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02 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll · Adventure Books Library

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  Chapter two, The Pool of Tears. Curious Sir, and curious sir,
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  cried Alice. She was so much surprised that for the moment she quite forgot
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  how to speak good English. Now I'm opening out like their largest telescope that
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  ever was good bye feet, for when she looked down at her feet,
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  they seemed to be almost out of sight. They were getting so far off.
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  Oh my poor little feet. I wonder who will put on your shoes
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  and stockings for you? Now, DearS, I'm sure I shan't be able
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  to. I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about
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  you. You must manage the best you can. But I must be kind
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  to them, thought Alice. Or perhaps they won't walk the way I want
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  to go. Let me see. I'll give them a new pair of boots
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  every Christmas. And she went on planning to herself how she should manage it.
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  They must go by carrier, she thought, And how funny i'll seem
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  sending presents to one's own, and how odd the directions will look. Alice's
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  right foot a squire hearth rug near the fender with Alice's love. Oh dear,
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  what nonsense I'm talking just then her head struck against the roof of the
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  hall. In fact, she was now more than nine feet high, and
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  she at once took up the little golden key and hurried off to the garden
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  door. Poor Alice, it was as much as she could do, lying
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  down on one side to look through the into the garden with one eye,
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  but to get through was more hopeless than ever. She sat down and began
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  to cry again. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, said Alice.
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  A great girl like you, she might well say this, to go on
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  crying in this way, stop this moment, I tell you. But she
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  went on all the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there was a
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  large pull all around her, about four inches deep and reaching half down the
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  hall. After a time, she heard a little pattering of feet in the
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  distance, and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming. It
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  was the white rabbit, returning, splendidly dressed with a pair of white kid
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  gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other. He came trotting
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  along in a great hurry, muttering to himself as he came. Oh,
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  the duchess, the duchess, Oh, won't she be savage if I've kept
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  her waiting. Alice felt so desperate that she was ready to ask help of
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  anyone. So when the rabbit came near her, she began in a low,
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  timid voice, if you please, sir. The rabbit started violently,
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  dropped the white kid gloves and the fan, and scurried away into the darkness
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  as hard as he could go. Alice took up the fan and gloves,
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  and as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time.
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  She went on talking, dear, dear, how queer everything is today,
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  and yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been
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  changed in the night. Let me think was I the same when I got
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  up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different.
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  But if I'm not the same, the next question is who in the world
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  am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle. And she began thinking over
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  all the children that she knew that were of the same age as herself,
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  to see if she could have been changed for any of them. I'm sure
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  I'm not eighta, she said, for her hair goes in such long ringlets,
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  and mine doesn't go in ringlets at all, and I'm sure I can't
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  be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she, oh,
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  she knows such a very little Besides she she and I'm I and oh
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  dear, how puzzling it all is. I'll try if I know all the
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  things I used to know. Let me see, four times five is twelve,
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  and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is Oh,
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  oh dear, I shall never get to twenty at that rate. However,
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  the multiplication table does it signify. Let's try geography. London is the capital
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  of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and Rome. No,
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  that's all wrong. I'm certain I must have been changed for Mabel.
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  I'll try and say, how doth the little and she crossed her hands on
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  her lap, as if she were saying lessons, and begin repeat it,
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  But her voice sounded hoarse and strange, and the words did not come the
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  same as they used to. How doth the little crocodile improve his shining tail
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  and pour the waters of the nile on every golden scale? How cheerfully he
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  seems to grin, how neatly spread his claws and welcome little fishes in with
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  gently smiling jaws, I'm sure those are not the right words, said poor
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  Alice, and her eyes filled with tears again as she went on, I
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  must be Mabel after all, and I shall have to go and live in
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  that poky little house and have next to no toys to play with, and
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  oh, ever, so many lessons to learn. No, I've made up
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  my mind about it. If I'm Mabel, I'll stay down here. It'll
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  be no use their putting their heads down and saying come up again, dear.
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  I shall only look up and say who am I? Then tell me
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  that first, and then if I like being that person, I'll come up.
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  If not, I'll stay down here till I'm somebody else. But oh,
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  dear, cried Alice with a sudden burst of tears. I do wish
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  they would put their heads down. I am so very tired of being all
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  alone here. As she said this, she looked down at her hands and
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  was surprised to see that she had put on one of the rabbit's little white
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  kid gloves while she was talking. How can I have done that? She
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  thought, I must be growing small again. She got up and went to
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  the table to measure herself by it, and found that as nearly she could
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  guess. She was now about two feet high and was going on shrinking rapidly.
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  She soon found out that the cause of this was the fan that she
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  was holding, and she dropped it hastily, just in time to avoid shrinking
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  away altogether. That was a narrow escape, said Alice, a good deal
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  frightened at the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence.
