as hard
1.1600 +as he could go.
1.1601 +
1.1602 + Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very
1.1603 +hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking:
1.1604 +`Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday
1.1605 +things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in
1.1606 +the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this
1.1607 +morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little
1.1608 +different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in
1.1609 +the world am I? Ah, THAT'S the great puzzle!' And she began
1.1610 +thinking over all the children she knew that were of the same age
1.1611 +as herself, to see if she could have been changed for any of
1.1612 +them.
1.1613 +
1.1614 + `I'm sure I'm not Ada,' she said, `for her hair goes in such
1.1615 +long ringlets, and mine doesn't go in ringlets at all; and I'm
1.1616 +sure I can't be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she,
1.1617 +oh! she knows such a very little! Besides, SHE'S she, and I'm I,
1.1618 +and--oh dear, how puzzling it all is! I'll try if I know all the
1.1619 +things I used to know. Let me see: four times five is twelve,
1.1620 +and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is--oh dear!
1.1621 +I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the
1.1622 +Multiplication Table doesn't signify: let's try Geography.
1.1623 +London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome,
1.1624 +and Rome--no, THAT'S all wrong, I'm certain! I must have been
1.1625 +changed for Mabel! I'll try and say "How doth the little--"'
1.1626 +and she crossed her hands on her lap as if she were saying lessons,
1.1627 +and began to repeat it, but her voice sounded hoarse and
1.1628 +strange, and the words did not come the same as they used to do:--
1.1629 +
1.1630 + `How doth the little crocodile
1.1631 + Improve his shining tail,
1.1632 + And pour the waters of the Nile
1.1633 + On every golden scale!
1.1634 +
1.1635 + `How cheerfully he seems to grin,
1.1636 + How neatly spread his claws,
1.1637 + And welcome little fishes in
1.1638 + With gently smiling jaws!'
1.1639 +
1.1640 + `I'm sure those are not the right words,' said poor Alice, and
1.1641 +her eyes filled with tears again as she went on, `I must be Mabel
1.1642 +after all, and I shall have to go and live in that poky little
1.1643 +house, and have next to no toys to play with, and oh! ever so
1.1644 +many lessons to learn! No, I've made up my mind about it; if I'm
1.1645 +Mabel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no use their putting their
1.1646 +heads down and saying "Come up again, dear!" I shall only look
1.1647 +up and say "Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I
1.1648 +like being that person, I'll come up: if not, I'll stay down
1.1649 +here till I'm somebody else"--but, oh dear!' cried Alice, with a
1.1650 +sudden burst of tears, `I do wish they WOULD put their heads
1.1651 +down! I am so VERY tired of being all alone here!'
1.1652 +
1.1653 + As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was
1.1654 +surprised to see that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little
1.1655 +white kid gloves while she was talking. `How CAN I have done
1.1656 +that?' she thought. `I must be growing small again.' She got up
1.1657 +and went to the table to measure herself by it, and found that,
1.1658 +as nearly as she could guess, she was now about two feet high,
1.1659 +and was going on shrinking rapidly: she soon found out that the
1.1660 +cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped it
1.1661 +hastily, just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether.
1.1662 +
1.1663 +`That WAS a narrow escape!' said Alice, a good deal frightened at
1.1664 +the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in
1.1665 +existence; `and now for the garden!' and she ran with all speed
1.1666 +back to the little door: but, alas! the little door was shut
1.1667 +again, and the little golden key was lying on the glass table as
1.1668 +before, `and things are worse than ever,' thought the poor child,
1.1669 +`for I never was so small as this before, never! And I declare
1.1670 +it's too bad, that it is!'
1.1671 +
1.1672 + As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another
1.1673 +moment, splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. Her first
1.1674 +idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea, `and in that
1.1675 +case I can go back by railway,' she said to herself. (Alice had
1.1676 +been to the seaside once in her life, and had come to the general
1.1677 +conclusion, that wherever you go to on the English coast you find
1.1678 +a number of bathing machines in the sea, some children digging in
1.1679 +the sand with wooden spades, then a row of lodging houses, and
1.1680 +behind them a railway station.) However, she soon made out that
1.1681 +she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine
1.1682 +feet high.
