alices adventures in wonderland 2

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All in the Golden Afernoon

All in the golden afernoonFull leisurely we glide;For both our oars, with little skill,By little arms are plied,

While little hands make vain pretenseOur wanderings to guide.

Ah, cruel Tree! In such an hour,Beneath such dreamy weather,o beg a ta le o breath too weako stir the tiniest eather!Yet what can one poor voice avai lAgainst three tongues together?

Imperious Prima flashes orthHer edict to begin it:In gentler tones Secunda hopes

Tere will be nonsense in it.While ertia interrupts the taleNot morethan once a minute.

Anon, to sudden silence won,In ancy they pursueTe dream-child moving through a landO wonders wild and new,In riendly chat with bird or beastAnd hal believe it true.

And ever, as the story drainedTe wells o ancy dry,

And aintly strove that weary oneo put the subject by,Te rest next time It isnext time!Te happy voices cry.

Tus grew the tale o Wonderland:Tus slowly, one by one,Its quaint events were hammered outAnd now the tale is done,And home we steer, a merry crew,Beneath the setting sun.

Alice! a childish story take,

And with a gentle handLay it where Childhoods dreams are twinedIn Memorys mystic band,Like pilgrims withered wreath o flowersPlucked in a ar-off land.
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C I.

D R-H

Alice was beginning to get very tired o sitting by hersister on the bank, and o having nothing to do: onceor twice she had peeped into the book her sister was read-

ing, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, and whatis the use o a book, thought Alice without pictures or con-versation?

So she was considering in her own mind (as well as shecould, or the hot day made her eel very sleepy and stu-pid), whether the pleasure o making a daisy-chain wouldbe worth the trouble o getting up and picking the daisies,when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close byher.

Tere was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor didAlice think it so verymuch out o the way to hear the Rab-bit say to itsel, Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late! (whenshe thought it over aferwards, it occurred to her that she

ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it al l seemedquite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watchout of its waistcoat-pocket,and looked at it, and then hur-ried on, Alice started to her eet, or it flashed across hermind that she had never beore seen a rabbit with either awaistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out o it, and burningwith curiosity, she ran across the field afer it, and ortu-

nately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-holeunder the hedge.

In another moment down went Alice afer it, never onceconsidering how in the world she was to get out again.

Te rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel or someway, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Al-ice had not a moment to think about stopping hersel beoreshe ound hersel alling down a very deep well.

Either the well was very deep, or she ell very slowly, or

she had plenty o time as she went down to look about herand to wonder what was going to happen next. First, shetried to look down and make out what she was coming to,but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked at thesides o the well, and noticed that they were filled with cup-boards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps andpictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar rom one othe shelves as she passed; it was labelled ORANGE MAR-MALADE, but to her great disappointment it was empty:she did not like to drop the jar or ear o killing somebody,so managed to put it into one o the cupboards as she ellpast it.

Well! thought Alice to hersel, afer such a all as this,

I shall think nothing o tumbling down stairs! How bravetheyll all think me at home! Why, I wouldnt say anythingabout it, even i I ell off the top o the house! (Which wasvery likely true.)

Down, down, down. Would the all never come to anend! I wonder how many miles Ive allen by this time?she said aloud. I must be getting somewhere near the cen-


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tre o the earth. Let me see: that would be our thousandmiles down, I think (or, you see, Alice had learnt sev-eral things o this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, andthough this was not a VERY good opportunity or showingoff her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still itwas good practice to say it over) yes, thats about the rightdistancebut then I wonder what Latitude or LongitudeIve got to? (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longi-tude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)

Presently she began again. I wonder i I shall all rightthroughthe earth! How unny itll seem to come out amongthe people that walk with their heads downward! Te An-tipathies, I think (she was rather glad there WAS no onelistening, this time, as it didnt sound at all the right word)but I shall have to ask them what the name o the countryis, you know. Please, Maam, is this New Zealand or Austra-lia? (and she tried to curtsey as she spokeancy curtseyingas youre alling through the air! Do you think you couldmanage it?) And what an ignorant litt le girl shel l think meor asking! No, itll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see itwritten up somewhere.

Down, down, down. Tere was nothing else to do, so Al-

ice soon began talking again. Dinahll miss me very muchto-night, I should think! (Dinah was the cat.) I hope theyllremember her saucer o milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear!I wish you were down here with me! Tere are no mice inthe air, Im araid, but you might catch a bat, and thats verylike a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder? Andhere Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to

hersel, in a dreamy sort o way, Do cats eat bats? Do catseat bats? and sometimes, Do bats eat cats? or, you see, asshe couldnt answer either question, it didnt much matterwhich way she put it. She elt that she was dozing off, andhad just begun to dream that she was walking hand in handwith Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly, Now, Dinah,tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat? when suddenly,thump! thump! down she came upon a heap o sticks anddry leaves, and the all was over.

Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to hereet in a moment: she looked up, but it was all dark over-head; beore her was another long passage, and the WhiteRabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. Tere was not amoment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind, and wasjust in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, Oh my earsand whiskers, how late its getting! She was close behind itwhen she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer tobe seen: she ound hersel in a long, low hall, which was litup by a row o lamps hanging rom the roo.

Tere were doors all round the hall, but they were alllocked; and when Alice had been all the way down one sideand up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down

the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all

made o solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tinygolden key, and Alices first thought was that it might be-long to one o the doors o the hall; but, alas! either the lockswere too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate itwould not open any o them. However, on the second time


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round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticedbeore, and behind it was a little door about fifeen incheshigh: she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to hergreat delight it fitted!

Alice opened the door and ound that it led into a smallpassage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down andlooked along the passage into the loveliest garden you eversaw. How she longed to get out o that dark hall, and wan-der about among those beds o bright flowers and those cool

ountains, but she could not even get her head though thedoorway; and even i my head wouldgo through, thoughtpoor Alice, it would be o very litt le use without my shoul-ders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I thinkI could, i I only know how to begin. For, you see, so manyout-o-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice hadbegun to think that very ew things indeed were really im-possible.

Tere seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door,so she went back to the table, hal hoping she might findanother key on it, or at any rate a book o rules or shut-ting people up like telescopes: this time she ound a littlebottle on it, (which certainly was not here beore, said Al-

ice,) and round the neck o the bottle was a paper label, withthe words DRINK ME beautiully printed on it in largeletters.

It was all very well to say Drink me, but the wise littleAlice was not going to do thatin a hurry. No, Ill look first ,she said, and see whether its marked poison or not; or shehad read several nice little histories about children who had

got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleas-ant things, all because they wouldnot remember the simplerules their riends had taught them: such as, that a red-hotpoker will burn you i you hold it too long; and that i youcut your finger verydeeply with a knie, it usually bleeds;and she had never orgotten that, i you drink much rom abottle marked poison, it is almost certain to disagree withyou, sooner or later.

However, this bottle was notmarked poison, so Alice

ventured to taste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in act,a sort o mixed flavour o cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple,roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soonfinished it off.

*****What a curious eeling! said Alice; I must be shutting

up like a telescope.And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high,

and her ace brightened up at the thought that she was nowthe right size or going through the little door into that love-ly garden. First, however, she waited or a ew minutes to seei she was going to shrink any urther: she elt a little ner-vous about this; or it might end, you know, said Alice to

hersel, in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonderwhat I should be like then? And she tried to ancy what theflame o a candle is like afer the candle is blown out, or shecould not remember ever having seen such a thing.

Afer a while, finding that nothing more happened, shedecided on going into the garden at once; but, a las or poorAlice! when she got to the door, she ound she had orgotten


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the little golden key, and when she went back to the table orit, she ound she could not possibly reach it: she could seeit quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her best toclimb up one o the legs o the table, but it was too slippery;and when she had tired hersel out with trying, the poorlittle thing sat down and cried.

Come, theres no use in crying like that! said Alice tohersel, rather sharply; I advise you to leave off this minute!She generally gave hersel very good advice, (though she

very seldom ollowed it), and sometimes she scolded her-sel so severely as to bring tears into her eyes; and once sheremembered trying to box her own ears or having cheatedhersel in a game o croquet she was playing against hersel,or this curious child was very ond o pretending to be twopeople. But its no use now, thought poor Alice, to pretendto be two people! Why, theres hardly enough o me lef tomake ONE respectable person!

Soon her eye ell on a little glass box that was lying underthe table: she opened it, and ound in it a very small cake, onwhich the words EA ME were beautiully marked in cur-rants. Well, Ill eat it, said Alice, and i it makes me growlarger, I can reach the key; and i it makes me grow smaller, I

can creep under the door; so either way Ill get into the gar-den, and I dont care which happens!

