ALICE'S
ADVENTURES
IN
WONDERLAND
I—DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her
sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do. Once or
twice she had peeped into the book her sister was
reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it,
"and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without
pictures or conversations?"
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she
could, for the day made her feel very sleepy and stupid),
whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be
worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies,
when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close
by her.
There was nothing so very remarkable in that, nor did
Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the
Rabbit say to itself, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too
late!" But when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of
its waistcoat-pocket and looked at it and then hurried on,
Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind
that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a
waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and,
burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it
and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-
hole, under the hedge. In another moment, down went
Alice after it!
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some
way and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that
Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself
before she found herself falling down what seemed to be
a very deep well.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for
she had plenty of time, as she went down, to look about
her. First, she tried to make out what she was coming to,
but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked at
the sides of the well and noticed that they were filled
with cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw
maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar
from one of the shelves as she passed. It was labeled
"ORANGE MARMALADE," but, to her great
disappointment, it was empty; she did not like to drop
the jar, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as
she fell past it.
Down, down, down! Would the fall never come to an
end? There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began
talking to herself. "Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I
should think!" (Dinah was the cat.) "I hope they'll
remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah, my
dear, I wish you were down here with me!" Alice felt that
she was dozing off, when suddenly, thump! thump! down
she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the
fall was over.
Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up in a
moment. She looked up, but it was all dark overhead;
before her was another long passage and the White
Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not
a moment to be lost. Away went Alice like the wind and
was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, "Oh,
my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!" She was
close behind it when she turned the corner, but the
Rabbit was no longer to be seen.
She found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by
a row of lamps hanging from the roof. There were doors
all 'round the hall, but they were all locked; and when
Alice had been all the way down one side and up the
middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.
Suddenly she came upon a little table, all made of solid
glass. There was nothing on it but a tiny golden key, and
Alice's first idea was that this might belong to one of the
doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too
large, or the key was too small, but, at any rate, it would
not open any of them. However, on the second time
'round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed
before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen
inches high. She tried the little golden key in the lock,
and to her great delight, it fitted!
Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small
passage, not much larger than a rat-hole; she knelt down
and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden
you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall
and wander about among those beds of bright flowers
and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her
head through the doorway. "Oh," said Alice, "how I wish
I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only
knew how to begin."
Alice went back to the table, half hoping she might find
another key on it, or at any rate, a book of rules for
shutting people up like telescopes. This time she found a
little bottle on it ("which certainly was not here before,"
said Alice), and tied 'round the neck of the bottle was a
paper label, with the words "DRINK ME" beautifully
printed on it in large letters.
"No, I'll look first," she said, "and see whether it's marked
'poison' or not," for she had never forgotten that, if you
drink from a bottle marked "poison," it is almost certain
to disagree with you, sooner or later. However, this
bottle was not marked "poison," so Alice ventured to
taste it, and, finding it very nice (it had a sort of mixed
flavor of cherry-tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey,
toffy and hot buttered toast), she very soon finished it
off.
"What a curious feeling!" said Alice. "I must be shutting
up like a telescope!"
And so it was indeed! She was now only ten inches high,
and her face brightened up at the thought that she was
now the right size for going through the little door into
that lovely garden.
After awhile, finding that nothing more happened, she
decided on going into the garden at once; but, alas for
poor Alice! When she got to the door, she found she had
forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back
to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach
it: she could see it quite plainly through the glass and
she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of the table,
but it was too slippery, and when she had tired herself
out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried.
"Come, there's no use in crying like that!" said Alice to
herself rather sharply. "I advise you to leave off this
minute!" She generally gave herself very good advice
(though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she
scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes.
Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying
under the table: she opened it and found in it a very
small cake, on which the words "EAT ME" were
beautifully marked in currants. "Well, I'll eat it," said
Alice, "and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the
key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under
the door: so either way I'll get into the garden, and I
don't care which happens!"
She ate a little bit and said anxiously to herself, "Which
way? Which way?" holding her hand on the top of her
head to feel which way she was growing; and she was
quite surprised to find that she remained the same size.