1.1683 +
1.1684 + `I wish I hadn't cried so much!' said Alice, as she swam about,
1.1685 +trying to find her way out. `I shall be punished for it now, I
1.1686 +suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That WILL be a queer
1.1687 +thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.'
1.1688 +
1.1689 + Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a
1.1690 +little way off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was: at
1.1691 +first she thought it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then
1.1692 +she remembered how small she was now, and she soon made out that
1.1693 +it was only a mouse that had slipped in like herself.
1.1694 +
1.1695 + `Would it be of any use, now,' thought Alice, `to speak to this
1.1696 +mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should
1.1697 +think very likely it can talk: at any rate, there's no harm in
1.1698 +trying.' So she began: `O Mouse, do you know the way out of
1.1699 +this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!'
1.1700 +(Alice thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse:
1.1701 +she had never done such a thing before, but she remembered having
1.1702 +seen in her brother's Latin Grammar, `A mouse--of a mouse--to a
1.1703 +mouse--a mouse--O mouse!' The Mouse looked at her rather
1.1704 +inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little
1.1705 +eyes, but it said nothing.
1.1706 +
1.1707 + `Perhaps it doesn't understand English,' thought Alice; `I
1.1708 +daresay it's a French mouse, come over with William the
1.1709 +Conqueror.' (For, with all her knowledge of history, Alice had
1.1710 +no very clear notion how long ago anything had happened.) So she
1.1711 +began again: `Ou est ma chatte?' which was the first sentence in
1.1712 +her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden leap out of the
1.1713 +water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. `Oh, I beg
1.1714 +your pardon!' cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the
1.1715 +poor animal's feelings. `I quite forgot you didn't like cats.'
1.1716 +
1.1717 + `Not like cats!' cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate
1.1718 +voice. `Would YOU like cats if you were me?'
1.1719 +
1.1720 + `Well, perhaps not,' said Alice in a soothing tone: `don't be
1.1721 +angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah:
1.1722 +I think you'd take a fancy to cats if you could only see her.
1.1723 +She is such a dear quiet thing,' Alice went on, half to herself,
1.1724 +as she swam lazily about in the pool, `and she sits purring so
1.1725 +nicely by the fire, licking her paws and washing her face--and
1.1726 +she is such a nice soft thing to nurse--and she's such a capital
1.1727 +one for catching mice--oh, I beg your pardon!' cried Alice again,
1.1728 +for this time the Mouse was bristling all over, and she felt
1.1729 +certain it must be really offended. `We won't talk about her any
1.1730 +more if you'd rather not.'
1.1731 +
1.1732 + `We indeed!' cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end
1.1733 +of his tail. `As if I would talk on such a subject! Our family
1.1734 +always HATED cats: nasty, low, vulgar things! Don't let me hear
1.1735 +the name again!'
1.1736 +
1.1737 + `I won't indeed!' said Alice, in a great hurry to change the
1.1738 +subject of conversation. `Are you--are you fond--of--of dogs?'
1.1739 +The Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly: `There is
1.1740 +such a nice little dog near our house I should like to show you!
1.1741 +A little bright-eyed terrier, you know, with oh, such long curly
1.1742 +brown hair! And it'll fetch things when you throw them, and
1.1743 +it'll sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts of things--I
1.1744 +can't remember half of them--and it belongs to a farmer, you
1.1745 +know, and he says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds!
1.1746 +He says it kills all the rats and--oh dear!' cried Alice in a
1.1747 +sorrowful tone, `I'm afraid I've offended it again!' For the
1.1748 +Mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it could go, and
1.1749 +making quite a commotion in the pool as it went.
1.1750 +
1.1751 + So she called softly after it, `Mouse dear! Do come back
1.1752 +again, and we won't talk about cats or dogs either, if you don't
1.1753 +like them!' When the Mouse heard this, it turned round and swam
1.1754 +slowly back to her: its face was quite pale (with passion, Alice
1.1755 +thought), and it said in a low trembling voice, `Let us get to
1.1756 +the shore, and then I'll tell you my history, and you'll
1.1757 +understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.'
1.1758 +
1.1759 + It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded
1.1760 +with the birds and animals that had fallen into it: there were a
1.1761 +Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious
1.1762 +creatures. Alice led the way, and the whole party swam to the
1.1763 +shore.