She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to hersel, Whichway? Which way?, holding her hand on the top o her headto eel which way it was growing, and she was quite sur-prised 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 o expecting nothing but out-o-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupidor lie to go on in the common way.

So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.*****


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C II.

T P T

Curiouser and curiouser! cried Alice (she was so muchsurprised, that or the moment she quite orgot howto speak good English); now Im opening out like the larg-

est telescope that ever was! Good-bye, eet! (or when shelooked down at her eet, they seemed to be almost out osight, they were getting so ar off). Oh, my poor little eet,I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings or younow, dears? Im sure Ishant be able! I shall be a great dealtoo ar off to trouble mysel about you: you must managethe best way you can; but I must be kind to them, thoughtAlice, or perhaps they wont walk the way I want to go! Letme see: Ill give them a new pair o boots every Christmas.

And she went on planning to hersel how she wouldmanage it. Tey must go by the carrier, she thought; andhow unny itll seem, sending presents to ones own eet!And how odd the directions will look!

ALICES RIGH FOO, ESQ.

HEARHRUG,NEAR HE FENDER,

(WIH ALICES LOVE).

Oh dear, what nonsense Im talking!

Just then her head struck against the roo o the hall: inact she was now more than nine eet high, and she at oncetook up the little golden key and hurried off to the gardendoor.

Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying downon one side, to look through into the garden with one eye;but to get through was more hopeless than ever: she satdown and began to cry again.

You ought to be ashamed o yoursel, said Alice, a great

girl like you, (she might well say this), to go on crying inthis way! Stop this moment, I tell you! But she went on allthe same, shedding gallons o tears, until there was a largepool all round her, about our inches deep and reaching haldown the hall.

Afer a time she heard a little pattering o eet in the dis-tance, and she hasti ly dried her eyes to see what was coming.It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, witha pair o white kid gloves in one hand and a large an in theother: he came trotting along in a great hurry, mutteringto himsel as he came, Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh!wontshe be savage i Ive kept her waiting! Alice elt so des-perate that she was ready to ask help o any one; so, when

the Rabbit came near her, she began, in a low, timid voice,I you please, sir Te Rabbit started violently, droppedthe white kid gloves and the an, and skurried away into thedarkness as hard as he could go.

Alice took up the an and gloves, and, as the hall wasvery hot, she kept anning hersel all the time she went ontalking: Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And


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yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder i Ive beenchanged in the night? Let me think: wasI the same when Igot up this morning? I almost think I can remember eelinga little different. But i Im not the same, the next ques-tion is, Who in the world am I? Ah, thatsthe great puzzle!And she began thinking over all the children she knew thatwere o the same age as hersel, to see i she could have beenchanged or any o them.

Im sure Im not Ada, she said, or her hair goes in such

long ringlets, and mine doesnt go in ringlets at al l; and Imsure I cant be Mabel, or I know all sorts o things, and she,oh! she knows such a very little! Besides, shesshe, and ImI,andoh dear, how puzzling it all is! Ill try i I know all thethings I used to know. Let me see: our times five is twelve,and our times six is thirteen, and our times seven isohdear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, theMultiplication able doesnt signiy: lets try Geography.London is the capital o Paris, and Paris is the capital oRome, and Romeno, thatsall wrong, Im certain! I musthave been changed or Mabel! Ill try and say How doth thelittle and she crossed her hands on her lap as i she weresaying lessons, and began to repeat it, but her voice sounded

hoarse and strange, and the words did not come the same asthey 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!

Im sure those are not the right words, said poor Alice,and her eyes filled with tears again as she went on, I must beMabel afer 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, Ive made up my mindabout it; i Im Mabel, Ill stay down here! Itll be no usetheir putting their heads down and saying Come up again,dear! I shall only look up and say Who am I then? ell methat first, and then, i I like being that person, Ill come up:i not, Ill stay down here till Im somebody elsebut, ohdear! cried Alice, with a sudden burst o tears, I do wishthey wouldput their heads down! I am so verytired o be-ing all alone here!

As she said this she looked down at her hands, and wassurprised to see that she had put on one o the Rabbits lit-tle white kid gloves while she was talking. How canI have

done that? she thought. I must be growing small again.She got up and went to the table to measure hersel by it, andound that, as nearly as she could guess, she was now abouttwo eet high, and was going on shrinking rapidly: she soonound out that the cause o this was the an she was holding,and she dropped it hastily, just in time to avoid shrinkingaway altogether.


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Tat wasa narrow escape! said Alice, a good deal right-ened at the sudden change, but very glad to find hersel stillin existence; and now or the garden! and she ran with allspeed back to the little door: but, alas! the little door wasshut again, and the little golden key was lying on the glasstable as beore, and things are worse than ever, thought thepoor child, or I never was so small as this beore, never!And I declare its too bad, that it is!

As she said these words her oot slipped, and in another

moment, splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. Herfirst idea was that she had somehow allen into the sea, andin that case I can go back by railway, she said to hersel. (Al-ice had been to the seaside once in her lie, and had cometo the general conclusion, that wherever you go to on theEnglish coast you find a number o bathing machines in thesea, some children digging in the sand with wooden spades,then a row o lodging houses, and behind them a railwaystation.) However, she soon made out that she was in thepool o tears which she had wept when she was nine eethigh.

I wish I hadnt cried so much! said Alice, as she swamabout, trying to find her way out. I shall be punished or it

now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! Tatwill be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything isqueer to-day.

Just then she heard something splashing about in thepool a little way off, and she swam nearer to make out whatit was: at first she thought it must be a walrus or hippopota-mus, but then she remembered how small she was now, and

she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slippedin like hersel.

Would it be o any use, now, thought Alice, to speakto this mouse? Everything is so out-o-the-way down here,that I should think very likely it can talk: at any rate, theresno harm in trying. So she began: O Mouse, do you knowthe way out o this pool? I am very tired o swimming abouthere, O Mouse! (Alice thought this must be the right wayo speaking to a mouse: she had never done such a thing be-

ore, but she remembered having seen in her brothers LatinGrammar, A mouseo a mouseto a mousea mouseO mouse! Te Mouse looked at her rather inquisitively, andseemed to her to wink with one o its little eyes, but it saidnothing.

Perhaps it doesnt understand English, thought Alice;I daresay its a French mouse, come over with William theConqueror. (For, with all her knowledge o history, Alicehad no very clear notion how long ago anything had hap-pened.) So she began again: Ou est ma chatte? which wasthe first sentence in her French lesson-book. Te Mousegave a sudden leap out o the water, and seemed to quiver allover with right. Oh, I beg your pardon! cried Alice hastily,

araid that she had hurt the poor animals eelings. I quiteorgot you didnt like cats.

Not like cats! cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionatevoice. Wouldyoulike cats i you were me?

Well, perhaps not, said Alice in a soothing tone: dontbe angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you our catDinah: I think youd take a ancy to cats i you could only


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see her. She is such a dear quiet thing, Alice went on, halto hersel, as she swam lazily about in the pool, and she sitspurring so nicely by the fire, licking her paws and washingher aceand she is such a nice sof thing to nurseandshes such a capital one or catching miceoh, I beg yourpardon! cried Alice again, or this time the Mouse was bris-tling all over, and she elt certain it must be really offended.We wont talk about her any more i youd rather not.

We indeed! cried the Mouse, who was trembling down

to the end o his tail. As i I would talk on such a subject!Our amily always hated cats: nasty, low, vulgar things!Dont let me hear the name again!

I wont indeed! said Alice, in a great hurry to changethe subject o conversation. Are youare you ondoodogs? Te Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly:Tere is such a nice little dog near our house I should liketo show you! A little bright-eyed terrier, you know, with oh,such long curly brown hair! And itl l etch things when youthrow them, and itll sit up and beg or its dinner, and allsorts o thingsI cant remember hal o themand it be-longs to a armer, you know, and he says its so useul, itsworth a hundred pounds! He says it kills all the rats and

oh dear! cried Alice in a sorrowul tone, Im araid Iveoffended it again! For the Mouse was swimming away romher as hard as it could go, and making quite a commotionin the pool as it went.

So she called sofly afer it, Mouse dear! Do come backagain, and we wont talk about cats or dogs either, i youdont like them! When the Mouse heard this, it turned

round and swam slowly back to her: its ace was quite pale(with passion, Alice thought), and it said in a low tremblingvoice, Let us get to the shore, and then I ll tell you my his-tory, and youll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.

It was high time to go, or the pool was getting quitecrowded with the birds and animals that had allen into it:there were a Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, andseveral other curious creatures. Alice led the way, and thewhole party swam to the shore.