So she set to work and very soon finished off the cake.
II—THE POOL OF TEARS
"Curiouser and curiouser!" cried Alice (she was so
much surprised that for the moment she quite forgot how
to speak good English). "Now I'm opening out like the
largest telescope that ever was! Good-by, feet! Oh, my
poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and
stockings for you now, dears? I shall be a great deal too
far off to trouble myself about you."
Just at this moment her head struck against the roof of
the hall; in fact, she was now rather more than nine feet
high, and she at once took up the little golden key and
hurried off to the garden door.
Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down
on one side, to look through into the garden with one
eye; but to get through was more hopeless than ever. She
sat down and began to cry again.
She went on shedding gallons of tears, until there was a
large pool all 'round her and reaching half down the hall.
After a time, she heard a little pattering of feet in the
distance and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was
coming. It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly
dressed, with a pair of white kid-gloves in one hand and
a large fan in the other. He came trotting along in a great
hurry, muttering to himself, "Oh! the Duchess, the
Duchess! Oh! won't she be savage if I've kept her
waiting!"
When the Rabbit came near her, Alice began, in a low,
timid voice, "If you please, sir—" The Rabbit started
violently, dropped the white kid-gloves and the fan and
skurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go.
Alice took up the fan and gloves and she kept fanning
herself all the time she went on talking. "Dear, dear!
How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things
went on just as usual. Was I the same when I got up this
morning? But if I'm not the same, the next question is,
'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!"
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 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 save herself
from 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. "Things are worse
than ever," thought the poor child, "for I never was so
small as this before, never!"
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. However, she soon made out that she was in the
pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine feet
high.
Just then she heard something splashing about in the
pool a little way off, and she swam nearer to see what it
was: 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 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!" 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
dare say it's a French mouse, come over with William the
Conqueror." So she began again: "Où 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." 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 its 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? There is such a nice little dog near our
house, I should like to show you! 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, 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.
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.
At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of some
authority among them, called out, "Sit down, all of you,
and listen to me! I'll soon make you dry enough!" They all
middle.
"Ahem!" said the Mouse with an important air. "Are you
all ready? This is the driest thing I know. Silence all
'round, if you please! 'William the Conqueror, whose
cause was favored by the pope, was soon submitted to by
the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late
much accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin
and Morcar, the Earls of Mercia and Northumbria'—"
"Ugh!" said the Lory, with a shiver.
"—'And even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of
Canterbury, found it advisable'—"
"Found what?" said the Duck.
"Found it," the Mouse replied rather crossly; "of course,
you know what 'it' means."
"I know what 'it' means well enough, when I find a
thing," said the Duck; "it's generally a frog or a worm.
The question is, what did the archbishop find?"
The Mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedly
went on, "'—found it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling
to meet William and offer him the crown.'—How are you
getting on now, my dear?" it continued, turning to Alice
as it spoke.
"As wet as ever," said Alice in a melancholy tone; "it
doesn't seem to dry me at all."
"In that case," said the Dodo solemnly, rising to its feet,
"I move that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate
adoption of more energetic remedies—"
"Speak English!" said the Eaglet. "I don't know the
meaning of half those long words, and, what's more, I
don't believe you do either!"
"What I was going to say," said the Dodo in an offended
tone, "is that the best thing to get us dry would be a
Caucus-race."
"What is a Caucus-race?" said Alice.
"Why," said the Dodo, "the best way to explain it is to do
it." First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle,
and then all the party were placed along the course, here
and there. There was no "One, two, three and away!" but
they began running when they liked and left off when
they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race
was over. However, when they had been running half an
hour or so and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly
called out, "The race is over!" and they all crowded
'round it, panting and asking, "But who has won?"
This question the Dodo could not answer without a great
deal of thought. At last it said, "Everybody has won, and
all must have prizes."
"But who is to give the prizes?" quite a chorus of voices
asked.