1.1764 +
1.1765 +
1.1766 +
1.1767 + CHAPTER III
1.1768 +
1.1769 + A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale
1.1770 +
1.1771 +
1.1772 + They were indeed a queer-looking party that assembled on the
1.1773 +bank--the birds with draggled feathers, the animals with their
1.1774 +fur clinging close to them, and all dripping wet, cross, and
1.1775 +uncomfortable.
1.1776 +
1.1777 + The first question of course was, how to get dry again: they
1.1778 +had a consultation about this, and after a few minutes it seemed
1.1779 +quite natural to Alice to find herself talking familiarly with
1.1780 +them, as if she had known them all her life. Indeed, she had
1.1781 +quite a long argument with the Lory, who at last turned sulky,
1.1782 +and would only say, `I am older than you, and must know better';
1.1783 +and this Alice would not allow without knowing how old it was,
1.1784 +and, as the Lory positively refused to tell its age, there was no
1.1785 +more to be said.
1.1786 +
1.1787 + At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among
1.1788 +them, called out, `Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL
1.1789 +soon make you dry enough!' They all sat down at once, in a large
1.1790 +ring, with the Mouse in the middle. Alice kept her eyes
1.1791 +anxiously fixed on it, for she felt sure she would catch a bad
1.1792 +cold if she did not get dry very soon.
1.1793 +
1.1794 + `Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, `are you all ready?
1.1795 +This is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please!
1.1796 +"William the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was
1.1797 +soon submitted to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been
1.1798 +of late much accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and
1.1799 +Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria--"'
1.1800 +
1.1801 + `Ugh!' said the Lory, with a shiver.
1.1802 +
1.1803 + `I beg your pardon!' said the Mouse, frowning, but very
1.1804 +politely: `Did you speak?'
1.1805 +
1.1806 + `Not I!' said the Lory hastily.
1.1807 +
1.1808 + `I thought you did,' said the Mouse. `--I proceed. "Edwin and
1.1809 +Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared for him:
1.1810 +and even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found
1.1811 +it advisable--"'
1.1812 +
1.1813 + `Found WHAT?' said the Duck.
1.1814 +
1.1815 + `Found IT,' the Mouse replied rather crossly: `of course you
1.1816 +know what "it" means.'
1.1817 +
1.1818 + `I know what "it" means well enough, when I find a thing,' said
1.1819 +the Duck: `it's generally a frog or a worm. The question is,
1.1820 +what did the archbishop find?'
1.1821 +
1.1822 + The Mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedly went on,
1.1823 +`"--found it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet William
1.1824 +and offer him the crown. William's conduct at first was
1.1825 +moderate. But the insolence of his Normans--" How are you
1.1826 +getting on now, my dear?' it continued, turning to Alice as it
1.1827 +spoke.
1.1828 +
1.1829 + `As wet as ever,' said Alice in a melancholy tone: `it doesn't
1.1830 +seem to dry me at all.'
1.1831 +
1.1832 + `In that case,' said the Dodo solemnly, rising to its feet, `I
1.1833 +move that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more
1.1834 +energetic remedies--'
1.1835 +
1.1836 + `Speak English!' said the Eaglet. `I don't know the meaning of
1.1837 +half those long words, and, what's more, I don't believe you do
1.1838 +either!' And the Eaglet bent down its head to hide a smile:
1.1839 +some of the other birds tittered audibly.
1.1840 +
1.1841 + `What I was going to say,' said the Dodo in an offended tone,
1.1842 +`was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.'
1.1843 +
1.1844 + `What IS a Caucus-race?' said Alice; not that she wanted much
1.1845 +to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that SOMEBODY
1.1846 +ought to speak, and no one else seemed inclined to say anything.
1.1847 +
1.1848 + `Why,' said the Dodo, `the best way to explain it is to do it.'
1.1849 +(And, as you might like to try the thing yourself, some winter
1.1850 +day, I will tell you how the Dodo managed it.)