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C III.

A C-R

L T

hey were indeed a queer-looking party that assembled

on the bankthe birds with draggled eathers, the ani-mals with their ur clinging close to them, and all drippingwet, cross, and uncomortable.

Te first question o course was, how to get dry again:they had a consultation about this, and afer a ew minutesit seemed quite natural to Alice to find hersel talking a-miliarly with them, as i she had known them all her lie.Indeed, she had quite a long argument with the Lory, whoat last turned sulky, and would only say, I am older thanyou, and must know better; and this Alice would not allowwithout knowing how old it was, and, as the Lory positivelyreused to tell its age, there was no more to be said.

At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person o author-

ity among them, called out, Sit down, all o you, and listento me! Illsoon make you dry enough! Tey all sat downat once, in a large ring, with the Mouse in the middle. Al-ice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, or she elt sure shewould catch a bad cold i she did not get dry very soon.

Ahem! said the Mouse with an important air, are youall ready? Tis is the driest thing I know. Silence all round,

i you please! William the Conqueror, whose cause was a-voured by the pope, was soon submitted to by the English,who wanted leaders, and had been o late much accustomedto usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls oMercia and Northumbria

Ugh! said the Lory, with a shiver.I beg your pardon! said the Mouse, rowning, but very

politely: Did you speak?Not I! said the Lory hastily.

I thought you did, said the Mouse. I proceed. Edwinand Morcar, the earls o Mercia and Northumbria, declaredor him: and even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop o Can-terbury, ound it advisable

Found what? said the Duck.Found it, the Mouse replied rather crossly: o course

you know what it means.I know what it means well enough, when Ifind a thing,

said the Duck: its generally a rog or a worm. Te questionis, what did the archbishop find?

Te Mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedlywent on, ound it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling tomeet William and offer him the crown. Williams conduct

at first was moderate. But the insolence o his NormansHow are you getting on now, my dear? it continued, turn-ing to Alice as it spoke.

As wet as ever, said Alice in a melancholy tone: it doesntseem to dry me at all.

In that case, said the Dodo solemnly, rising to its eet, Imove that the meeting adjourn, or the immediate adoption


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o more energetic remediesSpeak English! said the Eaglet. I dont know the mean-

ing o hal those long words, and, whats more, I dont believeyou do either! And the Eaglet bent down its head to hide asmile: some o the other birds tittered audibly.

What I was going to say, said the Dodo in an offendedtone, was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Cau-cus-race.

What isa Caucus-race? said Alice; not that she wanted

much to know, but the Dodo had paused as i it thought thatsomebodyought to speak, and no one else seemed inclinedto say anything.

Why, said the Dodo, the best way to explain it is to doit. (And, as you might like to try the thing yoursel, somewinter day, I will tell you how the Dodo managed it.)

First it marked out a race-course, in a sort o circle, (theexact shape doesnt matter, it said,) and then all the partywere placed along the course, here and there. Tere was noOne, two, three, and away, but they began running whenthey liked, and lef off when they liked, so that it was noteasy to know when the race was over. However, when theyhad been running hal an hour or so, and were quite dry

again, the Dodo suddenly called out Te race is over! andthey all crowded round it, panting, and asking, But whohas won?

Tis question the Dodo could not answer without a greatdeal o thought, and it sat or a long time with one fingerpressed upon its orehead (the position in which you usu-ally see Shakespeare, in the pictures o him), while the rest

waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, everybodyhas won,and allmust have prizes.

But who is to give the prizes? quite a chorus o voicesasked.

Why, she, o course, said the Dodo, pointing to Alicewith one finger; and the whole party at once crowded roundher, calling out in a conused way, Prizes! Prizes!

Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put herhand in her pocket, and pulled out a box o comfits, (luckily

the salt water had not got into it), and handed them roundas prizes. Tere was exactly one a-piece all round.

But she must have a prize hersel, you know, said theMouse.

O course, the Dodo replied very gravely. What elsehave you got in your pocket? he went on, turning to Alice.

Only a thimble, said Alice sadly.Hand it over here, said the Dodo.Ten they all crowded round her once more, while the

Dodo solemnly presented the thimble, saying We beg youracceptance o this elegant thimble; and, when it had fin-ished this short speech, they all cheered.

Alice thought the whole thing very absurd, but they all

looked so grave that she did not dare to laugh; and, as shecould not think o anything to say, she simply bowed, andtook the thimble, looking as solemn as she could.

Te next thing was to eat the comfits: this caused somenoise and conusion, as the large birds complained that theycould not taste theirs, and the small ones choked and had tobe patted on the back. However, it was over at last, and they


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sat down again in a ring, and begged the Mouse to tell themsomething more.

You promised to tell me your history, you know, saidAlice, and why it is you hateC and D, she added in awhisper, hal araid that it would be offended again.

Mine is a long and a sad tale! said the Mouse, turning toAlice, and sighing.

It IS a long tail, certainly, said Alice, looking down withwonder at the Mouses tail; but why do you call it sad? And

she kept on puzzling about it while the Mouse was speaking,so that her idea o the tale was something like this:

Fury said toa mouse, Tat

he metin the

house, Let us

both go

to law:Iwill

prosecuteyou.Come, Ill

take nodenial;

We musthave a

trial:

Forreallythismorning

Ivenothing

to do.Said themouse to

the cur,Such a

trial,dear sir,

With nojury or

judgewould bewasting

our breath.Ill be

judge,Ill be

jury,Said

cunningold Fury!

Ill trythe whole

cause,and

condemnyou

todeath.

You are not attending! said the Mouse to Alice severely.What are you thinking o?

I beg your pardon, said Al ice very humbly: you had got


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to the fifh bend, I think?I had not! cried the Mouse, sharply and very angrily.A knot! said Alice, always ready to make hersel use-

ul, and looking anxiously about her. Oh, do let me help toundo it!

I shall do nothing o the sort, said the Mouse, gettingup and walking away. You insult me by talking such non-sense!

I didnt mean it! pleaded poor Alice. But youre so easily

offended, you know!Te Mouse only growled in reply.Please come back and finish your story! Alice called a-

ter it; and the others all joined in chorus, Yes, please do!but the Mouse only shook its head impatiently, and walkeda little quicker.

What a pity it wouldnt stay! sighed the Lory, as soonas it was quite out o sight; and an old Crab took the oppor-tunity o saying to her daughter Ah, my dear! Let this be alesson to you never to loseyourtemper! Hold your tongue,Ma! said the young Crab, a little snappishly. Youre enoughto try the patience o an oyster!

I wish I had our Dinah here, I know I do! said Alice

aloud, addressing nobody in particular. Shed soon etchit back!

And who is Dinah, i I might venture to ask the ques-tion? said the Lory.

Alice replied eagerly, or she was always ready to talkabout her pet: Dinahs our cat. And shes such a capital oneor catching mice you cant think! And oh, I wish you could

see her afer the birds! Why, shell eat a little bird as soon aslook at it!

Tis speech caused a remarkable sensation among theparty. Some o the birds hurried off at once: one old Magpiebegan wrapping itsel up very careully, remarking, I reallymust be getting home; the night-air doesnt suit my throat!and a Canary called out in a trembling voice to its children,Come away, my dears! Its high time you were all in bed!On various pretexts they all moved off, and Alice was soon

lef alone.I wish I hadnt mentioned Dinah! she said to hersel in

a melancholy tone. Nobody seems to like her, down here,and Im sure shes the best cat in the world! Oh, my dearDinah! I wonder i I shal l ever see you any more! And herepoor Alice began to cry again, or she elt very lonely andlow-spirited. In a little while, however, she again heard a lit-tle pattering o ootsteps in the distance, and she looked upeagerly, hal hoping that the Mouse had changed his mind,and was coming back to finish his story.


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C IV.

T R S

L B

It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again, and

looking anxiously about as it went, as i it had lost some-thing; and she heard it muttering to itsel Te Duchess!Te Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh my ur and whiskers!Shell get me executed, as sure as errets are errets! WherecanI have dropped them, I wonder? Alice guessed in a mo-ment that it was looking or the an and the pair o white kidgloves, and she very good-naturedly began hunting aboutor them, but they were nowhere to be seeneverythingseemed to have changed since her swim in the pool, and thegreat hall, with the glass table and the little door, had van-ished completely.

Very soon the Rabbit noticed Alice, as she went huntingabout, and called out to her in an angry tone, Why, Mary

Ann, what areyou doing out here? Run home this moment,and etch me a pair o gloves and a an! Quick, now! AndAlice was so much rightened that she ran off at once in thedirection it pointed to, without trying to explain the mis-take it had made.

