Alices Adventures in Wonderland | Page 7

little! Besides, SHE'S she, and I'm I, and--oh dear, how
puzzling it all is! I'll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me see: four times
five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is--oh dear! I shall
never get to twenty at that rate! However, the Multiplication Table doesn't signify: let's
try Geography. London is the capital of 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
and say "How doth the little--"' and she crossed her hands on her lap as if she were saying
lessons, and began to repeat it, but her voice sounded hoarse and 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 those are not the right words,' said poor Alice, and her eyes filled with tears
again as she went on, `I must be Mabel after all, and I shall have to go and 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 about it; if I'm Mabel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no use
their putting their heads down and saying "Come up again, dear!" I shall only look up and
say "Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I'll come up:
if not, I'll stay down here till I'm somebody else"--but, oh dear!' cried Alice, with a
sudden burst of tears, `I do wish they WOULD put their heads down! I am so VERY tired
of being all alone here!'
As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was surprised to see that she had put
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 small again.' 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 feet high, and was going on shrinking rapidly: she soon found out that the cause of
this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped it hastily, just in time to avoid
shrinking away altogether.
`That WAS a narrow 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! the little door was shut again, and the little golden
key was lying on the glass table 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's too bad, that
it is!'
As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash! she was up to
her chin in salt water. Her first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea, `and in
that case I can go back by railway,' she said to herself. (Alice had been to the seaside
once in her life, and had come to the general conclusion, that wherever you go to on the
English coast you find a number of bathing machines in the sea, some children digging in
the sand with wooden spades, then a row of lodging houses, and behind them a railway
station.) However, she soon made out that she was in the pool of tears which 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! That WILL
be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.'
Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little way off, and she swam
nearer to make out what it was: at first she thought it must be a walrus 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 like herself.
`Would it be of any use, now,' thought Alice, `to speak to this mouse? Everything is so
out-of-the-way down here, that I should think very likely it can talk: at any rate, there's