Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

said the Lory.

  Alice replied eagerly, for she was always ready to talk about
her pet:  `Dinah's our cat.  And she's such a capital one for
catching mice you can't think!  And oh, I wish you could see her
after the birds!  Why, she'll eat a little bird as soon as look
at it!'

  This speech caused a remarkable sensation among the party.
Some of the birds hurried off at once:  one old Magpie began
wrapping itself up very carefully, remarking, `I really must be
getting home; the night-air doesn't suit my throat!' and a Canary
called out in a trembling voice to its children, `Come away, my
dears!  It's high time you were all in bed!'  On various pretexts
they all moved off, and Alice was soon left alone.

  `I wish I hadn't mentioned Dinah!' she said to herself in a
melancholy tone.  `Nobody seems to like her, down here, and I'm
sure she's the best cat in the world!  Oh, my dear Dinah!  I
wonder if I shall ever see you any more!'  And here poor Alice
began to cry again, for she felt very lonely and low-spirited.
In a little while, however, she again heard a little pattering of
footsteps in the distance, and she looked up eagerly, half hoping
that the Mouse had changed his mind, and was coming back to
finish his story.



                           CHAPTER IV

                The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill


  It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again, and
looking anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something;
and she heard it muttering to itself `The Duchess!  The Duchess!
Oh my dear paws!  Oh my fur and whiskers!  She'll get me
executed, as sure as ferrets are ferrets!  Where CAN I have
dropped them, I wonder?'  Alice guessed in a moment that it was
looking for the fan and the pair of white kid gloves, and she
very good-naturedly began hunting about for them, but they were
nowhere to be seen--everything seemed to have changed since her
swim in the pool, and the great hall, with the glass table and
the little door, had vanished completely.

  Very soon the Rabbit noticed Alice, as she went hunting about,
and called out to her in an angry tone, `Why, Mary Ann, what ARE
you doing out here?  Run home this moment, and fetch me a pair of
gloves and a fan!  Quick, now!'  And Alice was so much frightened
that she ran off at once in the direction it pointed to, without
trying to explain the mistake it had made.

  `He took me for his housemaid,' she said to herself as she ran.
`How surprised he'll be when he finds out who I am!  But I'd
better take him his fan and gloves--that is, if I can find them.'
As she said this, she came upon a neat little house, on the door
of which was a bright brass plate with the name `W. RABBIT'
engraved upon it.  She went in without knocking, and hurried
upstairs, in great fear lest she should meet the real Mary Ann,
and be turned out of the house before she had found the fan and
gloves.

  `How queer it seems,' Alice said to herself, `to be going
messages for a rabbit!  I suppose Dinah'll be sending me on
messages next!'  And she began fancying the sort of thing that
would happen:  `"Miss Alice!  Come here directly, and get ready
for your walk!" "Coming in a minute, nurse!  But I've got to see
that the mouse doesn't get out."  Only I don't think,' Alice went
on, `that they'd let Dinah stop in the house if it began ordering
people about like that!'

  By this time she had found her way into a tidy little room with
a table in the window, and on it (as she had hoped) a fan and two
or three pairs of tiny white kid gloves:  she took up the fan and
a pair of the gloves, and was just going to leave the room, when
her eye fell upon a little bottle that stood near the looking-
glass.  There was no label this time with the words `DRINK ME,'
but nevertheless she uncorked it and put it to her lips.  `I know
SOMETHING interesting is sure to happen,' she said to herself,
`whenever I eat or drink anything; so I'll just see what this
bottle does.  I do hope it'll make me grow large again, for
really I'm quite tired of being such a tiny little thing!'

  It did so indeed, and much sooner than she had expected:
before she had drunk half the bottle, she found her head pressing
against the ceiling, and had to stoop to save her neck from being
broken.  She hastily put down the bottle, saying to herself
`That's quite enough--I hope I shan't grow any more--As it is, I
can't get out at the door--I do wish I hadn't drunk 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 for this, and she tried
the effect of lying down with one elbow against the door, and the
other arm curled round her head.  Still she went on growing, and,
as a last resource, she put one arm out of the window, and one
foot up the chimney, and said to herself `Now I can do no more,
whatever happens.  What WILL become of me?'