"Why, she, of course," said the Dodo, pointing to Alice
with one finger; and the whole party at once crowded
'round her, calling out, in a confused way, "Prizes!
Prizes!"
Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her
hand into her pocket and pulled out a box of comfits
(luckily the salt-water had not got into it) and handed
them 'round as prizes. There was exactly one a-piece, all
'round.
The next thing was to eat the comfits; this caused some
noise and confusion, as the large birds complained that
they could not taste theirs, and the small ones choked
and had to be patted on the back. However, it was over
at last and they sat down again in a ring and begged the
Mouse to tell them something more.
"You promised to tell me your history, you know," said
Alice, "and why it is you hate—C and D," she added in a
whisper, half afraid that it would be offended again.
"Mine is a long and a sad tale!" said the Mouse, turning
to Alice and sighing.
"It is a long tail, certainly," said Alice, looking down with
wonder at the Mouse's tail, "but why do you call it sad?"
And she kept on puzzling about it while the Mouse was
speaking, so that her idea of the tale was something like
this:—
"Fury said to a mouse, That he met in the house, 'Let us
both go to law: I will prosecute you.— Come, I'll take no
denial: We must have the trial; For really this morning I've
nothing to do.' Said the mouse to the cur, 'Such a trial, dear sir, With
no jury or judge, would be wasting our breath.' 'I'll be judge, I'll be jury,'
said cunning old Fury; 'I'll try the whole cause, and condemn you to death.'"
"You are not attending!" said the Mouse to Alice,
severely. "What are you thinking of?"
"I beg your pardon," said Alice very humbly, "you had got
to the fifth bend, I think?"
"You insult me by talking such nonsense!" said the
Mouse, getting up and walking away.
"Please come back and finish your story!" Alice called
after it. And the others all joined in chorus, "Yes, please
do!" But the Mouse only shook its head impatiently and
walked a little quicker.
"I wish I had Dinah, our cat, here!" said Alice. This
caused a remarkable sensation among the party. Some of
the birds hurried off at once, 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! Nobody seems to like
her down here and I'm sure she's the best cat in the
world!" 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.
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; Alice 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, and called 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!"
"He took me for his housemaid!" said Alice, as she ran
off. "How surprised he'll be when he finds out who I am!"
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.
By this time, Alice had found her way into a tidy little
room with a table in the window, and on it 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 eyes fell upon a little bottle that
stood near the looking-glass. She uncorked it and put it
to her lips, saying to herself, "I do hope it'll make me
grow large again, for, really, I'm quite tired of being such
a tiny little thing!"
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,
remarking, "That's quite enough—I hope I sha'n't grow
any more."
Alas! It was too late to wish that! She went on growing
and growing and very soon she had to kneel down on the
floor. 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?"
Luckily for Alice, the little magic bottle had now had its
full effect and she grew no larger. After a few minutes
she heard a voice outside and stopped 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 and she trembled till she shook the house,
quite forgetting that she was now about a thousand times
as large as the Rabbit and had no reason to be afraid of
it.
Presently the Rabbit came up to the door and tried to
open it; but as the door opened inwards and Alice's
elbow was pressed hard against it, that attempt proved a
failure. Alice heard it say to itself, "Then I'll go 'round
and get in at the window."
"That you won't!" thought Alice; and after waiting till she
fancied she heard the Rabbit just under the window, she
suddenly spread out her hand and made a snatch in the
air. She did not get hold of anything, but she heard a
little shriek and a fall and a crash of broken glass, from
which she concluded that it was just possible it had
fallen into a cucumber-frame or something of that sort.
Next came an angry voice—the Rabbit's—"Pat! Pat!
Where are you?" And then a voice she had never heard
before, "Sure then, I'm here! Digging for apples, yer
honor!"
"Here! Come and help me out of this! Now tell me, Pat,
what's that in the window?"
"Sure, it's an arm, yer honor!"
"Well, it's got no business there, at any rate; go and take
it away!"
