`Curiouserand curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the momentshe quite forgot how to speak good English); `now I'm opening out likethe largest telescope that ever was!  Good-bye, feet!' (for when shelooked down at her
feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they weregetting so far off).  `Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who willput on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears?  I'm sure _I_shan't be able!  I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myselfabout you:  you must manage the best way you can; --but I must bekind to them,' thought Alice, `or perhaps they won't walk the way I wantto go!  Let me see:  I'll give them a new pair of boots everyChristmas.'

        And she wenton planning to herself how she would manage it. `They must go by the carrier,'she thought; `and how funny it'll seem, sending presents to one's own feet! And how odd the directions will look!

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

        Oh dear, whatnonsense I'm talking!'

        Just then herhead struck against the roof of the hall:  in fact she was now morethan nine feet high, and she at once took up the little golden key andhurried off to the garden door.

        Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one side, to look throughinto the garden with one eye; but to get through was more hopeless thanever:  she sat down and began to cry again.

        `You oughtto be ashamed of yourself,' said Alice, `a great girl like you,' (she mightwell say this), `to go on crying in this way!  Stop this moment, Itell you!'  But she went on all the same, shedding gallons of tears,until there was a large pool all round her, about four inches deep andreaching half down the hall.

        After a timeshe heard a little pattering of feet in the distance, and she hastily driedher eyes to see what was coming. It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidlydressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a large fan inthe other :  he came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering tohimself as he came, `Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! won't she be savageif I've kept her waiting!'  Alice felt so desperate that she was readyto ask help of any one; so, when the Rabbit came near her, she began, ina low, timid voice, `If you please, sir--'  The Rabbit started violently,dropped the white kid gloves and the fan, and skurried away into the darknessas hard as he could go.

        Alice tookup the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanningherself all the time she went on talking : `Dear, dear!  How queereverything is to-day!  And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night?  Let me think:  wasI the same when I got up this morning?  I almost think I can rememberfeeling a little different.  But if I'm not the same, the next questionis, Who in the world am I?  Ah, THAT'S the great puzzle!'  Andshe began thinking over all the children she knew that were of the sameage as herself, to see if she could have been changed for any of them.

        `I'm sure I'mnot Ada,' she said, `for her hair goes in such long ringlets, and minedoesn't go in ringlets at all; and I'm sure I can't be Mabel, for I knowall sorts of things, and she, oh! she knows such a very little!  Besides,SHE'S she, and I'm I,
and--oh dear, how puzzling it all is!  I'll tryif I know all the things I used to know.  Let me see:  four timesfive is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is--ohdear ! I shall never get to twenty at that rate!  However, he multiplicationTable doesn't signify:  let's try Geography. London is the capitalof Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and Rome--no, THAT'S all wrong,I'm certain!  I must have been changed for Mabel!  I'll try andsay "How doth the little--"' and she crossed her hands on her lap as ifshe were saying lessons,
and began to repeat it, but her voice sounded hoarseand strange, and the words did not come the same as they used to do:--
           `How doth the little crocodile
             Improve his shining tail,
           And pour the waters of the Nile
             On every golden scale!

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

        `I'm sure thoseare not the right words,' said poor Alice, and her eyes filled with tearsagain as she went on, `I must be Mabel after all, and I shall have to goand live in that poky little house, and have next to no toys to play with,and oh! ever so many lessons to learn!  No, I've made up my mind aboutit; if I'm Mabel, I'll stay down here!  It'll be no use their puttingtheir heads down and saying "Come up again, dear!"  I shall only lookup and say "Who am I then?  Tell me that first, and then, if I likebeing that person, I'll come up:  if not, I'll stay down here tillI'm somebody else"--but, oh dear!' cried Alice, with a sudden burst oftears, `I do wish they WOULD put their heads down!  I am so VERY tiredof being all alone here!'

        As she saidthis she looked down at her hands, and was surprised to see that she hadput on one of the Rabbit's little white kid gloves while she was talking. `How CAN I have done that ?' she thought.  `I must be growing smallagain.'  She got up and went to the table to measure herself by it,and found that, as nearly as she could guess, she was now about two feethigh, and was going on shrinking rapidly:  she soon found out thatthe cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped it hastily,just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether.

