she felt
a little nervous about this; - for it might end, you know, - said Alice to
herself, - in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I
should be like then? - And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle
is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever
having seen such a thing.
After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on
going into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to
the door, she found he had forgotten the little golden key, and when she
went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach it:
she could see it quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her best
to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery; and
when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down
and cried.
- Come, there's no use in crying like that! - said Alice to herself,
rather sharply; - I advise you to leave off this minute! - She generally
gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it), and
sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes;
and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated
herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, for this
curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. - But it's no
use now, - thought poor Alice, - to pretend to be two people! Why, there's
hardly enough of me left to make ONE respectable person!
Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the
table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the
words - EAT ME - were beautifully marked in currants. - Well, I'll eat it,
- said Alive, - and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and
if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way
I'll get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!
She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, - Which way?
Which way?', holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it
was growing, and she was quite surprised to find that she remained the
same size: to be sure, this generally happens when one eats cake, but
Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way
things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on
in the common way.
So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.

* * * * * * *
* * * * * *
* * * * * * *



CHAPTER II

The Pool of Tears

- Curiouser and curiouser! - cried Alice (she was so much surprised,
that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); - now I'm
opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet! -
(for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of
sight, they were getting so far off). - Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder
who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I'm sure _I_
shan't be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself
about you: you must manage the best way you can; - but I must be kind to
them, - thought Alice, - or perhaps they won't walk the way I want to go!
Let me see: I'll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas.
And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it. - They
must go by the carrier, - she thought; - and how funny it'll seem, sending
presents to one's own feet! And how odd the directions will look!

ALICE'S RIGHT FOOT, ESQ.
HEARTHRUG,
NEAR THE FENDER,
(WITH ALICE'S LOVE).

Oh dear, what nonsense I'm talking!
Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall: in fact she
was now more than nine feet high, and she at once took up the little
golden key and hurried off to the garden door.
Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one side,
to look through into the garden with one eye; but to get through was more
hopeless than ever: she sat down and began to cry again.
- You ought to be ashamed of yourself, - said Alice, - a great girl
like you, - (she might well say this), - to go on crying in this way! Stop
this moment, I tell you! - But she went on all the same, shedding gallons
of tears, until there was a large pool all round her, about four inches
deep and reaching half down the hall.
After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the distance,
and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming. It was the White
Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in
one hand and a large fan in the other: he came trotting along in a great
hurry, muttering to himself as he came, - Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess!
Oh! won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting! - Alice felt so
desperate that she was ready to ask help of any one; so, when the Rabbit
came near her, she began, in a low, timid voice, - If you please, sir -
The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid gloves and the fan,
and skurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go.
Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she
kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: - Dear, dear! How
queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I
wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same
when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little
different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world
am I? Ah, THAT'S the great puzzle! - And she began thinking over all the
children she knew that were of the same age as herself, to see if she
could have been changed for any of them.
- I'm sure I'm not Ada, - she said, - for her hair goes in such long
ringlets, and mine doesn't go in ringlets at all; and I'm sure I can't be
Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she, oh! she knows such a very
little! Besides, SHE'S she, and I'm I, and - oh dear, how puzzling it all
is! I'll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me see: four
times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven
is - oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the
Multiplication Table doesn't signify: let's try Geography. London is the
capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and Rome - no, THAT'S
all wrong, I'm certain! I must have been changed for Mabel! I'll try and
say - How doth the little - and she crossed her hands on her lap as if she
were saying lessons, and began to repeat it, but her voice sounded hoarse
and strange, and the words did not come the same as they used to do:

- How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

- How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spread his claws,
And welcome little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!

- I'm sure those are not the right words, - said poor Alice, and her
eyes filled with tears again as she went on, - I must be Mabel after all,
and I shall have to go and live in that poky little house, and have next
to no toys to play with, and oh! ever so many lessons to learn! No, I've
made up my mind about it; if I'm Mabel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no
use their putting their heads down and saying
- Come up again, dear! - I shall only look up and say - Who am I
then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I'll come
up: if not, I'll stay down here till I'm somebody else - but, oh dear! -
cried Alice, with a sudden burst of tears, - I do wish they WOULD put
their heads down! I am so VERY tired of being all alone here!
As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was surprised to
see that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little white kid gloves while
she was talking. - How CAN I have done that? - she thought. - I must be
growing small again. - She got up and went to the table to measure herself
by it, and found that, as nearly as she could guess, she was now about two
feet high, and was going on shrinking rapidly: she soon found out that the
cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped it hastily,
just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether.
- That WAS a narrow escape! - said Alice, a good deal frightened at
the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence;
- and now for the garden! - and she ran with all speed back to the
little door: but, alas! the little door was shut again, and the little
golden key was lying on the glass table as before, - and things are worse
than ever, - thought the poor child, - for I never was so small as this
before, never! And I declare it's too bad, that it is!
As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another moment,
splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. He first idea was that she
had somehow fallen into the sea, - and in that case I can go back by
railway, - she said to herself. (Alice had been to the seaside once in her
life, and had come to the general conclusion, that wherever you go to on
the English coast you find a number of bathing machines in the sea, some
children digging in the sand with wooden spades, then a row of lodging
houses, and behind them a railway station.
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