1.1851 +
1.1852 + First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, (`the
1.1853 +exact shape doesn't matter,' it said,) and then all the party
1.1854 +were placed along the course, here and there. There was no `One,
1.1855 +two, three, and away,' but they began running when they liked,
1.1856 +and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know
1.1857 +when the race was over. However, when they had been running half
1.1858 +an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called
1.1859 +out `The race is over!' and they all crowded round it, panting,
1.1860 +and asking, `But who has won?'
1.1861 +
1.1862 + This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of
1.1863 +thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon
1.1864 +its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare,
1.1865 +in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At
1.1866 +last the Dodo said, `EVERYBODY has won, and all must have
1.1867 +prizes.'
1.1868 +
1.1869 + `But who is to give the prizes?' quite a chorus of voices
1.1870 +asked.
1.1871 +
1.1872 + `Why, SHE, of course,' said the Dodo, pointing to Alice with
1.1873 +one finger; and the whole party at once crowded round her,
1.1874 +calling out in a confused way, `Prizes! Prizes!'
1.1875 +
1.1876 + Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand
1.1877 +in her pocket, and pulled out a box of comfits, (luckily the salt
1.1878 +water had not got into it), and handed them round as prizes.
1.1879 +There was exactly one a-piece all round.
1.1880 +
1.1881 + `But she must have a prize herself, you know,' said the Mouse.
1.1882 +
1.1883 + `Of course,' the Dodo replied very gravely. `What else have
1.1884 +you got in your pocket?' he went on, turning to Alice.
1.1885 +
1.1886 + `Only a thimble,' said Alice sadly.
1.1887 +
1.1888 + `Hand it over here,' said the Dodo.
1.1889 +
1.1890 + Then they all crowded round her once more, while the Dodo
1.1891 +solemnly presented the thimble, saying `We beg your acceptance of
1.1892 +this elegant thimble'; and, when it had finished this short
1.1893 +speech, they all cheered.
1.1894 +
1.1895 + Alice thought the whole thing very absurd, but they all looked
1.1896 +so grave that she did not dare to laugh; and, as she could not
1.1897 +think of anything to say, she simply bowed, and took the thimble,
1.1898 +looking as solemn as she could.
1.1899 +
1.1900 + The next thing was to eat the comfits: this caused some noise
1.1901 +and confusion, as the large birds complained that they could not
1.1902 +taste theirs, and the small ones choked and had to be patted on
1.1903 +the back. However, it was over at last, and they sat down again
1.1904 +in a ring, and begged the Mouse to tell them something more.
1.1905 +
1.1906 + `You promised to tell me your history, you know,' said Alice,
1.1907 +`and why it is you hate--C and D,' she added in a whisper, half
1.1908 +afraid that it would be offended again.
1.1909 +
1.1910 + `Mine is a long and a sad tale!' said the Mouse, turning to
1.1911 +Alice, and sighing.
1.1912 +
1.1913 + `It IS a long tail, certainly,' said Alice, looking down with
1.1914 +wonder at the Mouse's tail; `but why do you call it sad?' And
1.1915 +she kept on puzzling about it while the Mouse was speaking, so
1.1916 +that her idea of the tale was something like this:--
1.1917 +
1.1918 + `Fury said to a
1.1919 + mouse, That he
1.1920 + met in the
1.1921 + house,
1.1922 + "Let us
1.1923 + both go to
1.1924 + law: I will
1.1925 + prosecute
1.1926 + YOU. --Come,
1.1927 + I'll take no
1.1928 + denial; We
1.1929 + must have a
1.1930 + trial: For
1.1931 + really this
1.1932 + morning I've
1.1933 + nothing
1.1934 + to do."
1.1935 + Said the
1.1936 + mouse to the
1.1937 + cur, "Such
1.1938 + a trial,
1.1939 + dear Sir,
1.1940 + With
1.1941 + no jury
1.1942 + or judge,
1.1943 + would be
1.1944 + wasting
1.1945 + our
1.1946 + breath."
1.1947 + "I'll be
1.1948 + judge, I'll
1.1949 + be jury,"
1.1950 + Said
1.1951 + cunning
1.1952 + old Fury:
1.1953 + "I'll
1.1954 + try the
1.1955 + whole
1.1956 + cause,
1.1957 + and
1.1958 + condemn
1.1959 + you
1.1960 + to
1.1961 + death."'
1.1962 +
1.1963 +</div>
1.1964 +</body></html>