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  And now for the garden, and she ran with all speed back to
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  the little door. But alas the door was shut again, and the little
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  golden key was lying on the glass table as before. And things are worse
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  than ever, thought the poor child. For I never was so small as
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  this before, never, And I declare it's too bad that it is.
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  As she said these words, her foot slipped, and in another moment,
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  splash, she was up to her chin in salt water. Her first idea
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  was that she had somehow fallen into the sea. And in that case I
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  can go back by railway, she said to herself. Alice had been to
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  the seaside once in her life. That could come to the general conclusion that
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  wherever you go on the English coast you find a number of bathing machines.
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  In the sea, some children digging in the sand with wooden spades, then
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  a row of lodging houses, and behind them a railway station. However,
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  she soon made out that she was in a pool of tears, which she
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  had wept when she was nine feet high. I wish I hadn't cried so
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  much, said Alice, as she swam about trying to find her way out.
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  I shall be punished for it now, I suppose by being drowned in
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  my own tears, that will be a queer thing, to be sure.
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  However, everything is queer to day. Just then she heard something splash about
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  in the pool a little way off, and she swam nearer to make out
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  what it was. At first she thought it must be a walrus or aippopotamus,
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  but then she remembered how small she was now, and she soon made
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  out that it was only a mouse that had slipped in like her. Would
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  it be of any use, now, thought Alice to speak to this mouse.
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  Everything is so out of the way down here that I should think very
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  likely it can talk at any rate. There's no harm in trying, So
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  she began, Oh, mouse, do you know the way out of this
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  pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, Oh mouse, Alice
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  thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse. She had
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  never done such a thing before, but she remembered having seen her brother's Latin
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  grammar A mouse of a mouse to a mouse, a mouse o mouse.
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  The mouse looked at her rather inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with
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  one of its little eyes. But it said nothing. Perhaps it doesn't understand
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  English, thought Alice. I dare say it's a French mouse. Come over
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  with William the Conqueror. With all her knowledge of history, Alice had no
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  clear notion how long ago anything had happened, so she began again whiz monschat,
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  which was the first sentence in her French lesson book. The mouse gave
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  a sudden leap out of the water and seemed to quiver all over with fright.
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  Oh I beg your pardon, cried Alice, hastily, afraid that she
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  had hurt the poor animal's feelings. I quite forgot. You don't like cats.
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  Not like cats, cried the mouse in a shrill, passionate voice.
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  Would you like cats if you were me? Well? Perhaps not, said
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  Alice in a soothing tone. Don't be angry about it. And yet I
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  wish I could show you our cat, Dinah. I think you'd take a
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  fancy to cats if you could only see her. She is such a dear,
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  quiet thing, Alice went on, half to herself, as she swam
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  lazily about in the pool. And she sits purring so nicely by the fire,
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  licking her paws and washing her face. And she is such a nice
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  soft thing to nurse, and she's such a capital one for catching mice.
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  Oh, I beg your pardon, cried Alice again. For this time the
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  mouse was bristling all over, and she felt certain it must be really offended.
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  We won't talk about her any more, if you'd rather not, we
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  indeed, cried the mouse, who was trembling down to the end of his
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  tail. As if I would talk on such a subject. Our family always
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  hated cats, nasty, low, vulgar things. Don't let me hear the
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  name again. I won't, indeed, said Alice, in great hurry to
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  change the subject conversation. And you are you fond of dogs? The mouse
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  did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly. There was such a nice
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  little dog near our house. I should like to show you a little bright
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  eyed terror, you know, with oh such long curly brown hair, and
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  it'll fetch things when you throw them, and it'll sit up and beg for
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  its dinner, and all sorts of things. I can't remember half of them.
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  And it belongs to a farmer, you know. And he says it's
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  so useful it's worth a hundred pounds. He says it kills all the rat
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  si oh, dear, cried Alice in a sorrowful tone. I'm afraid I've
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  offended again. For the mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it
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  could go, and making quite a commotion in the pool as it went.
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  So, she called softly after it, Mouse, dear, do come back
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  again. And I won't talk about cats or dogs either, if you don't
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  like them. When the mouse heard this, it turned round and swam slowly
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  back to her. Its face was quite pale with passion. Alice thought,
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  and it said, in a low trembling voice, let us get to the
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  shore, and then i'll tell you my history and you'll understand why it is
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  that I hate cats and dogs. It was high time to go, for
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  the pool was getting quite crowded with birds and animals. That had fallen into
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  it. There was a duck and a dodo, a lorry and an eaglet,
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  and several other curious creatures. Alice led the way, and the whole
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  party swam to the shore. End of Chapter two