He took me or his housemaid, she said to hersel asshe ran. How surprised hell be when he finds out who I

am! But Id better take him his an and glovesthat is, i Ican find them. As she said this, she came upon a neat littlehouse, on the door o which was a bright brass plate with thename W. RABBI engraved upon it. She went in withoutknocking, and hurried upstairs, in great ear lest she shouldmeet the real Mary Ann, and be turned out o the house be-ore she had ound the an and gloves.

How queer it seems, Alice said to hersel, to be goingmessages or a rabbit! I suppose Dinahll be sending me on

messages next! And she began ancying the sort o thingthat would happen: Miss Alice! Come here directly, and getready or your walk! Coming in a minute, nurse! But Ive gotto see that the mouse doesnt get out. Only I dont think, Al-ice went on, that theyd let Dinah stop in the house i it beganordering people about like that!

By this time she had ound her way into a tidy little roomwith a table in the window, and on it (as she had hoped) a anand two or three pairs o tiny white kid gloves: she took upthe an and a pair o the gloves, and was just going to leavethe room, when her eye ell upon a little bottle that stoodnear the lookingglass. Tere was no label this time with thewords DRINK ME, but nevertheless she uncorked it and put

it to her lips. I know somethinginteresting is sure to happen,she said to hersel, whenever I eat or drink anything; so Illjust see what this bottle does. I do hope itll make me growlarge again, or really Im quite tired o being such a tiny littlething!

It did so indeed, and much sooner than she had expect-ed: beore she had drunk hal the bottle, she ound her head


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pressing against the ceiling, and had to stoop to save her neckrom being broken. She hastily put down the bottle, sayingto hersel Tats quite enoughI hope I shant grow anymoreAs it is, I cant get out at the doorI do wish I hadntdrunk quite so much!

Alas! it was too late to wish that! She went on growing,and growing, and very soon had to kneel down on the floor:in another minute there was not even room or this, and shetried the effect o lying down with one elbow against the

door, and the other arm curled round her head. Still she wenton growing, and, as a last resource, she put one arm out othe window, and one oot up the chimney, and said to herselNow I can do no more, whatever happens. What willbecomeo me?

Luckily or Alice, the little magic bottle had now had itsull effect, and she grew no larger: still it was very uncomort-able, and, as there seemed to be no sort o chance o her evergetting out o the room again, no wonder she elt unhappy.

It was much pleasanter at home, thought poor Alice,when one wasnt always growing larger and smaller, and be-ing ordered about by mice and rabbits. I almost wish I hadntgone down that rabbit-holeand yetand yetits rather

curious, you know, this sort o lie! I do wonder what canhave happened to me! When I used to read airy-tales, I an-cied that kind o thing never happened, and now here I amin the middle o one! Tere ought to be a book written aboutme, that there ought! And when I grow up, Ill write onebutIm grown up now, she added in a sorrowul tone; at leasttheres no room to grow up any more here.

But then, thought Alice, shall I neverget any older thanI am now? Tatll be a comort, one waynever to be an oldwoman but thenalways to have lessons to learn! Oh, Ishouldnt like that!

Oh, you oolish Alice! she answered hersel. How canyou learn lessons in here? Why, theres hardly room or you,and no room at all or any lesson-books!

And so she went on, taking first one side and then the oth-er, and making quite a conversation o it altogether; but afer

a ew minutes she heard a voice outside, and stopped to lis-ten.

Mary Ann! Mary Ann! said the voice. Fetch me mygloves this moment! Ten came a little pattering o eet onthe stairs. Alice knew it was the Rabbit coming to look orher, and she trembled till she shook the house, quite orget-ting that she was now about a thousand times as large as theRabbit, and had no reason to be araid o it.

Presently the Rabbit came up to the door, and tried toopen it; but, as the door opened inwards, and Alices elbowwas pressed hard against it, that attempt proved a ailure. Al-ice heard it say to itsel Ten Ill go round and get in at thewindow.

Tatyou wont thought Alice, and, afer waiting till sheancied she heard the Rabbit just under the window, she sud-denly spread out her hand, and made a snatch in the air. Shedid not get hold o anything, but she heard a little shriek anda all, and a crash o broken glass, rom which she concludedthat it was just possible it had allen into a cucumber-rame,or something o the sort.


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Next came an angry voicethe RabbitsPat! Pat! Whereare you? And then a voice she had never heard beore, Surethen Im here! Digging or apples, yer honour!

Digging or apples, indeed! said the Rabbit angrily.Here! Come and help me out o this! (Sounds o more bro-ken glass.)

Now tell me, Pat, whats that in the window?Sure, its an arm, yer honour! (He pronounced it ar-

rum.)

An arm, you goose! Who ever saw one that size? Why, itfills the whole window!

Sure, it does, yer honour: but its an arm or all that.Well, its got no business there, at any rate: go and take it

away!Tere was a long silence afer this, and Alice could only

hear whispers now and then; such as, Sure, I dont like it, yerhonour, at all, at all! Do as I tell you, you coward! and atlast she spread out her hand again, and made another snatchin the air. Tis time there were two little shrieks, and moresounds o broken glass. What a number o cucumber-ramesthere must be! thought Alice. I wonder what theyll do next!As or pulling me out o the window, I only wish they could!

Im sure I dont want to stay in here any longer!She waited or some time without hearing anything more:

at last came a rumbling o little cartwheels, and the soundo a good many voices all talking together: she made out thewords: Wheres the other ladder?Why, I hadnt to bring butone; Bills got the otherBill! etch it here, lad!Here, putem up at this cornerNo, tie em together firstthey dont

reach hal high enough yetOh! theyll do well enough;dont be particular Here, Bill! catch hold o this ropeWillthe roo bear?Mind that loose slateOh, its coming down!Heads below! (a loud crash)Now, who did that?It wasBill, I ancyWhos to go down the chimney?Nay, I shant!youdo it!Tat I wont, then!Bills to go downHere, Bil l!the master says youre to go down the chimney!

Oh! So Bills got to come down the chimney, has he? saidAlice to hersel. Shy, they seem to put everything upon Bill! I

wouldnt be in Bills place or a good deal: this fireplace is nar-row, to be sure; but I thinkI can kick a little!

She drew her oot as ar down the chimney as she could,and waited till she heard a little animal (she couldnt guesso what sort it was) scratching and scrambling about in thechimney close above her: then, saying to hersel Tis is Bill,she gave one sharp kick, and waited to see what would hap-pen next.

Te first thing she heard was a general chorus o Teregoes Bill! then the Rabbits voice alongCatch him, youby the hedge! then silence, and then another conusion ovoicesHold up his headBrandy nowDont chokehimHow was it, old ellow? What happened to you? ell

us all about it!Last came a little eeble, squeaking voice, (Tats Bill,

thought Alice,) Well, I hardly knowNo more, thank ye;Im better nowbut Im a deal too flustered to tell youall Iknow is, something comes at me like a Jack-in-the-box, andup I goes like a sky-rocket!

So you did, old ellow! said the others.


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We must burn the house down! said the Rabbits voice;and Alice called out as loud as she could, I you do. Ill setDinah at you!

Tere was a dead silence instantly, and Alice thought tohersel, I wonder what they will do next! I they had anysense, theyd take the roo off. Afer a minute or two, theybegan moving about again, and Alice heard the Rabbit say, Abarrowul will do, to begin with.

A barrowul o what? thought Alice; but she had not long

to doubt, or the next moment a shower o little pebbles camerattling in at the window, and some o them hit her in theace. Ill put a stop to this, she said to hersel, and shoutedout, Youd better not do that again! which produced anotherdead silence.

Alice noticed with some surprise that the pebbles wereall turning into little cakes as they lay on the floor, and abright idea came into her head. I I eat one o these cakes,she thought, its sure to make somechange in my size; andas it cant possibly make me larger, it must make me smaller,I suppose.

So she swallowed one o the cakes, and was delighted tofind that she began shrinking directly. As soon as she was

small enough to get through the door, she ran out o thehouse, and ound quite a crowd o little animals and birdswaiting outside. Te poor little Lizard, Bill, was in the mid-dle, being held up by two guinea-pigs, who were giving itsomething out o a bottle. Tey all made a rush at Alice themoment she appeared; but she ran off as hard as she could,and soon ound hersel sae in a thick wood.

Te first thing Ive got to do, said Alice to hersel, as shewandered about in the wood, is to grow to my right sizeagain; and the second thing is to find my way into that lovelygarden. I think that will be the best plan.

