Alices Adventures in Wonderland | Page 8

no harm in trying.' So she began: `O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am
very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!' (Alice thought this must be the right way
of speaking to a mouse: she had never done such a thing before, but she remembered
having seen in her brother's Latin Grammar, `A mouse--of a mouse--to a mouse--a
mouse--O mouse!' The Mouse looked at her rather inquisitively, and seemed to her to

wink with one of its little eyes, but it said nothing.
`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: `Ou
est ma chatte?' which was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a
sudden leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver all over 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,' Alice went on, half to herself, as she swam lazily
about in the pool, `and 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 Alice again, for this time the Mouse was
bristling all over, and she felt certain it must be really offended. `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. `As if 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 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 can't
remember half of them--and it belongs to a farmer, you know, and he says it's so useful,
it's worth a hundred pounds! He says it kills all the rats and--oh dear!' cried Alice in a
sorrowful tone, `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 we won't talk about
cats or dogs either, if you don't like them!' When the Mouse heard this, it turned round
and swam slowly back to her: its face was quite pale (with passion, Alice thought), and it
said in a low trembling voice, `Let us get to the shore, and then I'll tell you my history,
and you'll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.'
It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with the birds and animals
that had fallen into it: there were a Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several
other curious creatures. Alice led the way, and the whole party swam to the shore.

CHAPTER III
A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale
They were indeed a queer-looking party that assembled on the bank--the birds with
draggled feathers, the animals with their fur clinging close to them, and all dripping wet,
cross, and uncomfortable.
The first question of course was, how to get dry again: they had a consultation about this,
and after a few minutes it seemed quite natural to Alice to find herself talking familiarly
with them, as if she had known them all her life. Indeed, she had quite a long argument
with the Lory, who at last turned sulky, and would only say, `I am older than you, and
must know better'; and this Alice would not allow without knowing how old it was, and,
as the Lory positively refused to tell its age, there was no more to be said.
At last the Mouse,