and skurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go.
Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she
kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: - Dear, dear! How
queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I
wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same
when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little
different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world
am I? Ah, THAT'S the great puzzle! - And she began thinking over all the
children she knew that were of the same age as herself, to see if she
could have been changed for any of them.
- I'm sure I'm not Ada, - she said, - for her hair goes in such long
ringlets, and mine doesn't go in ringlets at all; and I'm sure I can't be
Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she, oh! she knows such a very
little! Besides, SHE'S she, and I'm I, and - oh dear, how puzzling it all
is! I'll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me see: four
times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven
is - oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the
Multiplication Table doesn't signify: let's try Geography. London is the
capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and Rome - no, THAT'S
all wrong, I'm certain! I must have been changed for Mabel! I'll try and
say - How doth the little - and she crossed her hands on her lap as if she
were saying lessons, and began to repeat it, but her voice sounded hoarse
and strange, and the words did not come the same as they used to do:
- How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
- How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spread his claws,
And welcome little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!
- I'm sure those are not the right words, - said poor Alice, and her
eyes filled with tears again as she went on, - I must be Mabel after all,
and I shall have to go and live in that poky little house, and have next
to no toys to play with, and oh! ever so many lessons to learn! No, I've
made up my mind about it; if I'm Mabel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no
use their putting their heads down and saying
- Come up again, dear! - I shall only look up and say - Who am I
then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I'll come
up: if not, I'll stay down here till I'm somebody else - but, oh dear! -
cried Alice, with a sudden burst of tears, - I do wish they WOULD put
their heads down! I am so VERY tired of being all alone here!
As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was surprised to
see that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little white kid gloves while
she was talking. - How CAN I have done that? - she thought. - I must be
growing small again. - She got up and went to the table to measure herself
by it, and found that, as nearly as she could guess, she was now about two
feet high, and was going on shrinking rapidly: she soon found out that the
cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped it hastily,
just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether.
- That WAS a narrow escape! - said Alice, a good deal frightened at
the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence;
- and now for the garden! - and she ran with all speed back to the
little door: but, alas! the little door was shut again, and the little
golden key was lying on the glass table as before, - and things are worse
than ever, - thought the poor child, - for I never was so small as this
before, never! And I declare it's too bad, that it is!
As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another moment,
splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. He first idea was that she
had somehow fallen into the sea, - and in that case I can go back by
railway, - she said to herself. (Alice had been to the seaside once in her
life, and had come to the general conclusion, that wherever you go to on
the English coast you find a number of bathing machines in the sea, some
children digging in the sand with wooden spades, then a row of lodging
houses, and behind them a railway station.) However, she soon made out
that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine
feet high.
- I wish I hadn't cried so much! - said Alice, as she swam about,
trying to find her way out. - I shall be punished for it now, I suppose,
by being drowned in my own tears! That WILL be a queer thing, to be sure!
However, everything is queer to-day.
Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little
way off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was: at first she thought
it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she
was now, and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped
in like herself.
- Would it be of any use, now, - thought Alice, - to speak to this
mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think very
likely it can talk: at any rate, there's no harm in trying. - So she
began: - O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of
swimming about here, O Mouse! - (Alice thought this must be the right way
of speaking to a mouse: she had never done such a thing before, but she
remembered having seen in her brother's Latin Grammar, - A mouse - of a
mouse - to a mouse - a mouse - O mouse! - The Mouse looked at her rather
inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but
it said nothing.
- Perhaps it doesn't understand English, - thought Alice; - I daresay
it's a French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror. - (For, with
all her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion how long ago
anything had happened.) So she began again: - Ou est ma chatte? - which
was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden
leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. - Oh, I
beg your pardon! - cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor
animal's feelings. - I quite forgot you didn't like cats.
- Not like cats! - cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice. -
Would YOU like cats if you were me? - Well, perhaps not, - said Alice in a
soothing tone: - don't be angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you
our cat Dinah: I think you'd take a fancy to cats if you could only see
her. She is such a dear quiet thing, - Alice went on, half to herself, as
she swam lazily about in the pool, - and she sits purring so nicely by the
fire, licking her paws and washing her face - and she is such a nice soft
thing to nurse - and she's such a capital one for catching mice - oh, I
beg your pardon! - cried Alice again, for this time the Mouse was
bristling all over, and she felt certain it must be really offended.
- We won't talk about her any more if you'd rather not. - We indeed!
- cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end of his tail. - As if
I would talk on such a subject! Our family always HATED cats: nasty, low,
vulgar things! Don't let me hear the name again!
- I won't indeed! - said Alice, in a great hurry to change the
subject of conversation. - Are you - are you fond - of - of dogs? - The
Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly: - There is such a nice
little dog near our house I should like to show you! A little bright-eyed
terrier, you know, with oh, such long curly brown hair! And it'll fetch
things when you throw them, and it'll sit up and beg for its dinner, and
all sorts of thins - I can't remember half of them - and it belongs to a
farmer, you know, and he says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds!
He says it kills all the rats and - oh dear! - 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
