) However, she soon made out
that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine
feet high.
- I wish I hadn't cried so much! - said Alice, as she swam about,
trying to find her way out. - I shall be punished for it now, I suppose,
by being drowned in my own tears! That WILL be a queer thing, to be sure!
However, everything is queer to-day.
Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little
way off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was: at first she thought
it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she
was now, and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped
in like herself.
- Would it be of any use, now, - thought Alice, - to speak to this
mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think very
likely it can talk: at any rate, there's no harm in trying. - So she
began: - O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of
swimming about here, O Mouse! - (Alice thought this must be the right way
of speaking to a mouse: she had never done such a thing before, but she
remembered having seen in her brother's Latin Grammar, - A mouse - of a
mouse - to a mouse - a mouse - O mouse! - The Mouse looked at her rather
inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but
it said nothing.
- Perhaps it doesn't understand English, - thought Alice; - I daresay
it's a French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror. - (For, with
all her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion how long ago
anything had happened.) So she began again: - Ou est ma chatte? - which
was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden
leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. - Oh, I
beg your pardon! - cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor
animal's feelings. - I quite forgot you didn't like cats.
- Not like cats! - cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice. -
Would YOU like cats if you were me? - Well, perhaps not, - said Alice in a
soothing tone: - don't be angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you
our cat Dinah: I think you'd take a fancy to cats if you could only see
her. She is such a dear quiet thing, - Alice went on, half to herself, as
she swam lazily about in the pool, - and she sits purring so nicely by the
fire, licking her paws and washing her face - and she is such a nice soft
thing to nurse - and she's such a capital one for catching mice - oh, I
beg your pardon! - cried Alice again, for this time the Mouse was
bristling all over, and she felt certain it must be really offended.
- We won't talk about her any more if you'd rather not. - We indeed!
- cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end of his tail. - As if
I would talk on such a subject! Our family always HATED cats: nasty, low,
vulgar things! Don't let me hear the name again!
- I won't indeed! - said Alice, in a great hurry to change the
subject of conversation. - Are you - are you fond - of - of dogs? - The
Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly: - There is such a nice
little dog near our house I should like to show you! A little bright-eyed
terrier, you know, with oh, such long curly brown hair! And it'll fetch
things when you throw them, and it'll sit up and beg for its dinner, and
all sorts of thins - I can't remember half of them - and it belongs to a
farmer, you know, and he says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds!
He says it kills all the rats and - oh dear! - cried Alice in a sorrowful
tone, - I'm afraid I've offended it again! - For the Mouse was swimming
away from her as hard as it could go, and making quite a commotion in the
pool as it went.
So she called softly after it, - Mouse dear! Do come back again, and
we won't talk about cats or dogs either, if you don't like them! When the
Mouse heard this, it turned round and swam slowly back to her: its face
was quite pale (with passion, Alice thought), and it said in a low
trembling voice, - Let us get to the shore, and then I'll tell you my
history, and you'll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.
It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with
the birds and animals that had fallen into it: there were a Duck and a
Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures. Alice led
the way, and the whole party swam to the shore.




CHAPTER III

A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale

They were indeed a queer-looking party that assembled on the bank -
the birds with draggled feathers, the animals with their fur clinging
close to them, and all dripping wet, cross, and uncomfortable.
The first question of course was, how to get dry again: they had a
consultation about this, and after a few minutes it seemed quite natural
to Alice to find herself talking familiarly with them, as if she had known
them all her life. Indeed, she had quite a long argument with the Lory,
who at last turned sulky, and would only say,
- I am older than you, and must know better; - and this Alice would
not allow without knowing how old it was, and, as the Lory positively
refused to tell its age, there was no more to be said.
At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among them,
called out, - Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'LL soon make you
dry enough! - They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse
in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt
sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon.
- Ahem! - said the Mouse with an important air, - are you all ready?
This is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please!
- William the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was
soon submitted to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late
much accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of
Mercia and Northumbria-
- Ugh! - said the Lory, with a shiver.
- I beg your pardon! - said the Mouse, frowning, but very politely: -
Did you speak? - Not I! - said the Lory hastily. - I thought you did, -
said the Mouse. - I proceed. - Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and
Northumbria, declared for him: and even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop
of Canterbury, found it advisable
- Found WHAT? - said the Duck.
- Found IT, - the Mouse replied rather crossly: - of course you know
what - it - means.
- I know what - it - means well enough, when I find a thing, - said
the Duck: - it's generally a frog or a worm. The question is, what did the
archbishop find?
The Mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedly went on, - -
found it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet William and offer him
the crown. William's conduct at first was moderate. But the insolence of
his Normans - How are you getting on now, my dear? - it continued, turning
to Alice as it spoke.
- As wet as ever, - said Alice in a melancholy tone: - it doesn't
seem to dry me at all.
- In that case, - said the Dodo solemnly, rising to its feet, - I
move that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more
energetic remedies
- Speak English! - said the Eaglet. - I don't know the meaning of
half those long words, and, what's more, I don't believe you do either!
And the Eaglet bent down its head to hide a smile: some of the other birds
tittered audibly.
- What I was going to say, - said the Dodo in an offended tone, -
was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.
- What IS a Caucus-race? - said Alice; not that she wanted much to
know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that SOMEBODY ought to
speak, and no one else seemed inclined to say anything.
- Why, - said the Dodo, - the best way to explain it is to do it.
(And, as you might like to try the thing yourself, some winter day, I will
tell you how the Dodo managed it.)
First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, ( - the exact
shape doesn't matter, - it said,) and then all the party were placed along
the course, here and there. There was no - One, two, three, and away, -
but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so
that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they
had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo
suddenly called out - The race is over! - and they all crowded round it,
panting, and asking, - But who has won?
This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of
thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its
forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the
pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said,
- EVERYBODY has won, and all must have prizes.
- But who is to give the prizes? - quite a chorus of voices asked.
- Why, SHE, of course, - said the Dodo, pointing to Alice with one
finger; and the whole party at once crowded round her, calling out in a
confused way, - Prizes! Prizes!
Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand in her
pocket, and pulled out a box of comfits, (luckily the salt water had not
got into it), and handed them round as prizes.
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