Alices Adventures Under Ground | Page 8

moment, and look on my dressing-table
for my gloves and nosegay, and fetch them here, as quick as you can
run, do you hear?" and Alice was so much frightened that she ran off at
once, without saying a word, in the direction which the rabbit had
pointed out.
She soon found herself in front of a neat little house, on the door of
which was a bright brass plate with the name W. RABBIT, ESQ. She
went in, and hurried upstairs, for fear she should meet the real Mary
Ann and be turned out of the house before she had found the gloves:
she knew that one pair had been lost in the hall, "but of course,"
thought Alice, "it has plenty more of them in its house. How queer it
seems to be going messages for a rabbit! I suppose Dinah'll be sending
me messages next!" And she began fancying the sort of things that
would happen: "Miss Alice! come here directly and get ready for your
walk!" "Coming in a minute, nurse! but I've got to watch this
mousehole till Dinah comes back, and 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!"
[Illustration]
By this time she had found her way into a tidy little room, with a table
in the window on which was a looking-glass and, (as Alice had hoped,)
two or three pairs of tiny white kid gloves: she took up a pair of 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 on it this
time with the words "drink me," but nonetheless 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 see what this
bottle does. I do hope it'll make me grow larger, for I'm quite tired of
being such a tiny little thing!"
[Illustration]
It did so indeed, and much sooner than she expected: before she had

drunk half the bottle, she found her head pressing against the ceiling,
and she stooped to save her neck from being broken, and hastily put
down the bottle, saying to herself "that's quite enough--I hope I sha'n't
grow any more--I wish I hadn't drunk so much!"
[Illustration]
Alas! it was too late: she went on growing and growing, and very soon
had to kneel down: in another minute there was not room even 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--what will
become of me?"
Luckily for Alice, the little magic bottle had now had its full effect, and
she grew no larger; still it was very uncomfortable, and as there seemed
to be no sort of chance of ever getting out of the room again, no wonder
she felt unhappy. "It was much pleasanter at home," thought poor Alice,
"when one wasn't always growing larger and smaller, and being
ordered about by mice and rabbits--I almost wish I hadn't gone down
that rabbit-hole, and yet, and yet--it's rather curious, you know, this sort
of life. I do wonder what can have happened to me! When I used to
read fairy-tales, I fancied that sort of thing never happened, and now
here I am in the middle of one! There out to be a book written about me,
that there ought! and when I grow up I'll write one--but I'm grown up
now" said she in a sorrowful tone, "at least there's no room to grow up
any more here."
[Illustration]
"But then," thought Alice, "shall I never get any older than I am now?
That'll be a comfort, one way--never to be an old woman--but
then--always to have lessons to learn! Oh, I shouldn't like that!"
"Oh, you foolish Alice!" she said again, "how can you learn lessons in
here? Why, there's hardly room for you, and no room at all for any
lesson-books!"

And so she went on, taking first one side, and then the other, and
making quite a conversation of it altogether, but after a few minutes she
heard a voice outside, which made her stop to listen.
"Mary Ann! Mary Ann!" said the voice, "fetch me my gloves this
moment!" Then came a little pattering of feet on the stairs: Alice knew
it was the rabbit coming to look for her,