It sounded an excellent plan, no doubt, and very neatlyand simply arranged; the only difficulty was, that she had notthe smallest idea how to set about it; and while she was peer-ing about anxiously among the trees, a little sharp bark justover her head made her look up in a great hurry.

An enormous puppy was looking down at her with largeround eyes, and eebly stretching out one paw, trying to touchher. Poor little thing! said Alice, in a coaxing tone, and shetried hard to whistle to it; but she was terribly rightened allthe time at the thought that it might be hungry, in which caseit would be very likely to eat her up in spite o all her coax-ing.

Hardly knowing what she did, she picked up a little bito stick, and held it out to the puppy; whereupon the puppyjumped into the air off all its eet at once, with a yelp o de-light, and rushed at the stick, and made believe to worry it;then Alice dodged behind a great thistle, to keep hersel rombeing run over; and the moment she appeared on the other

side, the puppy made another rush at the stick, and tumbledhead over heels in its hurry to get hold o it; then Alice, think-ing it was very like having a game o play with a cart-horse,and expecting every moment to be trampled under its eet,ran round the thistle again; then the puppy began a series oshort charges at the stick, running a very little way orwardseach time and a long way back, and barking hoarsely all the


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while, till at last it sat down a good way off, panting, with itstongue hanging out o its mouth, and its great eyes hal shut.

Tis seemed to Alice a good opportunity or making herescape; so she set off at once, and ran till she was quite tiredand out o breath, and till the puppys bark sounded quiteaint in the distance.

And yet what a dear little puppy it was! said Alice, as sheleant against a buttercup to rest hersel, and anned herselwith one o the leaves: I should have liked teaching it tricks

very much, ii Id only been the right size to do it! Oh dear!Id nearly orgotten that Ive got to grow up again! Let meseehow IS it to be managed? I suppose I ought to eat ordrink something or other; but the great question is, what?

Te great question certainly was, what? Alice looked allround her at the flowers and the blades o grass, but she didnot see anything that looked like the right thing to eat ordrink under the circumstances. Tere was a large mushroomgrowing near her, about the same height as hersel; and whenshe had looked under it, and on both sides o it, and behindit, it occurred to her that she might as well look and see whatwas on the top o it.

She stretched hersel up on tiptoe, and peeped over the

edge o the mushroom, and her eyes immediately met thoseo a large caterpillar, that was sitting on the top with its armsolded, quietly smoking a long hookah, and taking not thesmallest notice o her or o anything else.

C V.

A C

he Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other or sometime in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookahout o its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy

voice.Who areyou? said the Caterpillar.Tis was not an encouraging opening or a conversa-

tion. Alice replied, rather shyly, II hardly know, sir, justat present at least I know who I WAS when I got up thismorning, but I think I must have been changed severaltimes since then.

What do you mean by that? said the Caterpillar sternly.Explain yoursel!

I cant explain myself, Im araid, sir said Alice, becauseIm not mysel, you see.

I dont see, said the Caterpillar.Im araid I cant put it more clearly, Alice replied very

politely, or I cant understand it mysel to begin with; andbeing so many different sizes in a day is very conusing.

It isnt, said the Caterpillar.Well, perhaps you havent ound it so yet, said Alice;

but when you have to turn into a chrysalisyou will someday, you knowand then afer that into a butterfly, I shouldthink youll eel it a litt le queer, wont you?


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Not a bit, said the Caterpillar.Well, perhaps your eelings may be different, said Alice;

all I know is, it would eel very queer to me.You! said the Caterpillar contemptuously. Who are

you?Which brought them back again to the beginning o the

conversation. Alice elt a little irritated at the Caterpillarsmaking such veryshort remarks, and she drew hersel upand said, very gravely, I think, you ought to tell me who

youare, first.Why? said the Caterpillar.Here was another puzzling question; and as Alice could

not think o any good reason, and as the Caterpillar seemedto be in a veryunpleasant state o mind, she turned away.

Come back! the Caterpillar called afer her. Ive some-thing important to say!

Tis sounded promising, certainly: Alice turned andcame back again.

Keep your temper, said the Caterpil lar.Is that all? said Alice, swallowing down her anger as

well as she could.No, said the Caterpillar.

Alice thought she might as well wait, as she had nothingelse to do, and perhaps afer all it might tell her somethingworth hearing. For some minutes it puffed away withoutspeaking, but at last it unolded its arms, took the hoo-kah out o its mouth again, and said, So you think yourechanged, do you?

Im araid I am, sir, said Alice; I cant remember things

as I usedand I dont keep the same size or ten minutestogether!

Cant remember whatthings? said the Caterpillar.Well, Ive tried to say How doth the little busy bee, but

it all came different! Alice replied in a very melancholyvoice.

Repeat, you are old, Father William, said the Caterpil-lar.

Alice olded her hands, and began:

You are old, Father William, the young man said, Andyour hair has become very white; And yet you incessantlystand on your head Do you think, at your age, it is r ight?

In my youth, Father William replied to his son, I feared itmight injure the brain; But, now that Im perfectly sure I havenone, Why, I do it again and again.

You are old, said the youth, as I mentioned before, Andhave grown most uncommonly fat; Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door Pray, what is the reason of that?

In my youth, said the sage, as he shook his grey locks, Ikept all my limbs very supple By the use of this ointmentone shilling the box Allow me to sell you a couple?

You are old, said the youth, and your jaws are too weak

For anything tougher than suet; Yet you finished the goose,with the bones and the beak Pray how did you manage todo it?

In my youth, said his father, I took to the law, And ar-gued each case with my wife; And the muscular strength,which it gave to my jaw, Has lasted the rest of my life.

You are old, said the youth, one would hardly suppose


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Tat your eye was as steady as ever; Yet you balanced an eelon the end of your nose What made you so awfully clev-er?

I have answered three questions, and that is enough, Saidhis father; dont give yourself airs! Do you think I can listenall day to such stuff? Be off, or Ill kick you down stairs!

Tat is not said right, said the Caterpillar.Not quiteright, Im araid, said Alice, timidly; some o

the words have got altered.

It is wrong rom beginning to end, said the Caterpillardecidedly, and there was silence or some minutes.

Te Caterpillar was the first to speak.What size do you want to be? it asked.Oh, Im not particular as to size, Alice hastily replied;

only one doesnt like changing so ofen, you know.I dontknow, said the Caterpillar.Alice said nothing: she had never been so much contra-

dicted in her l ie beore, and she elt that she was losing hertemper.

Are you content now? said the Caterpillar.Well, I should like to be a littlelarger, sir, i you wouldnt

mind, said Alice: three inches is such a wretched height

to be.It is a very good height indeed! said the Caterpillar an-

grily, rearing itsel upright as it spoke (it was exactly threeinches high).

But Im not used to it! pleaded poor Alice in a pite-ous tone. And she thought o hersel, I wish the creatureswouldnt be so easily offended!

Youll get used to it in time, said the Caterpillar; and itput the hookah into its mouth and began smoking again.

Tis time Alice waited patiently until it chose to speakagain. In a minute or two the Caterpillar took the hookahout o its mouth and yawned once or twice, and shook itsel.Ten it got down off the mushroom, and crawled away in thegrass, merely remarking as it went, One side will make yougrow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.

One side o what? Te other side o what? thought Alice

to hersel.O the mushroom, said the Caterpillar, just as i she had

asked it aloud; and in another moment it was out o sight.Alice remained looking thoughtully at the mushroom

or a minute, trying to make out which were the two sides oit; and as it was perectly round, she ound this a very diffi-cult question. However, at last she stretched her arms roundit as ar as they would go, and broke off a bit o the edge witheach hand.

And now which is which? she said to hersel, and nib-bled a little o the right-hand bit to try the effect: the nextmoment she elt a violent blow underneath her chin: it hadstruck her oot!

She was a good deal rightened by this very suddenchange, but she elt that there was no time to be lost, as shewas shrinking rapidly; so she set to work at once to eat someo the other bit. Her chin was pressed so closely against heroot, that there was hardly room to open her mouth; butshe did it at last, and managed to swallow a morsel o thelefhand bit.


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*****Come, my heads ree at last! said Alice in a tone o de-

light, which changed into alarm in another moment, whenshe ound that her shoulders were nowhere to be ound:all she could see, when she looked down, was an immenselength o neck, which seemed to rise like a stalk out o a seao green leaves that lay ar below her.

What canall that green stuff be? said Alice. And wherehavemy shoulders got to? And oh, my poor hands, how is it

I cant see you? She was moving them about as she spoke,but no result seemed to ollow, except a little shaking amongthe distant green leaves.

