Alices Adventures Under Ground | Page 5

to measure herself by it,
and found that, as nearly as she could guess, she was now about two
feet high, and was going on shrinking rapidly: soon she found out that
the reason of it was the nosegay she held in her hand: she dropped it
hastily, just in time to save herself from shrinking away altogether, and
found that she was now only three inches high.
"Now for the garden!" cried Alice, as she hurried back to the little door,
but the little door was locked again, and the little gold key was lying on
the glass table as before, and "things are worse than ever!" thought the
poor little girl, "for I never was as small as this before, never! And I
declare it's too bad, it is!"
[Illustration]
At this moment her foot slipped, and splash! she was up to her chin in
salt water. Her first idea was that she had fallen into the sea: then she
remembered that she was under ground, and she soon made out that it
was the pool of tears she had wept when she was nine feet high. "I wish
I hadn't cried so much!" said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find
her way out, "I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being
drowned in my own tears! Well! that'll be a queer thing, to be sure!
However, every thing is queer today." Very soon she saw something
splashing about in the pool near her: at first she thought it must be a
walrus or a hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she was
herself, and soon made out that it was only a mouse, that had slipped in
like herself.

"Would it be any use, now," thought Alice, "to speak to this mouse?
The rabbit is something quite out-of-the-way, no doubt, and so have I
been, ever since I came down here, but that is no reason why the mouse
should not be able to talk. I think I may as well try."
So she began: "oh Mouse, do you know how to get out of this pool? I
am very tired of swimming about here, oh Mouse!" The mouse looked
at her rather inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its
little eyes, but it said nothing.
[Illustration]
"Perhaps it doesn't understand English," thought Alice; "I daresay it's a
French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror!" (for, with all
her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion how long ago
anything had happened,) so she began again: "où est ma chatte?" which
was the first sentence out of her French lesson-book. The mouse gave a
sudden jump in the pool, and seemed to quiver with fright: "oh, I beg
your pardon!" cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor
animal's feelings, "I quite forgot you didn't like cats!"
"Not like cats!" cried the mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice, "would
you like cats if you were me?"
"Well, perhaps not," said Alice in a soothing tone, "don't be angry
about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah: I think you'd
take a fancy to cats if you could only see her. She is such a dear quiet
thing," said Alice, half to herself, as she swam lazily about in the pool,
"she sits purring so nicely by the fire, licking her paws and washing her
face: and she is such a nice soft thing to nurse, and she's such a capital
one for catching mice--oh! I beg your pardon!" cried poor Alice again,
for this time the mouse was bristling all over, and she felt certain that it
was really offended, "have I offended you?"
"Offended indeed!" cried the mouse, who seemed to be positively
trembling with rage, "our family always hated cats! Nasty, low, vulgar
things! Don't talk to me about them any more!"

"I won't indeed!" said Alice, in a great hurry to change the conversation,
"are you--are you--fond of--dogs?" The mouse did not answer, so Alice
went on eagerly: "there is such a nice little dog near our house I should
like to show you! A little bright-eyed terrier, you know, with oh! such
long curly brown hair! And it'll fetch things when you throw them, and
it'll sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts of things--I ca'n't
remember half of them--and it belongs to a farmer, and he says it kills
all the rats and--oh dear!" said Alice sadly, "I'm afraid I've offended it
again!" for the mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it could
go, and making quite a commotion in the pool as it went.
So she called softly after it: "mouse dear! Do come back again, and