        `That WAS anarrow escape!' said Alice, a good deal frightened at the sudden change,but very glad to find herself still in existence; `and now for the garden!'and she ran with all speed back to the little door:  but, alas! thelittle door was shut
again, and the little golden key was lying on the glasstable as before, `and things are worse than ever,' thought the poor child,`for I never was so small as this before, never!  And I declare it'stoo bad, that it is!'

        As she saidthese words her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash! she was upto her chin in salt water.  Her first idea was that she had somehowfallen into the sea, `and in that case I can go back by railway,' she saidto herself.  (Alice had been to the seaside once in her life, andhad come to the general conclusion, that wherever you go to on the Englishcoast you find a number of bathing machines in the sea, some children diggingin the sand with wooden spades, then a row of lodging houses, and behindthem a railway station.)  However, she soon made out that she wasin the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine
feet high.

        `I wish I hadn'tcried so much!' said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. `I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my owntears!  That WILL be a queer thing, to be sure!  However, everythingis queer to-day.'

        Just then sheheard something splashing about in the pool a little way off, and she swamnearer to make out what it was:  at first she thought it must be awalrus or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she was now,and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped in likeherself.

        `Would it beof any use, now,' thought Alice, `to speak to this mouse?  Everythingis so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think very likely it cantalk:  at any rate, there's no harm in trying.'  So she began: `O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool?  I am very tired ofswimming about here, O Mouse !' (Alice thought this must be the right wayof speaking to a mouse : she had never done such a thing before, but sheremembered having seen in her brother's Latin Grammar, `A mouse--of a mouse--toa mouse--a mouse--O mouse!'  The Mouse looked at her rather inquisitively,and seemed to her to wink with one of its little, but it said nothing.

        `Perhaps itdoesn't understand English,' thought Alice; `I daresay it's a French mouse,come over with William the Conqueror.'  (For, with all her knowledgeof history, Alice had no very clear notion how long ago anything had happened.) So she began again :  `Ou est ma chatte?' which was the first sentencein her French lesson-book.  The Mouse gave a sudden leap out of thewater, and seemed to quiver all over with fright.  `Oh, I beg yourpardon!' cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor animal'sfeelings.  `I quite forgot you didn't like cats.'

        `Not like cats!'cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice.  `Would YOU like catsif you were me ?'

        `Well, perhapsnot,' said Alice in a soothing tone:  `don't be angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah : I think you'd take a fancyto cats if you could only see her. She is such a dear quiet thing,' Alicewent on, half to herself, as she swam lazily about in the pool, `and shesits purring so nicely by the fire, licking her paws and washing her face--andshe is such a nice soft thing to nurse--and she's such a capital one forcatching mice--oh, I beg your pardon!' cried Alice again, for this timethe Mouse was bristling all over, and she felt certain it must be reallyoffended.  `We won't talk about her any more if you'd rather not.'

        `We indeed!'cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end of his tail.  `Asif I would talk on such a subject!  Our family always HATED cats: nasty, low, vulgar things!  Don't let me hear the name again!'

        `I won't indeed!'said Alice, in a great hurry to change the subject of conversation. `Are you--are you fond--of--of dogs ?' The Mouse did not answer, so Alicewent on eagerly:  `There is such a nice little dog near our houseI should like to show you ! A little bright-eyed terrier, you know, withoh, such long curly brown hair !  And it'll fetch things when youthrow them, and it'll sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts of things--Ican't remember half of them--and it belongs to a farmer, you know, andhe says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds ! He says it killsall the rats and--oh dear!' cried Alice in a sorrowful tone, `I'm afraidI've offended it again!'  For the Mouse was swimming away from heras hard as it could go, and making quite a commotion in the pool as itwent.

        So she calledsoftly after it, `Mouse dear!  Do come back again, and we won't talkabout cats or dogs either, if you don't like them!'  When the Mouseheard this, it turned round and swam slowly back to her:  its facewas 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 history, andyou'll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.'

        It was hightime to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with the birds and animalsthat had fallen into it:  there were a Duck and a Dodo, a Lory andan Eaglet, and several other curious creatures.  Alice led the way,and the whole party swam to the shore.