As there seemed to be no chance o getting her handsup to her head, she tried to get her head down to them, andwas delighted to find that her neck would bend about eas-ily in any direction, like a serpent. She had just succeededin curving it down into a graceul zigzag, and was going todive in among the leaves, which she ound to be nothing butthe tops o the trees under which she had been wandering,when a sharp hiss made her draw back in a hurry: a large pi-geon had flown into her ace, and was beating her violentlywith its wings.

Serpent! screamed the Pigeon.Im not a serpent! said Alice indignantly. Let me

alone!Serpent, I say again! repeated the Pigeon, but in a more

subdued tone, and added with a kind o sob, Ive tried everyway, and nothing seems to suit them!

I havent the least idea what youre talking about, said

Alice.Ive tried the roots o trees, and Ive tried banks, and Ive

tried hedges, the Pigeon went on, without attending to her;but those serpents! Teres no pleasing them!

Alice was more and more puzzled, but she thought therewas no use in saying anything more till the Pigeon had fin-ished.

As i it wasnt trouble enough hatching the eggs, said thePigeon; but I must be on the look-out or serpents night and

day! Why, I havent had a wink o sleep these three weeks!Im very sorry youve been annoyed, said Alice, who was

beginning to see its meaning.And just as Id taken the highest tree in the wood, con-

tinued the Pigeon, raising its voice to a shriek, and just asI was thinking I should be ree o them at last, they mustneeds come wriggling down rom the sky! Ugh, Serpent!

But Im nota serpent, I tell you! said Alice. Im aIma

Well! whatare you? said the Pigeon. I can see youretrying to invent something!

IIm a little girl, said Alice, rather doubtully, as sheremembered the number o changes she had gone through

that day.A likely story indeed! said the Pigeon in a tone o the

deepest contempt. Ive seen a good many little girls in mytime, but never onewith such a neck as that! No, no! Yourea serpent; and theres no use denying it. I suppose youll betelling me next that you never tasted an egg!

I havetasted eggs, certainly, said Alice, who was a very


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truthul child; but little girls eat eggs quite as much as ser-pents do, you know.

I dont believe it, said the Pigeon; but i they do, whythen theyre a kind o serpent, thats all I can say.

Tis was such a new idea to Alice, that she was quitesilent or a minute or two, which gave the Pigeon the op-portunity o adding, Youre looking or eggs, I know thatwell enough; and what does it matter to me whether yourea little girl or a serpent?

It matters a good deal to me, said Alice hastily; but Imnot looking or eggs, as it happens; and i I was, I shouldntwantyours: I dont like them raw.

Well, be off, then! said the Pigeon in a sulky tone, as itsettled down again into its nest. Alice crouched down amongthe trees as well as she could, or her neck kept getting en-tangled among the branches, and every now and then shehad to stop and untwist it. Afer a while she rememberedthat she still held the pieces o mushroom in her hands, andshe set to work very careully, nibbling first at one and thenat the other, and growing sometimes taller and sometimesshorter, until she had succeeded in bringing hersel down toher usual height.

It was so long since she had been anything near the rightsize, that it elt quite strange at first ; but she got used to it ina ew minutes, and began talking to hersel, as usual. Come,theres hal my plan done now! How puzzling all thesechanges are! Im never sure what Im going to be, rom oneminute to another! However, Ive got back to my right size:the next thing is, to get into that beautiul gardenhow is

that to be done, I wonder? As she said this, she came sud-denly upon an open place, with a l ittle house in it about oureet high. Whoever lives there, thought Alice, itll neverdo to come upon them thissize: why, I should righten themout o their wits! So she began nibbling at the righthand bitagain, and did not venture to go near the house till she hadbrought hersel down to nine inches high.


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C VI.

P P

For a minute or two she stood looking at the house, andwondering what to do next, when suddenly a ootmanin livery came running out o the wood(she considered

him to be a ootman because he was in livery: otherwise,judging by his ace only, she would have called him a fish)and rapped loudly at the door with his knuckles. It wasopened by another ootman in livery, with a round ace, andlarge eyes like a rog; and both ootmen, Alice noticed, hadpowdered hair that curled all over their heads. She elt verycurious to know what it was all about, and crept a little wayout o the wood to listen.

Te Fish-Footman began by producing rom under hisarm a great letter, nearly as large as himsel, and this hehanded over to the other, saying, in a solemn tone, For theDuchess. An invitation rom the Queen to play croquet.Te Frog-Footman repeated, in the same solemn tone, only

changing the order o the words a little, From the Queen.An invitation or the Duchess to play croquet.

Ten they both bowed low, and their curls got entangledtogether.

Alice laughed so much at this, that she had to run backinto the wood or ear o their hearing her; and when shenext peeped out the Fish-Footman was gone, and the other

was sitting on the ground near the door, staring stupidly upinto the sky.

Alice went timidly up to the door, and knocked.Teres no sort o use in knocking, said the Footman,

and that or two reasons. First, because Im on the sameside o the door as you are; secondly, because theyre mak-ing such a noise inside, no one could possibly hear you.And certainly there was a most extraordinary noise goingon withina constant howling and sneezing, and every

now and then a great crash, as i a dish or kettle had beenbroken to pieces.

Please, then, said Alice, how am I to get in?Tere might be some sense in your knocking, the Foot-

man went on without attending to her, i we had the doorbetween us. For instance, i you were inside, you mightknock, and I could let you out, you know. He was lookingup into the sky all the time he was speaking, and this Alicethought decidedly uncivil. But perhaps he cant help it, shesaid to hersel; his eyes are so verynearly at the top o hishead. But at any rate he might answer questions.How amI to get in? she repeated, aloud.

I shall sit here, the Footman remarked, till tomorrow

At this moment the door o the house opened, and a largeplate came skimming out, straight at the Footmans head: itjust grazed his nose, and broke to pieces against one o thetrees behind him.

or next day, maybe, the Footman continued in thesame tone, exactly as i nothing had happened.

How am I to get in? asked Alice again, in a louder tone.


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Areyou to get in at all? said the Footman. Tats thefirst question, you know.

It was, no doubt: only Alice did not like to be told so.Its really dreadul, she muttered to hersel, the way all thecreatures argue. Its enough to drive one crazy!

Te Footman seemed to think this a good opportunityor repeating his remark, with variations. I shall sit here,he said, on and off, or days and days.

But what am I to do? said Alice.

Anything you like, said the Footman, and began whis-tling.

Oh, theres no use in talking to him, said Alice desper-ately: hes perectly idiotic! And she opened the door andwent in.

Te door led right into a large kitchen, which was ullo smoke rom one end to the other: the Duchess was sit-ting on a three-legged stool in the middle, nursing a baby;the cook was leaning over the fire, stirring a large cauldronwhich seemed to be ull o soup.

Teres certainly too much pepper in that soup! Alicesaid to hersel, as well as she could or sneezing.

Tere was certainly too much o it in the air. Even the

Duchess sneezed occasionally; and as or the baby, it wassneezing and howling alternately without a moments pause.Te only things in the kitchen that did not sneeze, were thecook, and a large cat which was sitting on the hearth andgrinning rom ear to ear.

Please would you tell me, said Alice, a little timidly, orshe was not quite sure whether it was good manners or her

to speak first, why your cat grins like that?Its a Cheshire cat, said the Duchess, and thats why.

Pig!She said the last word with such sudden violence that Al-

ice quite jumped; but she saw in another moment that it wasaddressed to the baby, and not to her, so she took courage,and went on again:

I didnt know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in act,I didnt know that cats couldgrin.

Tey all can, said the Duchess; and most o em do.I dont know o any that do, Alice said very politely, eel-

ing quite pleased to have got into a conversation.You dont know much, said the Duchess; and thats a

act.Alice did not at all like the tone o this remark, and

thought it would be as well to introduce some other sub-ject o conversation. While she was trying to fix on one, thecook took the cauldron o soup off the fire, and at once setto work throwing everything within her reach at the Duch-ess and the baby the fire-irons came first; then ollowed ashower o saucepans, plates, and dishes. Te Duchess tookno notice o them even when they hit her; and the baby was

howling so much already, that it was quite impossible to saywhether the blows hurt it or not.

Oh,pleasemind what youre doing! cried Alice, jump-ing up and down in an agony o terror. Oh, there goes hispreciousnose; as an unusually large saucepan flew close byit, and very nearly carried it off.

I everybody minded their own business, the Duchess


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said in a hoarse growl, the world would go round a dealaster than it does.

Which would notbe an advantage, said Alice, who eltvery glad to get an opportunity o showing off a little o herknowledge. Just think o what work it would make with theday and night! You see the earth takes twenty-our hours toturn round on its axis

alking o axes, said the Duchess, chop off her head!Alice glanced rather anxiously at the cook, to see i she

meant to take the hint; but the cook was busily stirring thesoup, and seemed not to be listening, so she went on again:wenty-our hours, I think; or is it twelve? I

Oh, dont bother ME, said the Duchess; I never couldabide figures! And with that she began nursing her childagain, singing a sort o lullaby to it as she did so, and givingit a violent shake at the end o every line:

Speak roughly to your little boy,

And beat him when he sneezes:

He only does it to annoy,

Because he knows it teases.

CHORUS

(In which the cook and the baby joined):

Wow! wow! wow!

While the Duchess sang the second verse o the song,

she kept tossing the baby violently up and down, and thepoor little thing howled so, that Alice could hardly hear thewords:

I speak severely to my boy,I beat him when he sneezes;

For he can thoroughly enjoy

Te pepper when he pleases!

CHORUSWow! wow! wow!Here! you may nurse it a bit, i you like! the Duchess

said to Alice, flinging the baby at her as she spoke. I mustgo and get ready to play croquet with the Queen, and shehurried out o the room. Te cook threw a rying-pan aferher as she went out, but it just missed her.

Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was aqueershaped little creature, and held out its arms and legsin all directions, just like a star-fish, thought Alice. Tepoor little thing was snorting like a steam-engine when shecaught it, and kept doubling itsel up and straightening it-sel out again, so that altogether, or the first minute or two,

it was as much as she could do to hold it.As soon as she had made out the proper way o nursing

it, (which was to twist it up into a sort o knot, and thenkeep tight hold o its right ear and lef oot, so as to preventits undoing itsel,) she carried it out into the open air. IfIdont take this child away with me, thought Alice, theyresure to kill it in a day or two: wouldnt it be murder to leave


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it behind? She said the last words out loud, and the littlething grunted in reply (it had lef off sneezing by this time).Dont grunt, said Alice; thats not at all a proper way o ex-pressing yoursel.

Te baby grunted again, and Alice looked very anxiouslyinto its ace to see what was the matter with it. Tere couldbe no doubt that it had a very turn-up nose, much morelike a snout than a real nose; also its eyes were getting ex-tremely small or a baby: altogether Alice did not like the

look o the thing at all. But perhaps it was only sobbing,she thought, and looked into its eyes again, to see i therewere any tears.

No, there were no tears. I youre going to turn into a pig,my dear, said Alice, seriously, Il l have nothing more to dowith you. Mind now! Te poor little thing sobbed again (orgrunted, it was impossible to say which), and they went onor some while in silence.

Alice was just beginning to think to hersel, Now, whatam I to do with this creature when I get it home? when itgrunted again, so violently, that she looked down into itsace in some alarm. Tis time there could be no mistakeabout it: it was neither more nor less than a pig, and she elt

that it would be quite absurd or her to carry it urther.So she set the lit tle creature down, and elt quite relieved

to see it trot away quietly into the wood. I it had grown up,she said to hersel, it would have made a dreadully uglychild: but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think. And shebegan thinking over other children she knew, who might dovery well as pigs, and was just saying to hersel, i one only

knew the right way to change them when she was a littlestartled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough o atree a ew yards off.

Te Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she thought: still it had verylong claws and a greatmany teeth, so she elt that it ought to be treated with re-spect.

Cheshire Puss, she began, rather timidly, as she did notat all know whether it would like the name: however, it only

grinned a little wider. Come, its pleased so ar, thought Al-ice, and she went on. Would you tell me, please, which wayI ought to go rom here?

Tat depends a good deal on where you want to get to,said the Cat.

I dont much care where said Al ice.Ten it doesnt matter which way you go, said the Cat.so long as I get somewhere, Alice added as an expla-

nation.Oh, youre sure to do that, said the Cat, i you only walk

long enough.Alice elt that this could not be denied, so she tried an-

other question. What sort o people l ive about here?

In that direction, the Cat said, waving its right pawround, lives a Hatter: and in that direction, waving theother paw, lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: theyreboth mad.

But I dont want to go among mad people, Alice re-marked.

Oh, you cant help that, said the Cat: were all mad here.


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Im mad. Youre mad.How do you know Im mad? said Alice.You must be, said the Cat, or you wouldnt have come

here.Alice didnt think that proved it at a ll; however, she went

on And how do you know that youre mad?o begin with, said the Cat, a dogs not mad. You grant

that?I suppose so, said Alice.

Well, then, the Cat went on, you see, a dog growls whenits angry, and wags its tail when its pleased. Now I growlwhen Im pleased, and wag my tail when Im angry. Tere-ore Im mad.

I call it purring, not growling, said Alice.Call it what you like, said the Cat. Do you play croquet

with the Queen to-day?I should like it very much, said Alice, but I havent been

invited yet.Youll see me there, said the Cat, and vanished.Alice was not much surprised at this, she was getting so

used to queer things happening. While she was looking atthe place where it had been, it suddenly appeared again.

By-the-bye, what became o the baby? said the Cat. Idnearly orgotten to ask.

It turned into a pig, Alice quietly said, just as i it hadcome back in a natural way.

I thought it would, said the Cat, and vanished again.Alice waited a little, hal expecting to see it again, but

it did not appear, and afer a minute or two she walked on

in the direction in which the March Hare was said to live.Ive seen hatters beore, she said to hersel; the March Harewill be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this isMay it wont be raving madat least not so mad as it was inMarch. As she said this, she looked up, and there was theCat again, sitting on a branch o a tree.

Did you say pig, or fig? said the Cat.I said pig, replied Alice; and I wish you wouldnt keep

appearing and vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite

giddy.All right, said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite

slowly, beginning with the end o the tail, and ending withthe grin, which remained some time afer the rest o it hadgone.

Well! Ive ofen seen a cat without a grin, thought Alice;but a grin without a cat! Its the most curious thing I eversaw in my lie!

She had not gone much arther beore she came in sighto the house o the March Hare: she thought it must be theright house, because the chimneys were shaped like earsand the roo was thatched with ur. It was so large a house,that she did not like to go nearer till she had nibbled some

more o the lefhand bit o mushroom, and raised herselto about two eet high: even then she walked up towards itrather timidly, saying to hersel Suppose it should be rav-ing mad afer all! I almost wish Id gone to see the Hatterinstead!


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C VII.

A M T-P

here was a table set out under a tree in ront o thehouse, and the March Hare and the Hatter were havingtea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, ast asleep,

and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting theirelbows on it, and talking over its head. Very uncomortableor the Dormouse, thought Alice; only, as its asleep, I sup-pose it doesnt mind.

Te table was a large one, but the three were al l crowdedtogether at one corner o it: No room! No room! they criedout when they saw Alice coming. Teres plentyo room!said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end o the table.

Have some wine, the March Hare said in an encourag-ing tone.

Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothingon it but tea. I dont see any wine, she remarked.

Tere isnt any, said the March Hare.Ten it wasnt very civil o you to offer it, said Alice an-

grily.It wasnt very civil o you to sit down without being in-

vited, said the March Hare.I didnt know it wasyourtable, said Alice; its laid or a

great many more than three.

Your hair wants cutting, said the Hatter. He had beenlooking at Alice or some time with great curiosity, and thiswas his first speech.

You should learn not to make personal remarks, Alicesaid with some severity; its very rude.

Te Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this;but all he saidwas, Why is a raven like a writing-desk?

Come, we shall have some un now! thought Alice. Imglad theyve begun asking riddles.I believe I can guess

that, she added aloud.Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer

to it? said the March Hare.Exactly so, said Alice.Ten you should say what you mean, the March Hare

went on.I do, Alice hastily replied; at leastat least I mean what

I saythats the same thing, you know.Not the same thing a bit! said the Hatter. You might

just as well say that I see what I eat is the same thing as Ieat what I see!

You might just as well say, added the March Hare, thatI like what I get is the same thing as I get what I like!

You might just as well say, added the Dormouse, whoseemed to be talking in his sleep, that I breathe when Isleep is the same thing as I sleep when I breathe!

It isthe same thing with you, said the Hatter, and herethe conversation dropped, and the party sat silent or a min-ute, while Alice thought over all she could remember aboutravens and writing-desks, which wasnt much.


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Te Hatter was the first to break the silence. What dayo the month is it? he said, turning to Alice: he had takenhis watch out o his pocket, and was looking at it uneasily,shaking it every now and then, and holding it to his ear.

Alice considered a little, and then said Te ourth.wo days wrong! sighed the Hatter. I told you butter

wouldnt suit the works! he added looking angrily at theMarch Hare.

It was the bestbutter, the March Hare meekly replied.

Yes, but some crumbs must have got in as well, theHatter grumbled: you shouldnt have put it in with thebread-knie.

Te March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloom-ily: then he dipped it into his cup o tea, and looked at itagain: but he could think o nothing better to say than hisfirst remark, It was the bestbutter, you know.

Alice had been looking over his shoulder with some cu-riosity. What a unny watch! she remarked. It tells the dayo the month, and doesnt tell what oclock it is!

Why should it? muttered the Hatter. Does yourwatchtell you what year it is?

O course not, Alice replied very readily: but thats be-

cause it stays the same year or such a long time together.Which is just the case with mine, said the Hatter.Alice elt dreadully puzzled. Te Hatters remark seemed

to have no sort o meaning in it, and yet it was certainlyEnglish. I dont quite understand you, she said, as politelyas she could.

Te Dormouse is asleep again, said the Hatter, and he

poured a litt le hot tea upon its nose.Te Dormouse shook its head impatiently, and said,

without opening its eyes, O course, o course; just what Iwas going to remark mysel.

Have you guessed the riddle yet? the Hatter said, turn-ing to Alice again.

No, I give it up, Alice replied: whats the answer?I havent the sl ightest idea, said the Hatter.Nor I, said the March Hare.

Alice sighed wearily. I think you might do somethingbetter with the time, she said, than waste it in asking rid-dles that have no answers.

I you knew ime as well as I do, said the Hatter, youwouldnt talk about wasting it. Its him.

I dont know what you mean, said Alice.O course you dont! the Hatter said, tossing his head

contemptuously. I dare say you never even spoke to ime!Perhaps not, Alice cautiously replied: but I know I have

to beat time when I learn music.Ah! that accounts or it, said the Hatter. He wont stand

beating. Now, i you only kept on good terms with him, heddo almost anything you liked with the clock. For instance,

suppose it were nine oclock in the morning, just t ime to be-gin lessons: youd only have to whisper a hint to ime, andround goes the clock in a twinkling! Hal-past one, time ordinner!

(I only wish it was, the March Hare said to itsel in awhisper.)

Tat would be grand, certainly, said Alice thoughtully:


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but thenI shouldnt be hungry or it, you know.Not at first, perhaps, said the Hatter: but you could

keep it to hal-past one as long as you liked.Is that the wayyoumanage? Alice asked.Te Hatter shook his head mournully. Not I! he replied.

We quarrelled last Marchjust beore he went mad, youknow (pointing with his tea spoon at the March Hare,)it was at the great concert given by the Queen o Hearts,and I had to sing

winkle, twinkle, little bat!

How I wonder what youre at!

You know the song, perhaps?Ive heard something like it, said Alice.It goes on, you know, the Hatter continued, in this

way:

Up above the world you fly,

Like a tea-tray in the sky.

winkle, twinkle

Here the Dormouse shook itsel, and began singing in itssleep winkle, twinkle, twinkle, twinkle and went on solong that they had to pinch it to make it stop.

Well, Id hardly finished the first verse, said the Hatter,when the Queen jumped up and bawled out, Hes murder-ing the time! Off with his head!

How dreadully savage! exclaimed Alice.

And ever since that, the Hatter went on in a mournultone, he wont do a thing I ask! Its always six oclock now.

A bright idea came into Alices head. Is that the reasonso many tea-things are put out here? she asked.

Yes, thats it, said the Hatter with a sigh: its alwaystea-time, and weve no time to wash the things betweenwhiles.

Ten you keep moving round, I suppose? said Alice.Exactly so, said the Hatter: as the things get used up.

But what happens when you come to the beginningagain? Alice ventured to ask.

Suppose we change the subject, the March Hare inter-rupted, yawning. Im getting tired o this. I vote the younglady tells us a story.

Im araid I dont know one, said Alice, rather alarmedat the proposal.

Ten the Dormouse shall! they both cried. Wake up,Dormouse! And they pinched it on both sides at once.

Te Dormouse slowly opened his eyes. I wasnt asleep,he said in a hoarse, eeble voice: I heard every word you el-lows were saying.

ell us a story! said the March Hare.

Yes, please do! pleaded Alice.And be quick about it, added the Hatter, or youll be

asleep again beore its done.Once upon a time there were three l ittle sisters, the Dor-

mouse began in a great hurry; and their names were Elsie,Lacie, and illie; and they lived at the bottom o a well

What did they live on? said Alice, who always took a


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great interest in questions o eating and drinking.Tey lived on treacle, said the Dormouse, afer thinking

a minute or two.Tey couldnt have done that, you know, Alice gently

remarked; theyd have been ill.So they were, said the Dormouse; veryill.Alice tried to ancy to hersel what such an extraordinary

ways o living would be l ike, but it puzzled her too much, soshe went on: But why did they l ive at the bottom o a well?

ake some more tea, the March Hare said to Alice, veryearnestly.

Ive had nothing yet, Alice replied in an offended tone,so I cant take more.

You mean you cant take less, said the Hatter: its veryeasy to take morethan nothing.

Nobody askedyouropinion, said Alice.Whos making personal remarks now? the Hatter asked

triumphantly.Alice did not quite know what to say to this: so she helped

hersel to some tea and bread-and-butter, and then turnedto the Dormouse, and repeated her question. Why did theylive at the bottom o a well?

Te Dormouse again took a minute or two to think aboutit, and then said, It was a treacle-well.

Teres no such thing! Alice was beginning very angri-ly, but the Hatter and the March Hare went Sh! sh! andthe Dormouse sulkily remarked, I you cant be civil, youdbetter finish the story or yoursel.

No, please go on! Alice said very humbly; I wont inter-

rupt again. I dare say there may be one.One, indeed! said the Dormouse indignantly. However,

he consented to go on. And so these three little sistersthey were learning to draw, you know

What did they draw? said Alice, quite orgetting herpromise.

reacle, said the Dormouse, without considering at allthis time.

I want a clean cup, interrupted the Hatter: lets all move

one place on.He moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse ollowed

him: the March Hare moved into the Dormouses place, andAlice rather unwillingly took the place o the March Hare.Te Hatter was the only one who got any advantage romthe change: and Alice was a good deal worse off than be-ore, as the March Hare had just upset the milk-jug into hisplate.

Alice did not wish to offend the Dormouse again, so shebegan very cautiously: But I dont understand. Where didthey draw the treacle rom?

You can draw water out o a water-well, said the Hatter;so I should think you could draw treacle out o a treacle-

welleh, stupid?But they were inthe well, Alice said to the Dormouse,

not choosing to notice this last remark.O course they were, said the Dormouse; well in.Tis answer so conused poor Alice, that she let the Dor-

mouse go on or some time without interrupting it.Tey were learning to draw, the Dormouse went on,


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yawning and rubbing its eyes, or it was getting very sleepy;and they drew all manner o thingseverything that be-gins with an M

Why with an M? said Alice.Why not? said the March Hare.Alice was silent.Te Dormouse had closed its eyes by this time, and was

going off into a doze; but, on being pinched by the Hatter,it woke up again with a little shriek, and went on: that

begins with an M, such as mouse-traps, and the moon, andmemory, and muchness you know you say things aremuch o a muchnessdid you ever see such a thing as adrawing o a muchness?

Really, now you ask me, said Alice, very much conused,I dont think

Ten you shouldnt talk, said the Hatter.Tis piece o rudeness was more than Alice could bear:

she got up in great disgust, and walked off; the Dormouseell asleep instantly, and neither o the others took the leastnotice o her going, though she looked back once or twice,hal hoping that they would call afer her: the last time shesaw them, they were trying to put the Dormouse into the

teapot.At any rate Ill never go thereagain! said Alice as she

picked her way through the wood. Its the stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all my lie!

Just as she said this, she noticed that one o the treeshad a door leading right into it. Tats very curious! shethought. But everythings curious today. I think I may as

well go in at once. And in she went.Once more she ound hersel in the long hall, and close to

the little glass table. Now, Ill manage better this time, shesaid to hersel, and began by taking the little golden key, andunlocking the door that led into the garden. Ten she wentto work nibbling at the mushroom (she had kept a piece o itin her pocket) till she was about a oot high: then she walkeddown the little passage: and thenshe ound hersel at lastin the beautiul garden, among the bright flower-beds and

the cool ountains.


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C VIII.

T Q C-

G

Alarge rose-tree stood near the entrance o the garden:

the roses growing on it were white, but there were threegardeners at it, busily painting them red. Alice thought thisa very curious thing, and she

alices adventures in wonderland 2

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