There was a long silence after this and Alice could only
hear whispers now and then, and at last she spread out
her hand again and made another snatch in the air. This
time there were two little shrieks and more sounds of
broken glass. "I wonder what they'll do next!" thought
Alice. "As for pulling me out of the window, I only wish
they could!"
She waited for some time without hearing anything more.
At last came a rumbling of little cart-wheels and the
sound of a good many voices all talking together. She
made out the words: "Where's the other ladder? Bill's got
the other—Bill! Here, Bill! Will the roof bear?—Who's to
go down the chimney?—Nay, I sha'n't! You do it! Here,
Bill! The master says you've got to go down the
chimney!"
Alice drew her foot as far down the chimney as she could
and waited till she heard a little animal scratching and
scrambling about in the chimney close above her; then
she gave one sharp kick and waited to see what would
happen next.
The first thing she heard was a general chorus of "There
goes Bill!" then the Rabbit's voice alone—"Catch him, you
by the hedge!" Then silence and then another confusion
of voices—"Hold up his head—Brandy now—Don't choke
him—What happened to you?"
Last came a little feeble, squeaking voice, "Well, I hardly
know—No more, thank ye. I'm better now—all I know is,
something comes at me like a Jack-in-the-box and up I
goes like a sky-rocket!"
After a minute or two of silence, they began moving
about again, and Alice heard the Rabbit say, "A
barrowful will do, to begin with."
"A barrowful of what?" thought Alice. But she had not
long to doubt, for the next moment a shower of little
pebbles came rattling in at the window and some of them
hit her in the face. Alice noticed, with some surprise,
that the pebbles were all turning into little cakes as they
lay on the floor and a bright idea came into her head. "If
I eat one of these cakes," she thought, "it's sure to make
some change in my size."
So she swallowed one of the cakes and was delighted to
find that she began shrinking directly. As soon as she
was small enough to get through the door, she ran out of
the house and found quite a crowd of little animals and
birds waiting outside. They all made a rush at Alice the
moment she appeared, but she ran off as hard as she
could and soon found herself safe in a thick wood.
"The first thing I've got to do," said Alice to herself, as
she wandered about in the wood, "is to grow to my right
size again; and the second thing is to find my way into
that lovely garden. I suppose I ought to eat or drink
something or other, but the great question is 'What?'"
Alice looked all around her at the flowers and the blades
of grass, but she could not see anything that looked like
the right thing to eat or drink under the circumstances.
There was a large mushroom growing near her, about the
same height as herself. She stretched herself up on tiptoe
and peeped over the edge and her eyes immediately met
those of a large blue caterpillar, that was sitting on the
top, with its arms folded, quietly smoking a long hookah
and taking not the smallest notice of her or of anything
else.
V—ADVICE FROM A CATERPILLAR
At last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its
mouth and addressed Alice in a languid, sleepy voice.
"Who are you?" said the Caterpillar.
Alice replied, rather shyly, "I—I hardly know, sir, just at
present—at least I know who I was when I got up this
morning, but I think I must have changed several times
since then."
"What do you mean by that?" said the Caterpillar,
sternly. "Explain yourself!"
"I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir," said Alice,
"because I'm not myself, you see—being so many
different sizes in a day is very confusing." She drew
herself up and said very gravely, "I think you ought to
tell me who you are, first."
"Why?" said the Caterpillar.
As Alice could not think of any good reason and the
Caterpillar seemed to be in a very unpleasant state of
mind, she turned away.
"Come back!" the Caterpillar called after her. "I've
something important to say!" Alice turned and came back
again.
"Keep your temper," said the Caterpillar.
"Is that all?" said Alice, swallowing down her anger as
well as she could.
"No," said the Caterpillar.
It unfolded its arms, took the hookah out of its mouth
again, and said, "So you think you're changed, do you?"
"I'm afraid, I am, sir," said Alice. "I can't remember things
as I used—and I don't keep the same size for ten minutes
together!"
"What size do you want to be?" asked the Caterpillar.
"Oh, I'm not particular as to size," Alice hastily replied,
"only one doesn't like changing so often, you know. I
should like to be a little larger, sir, if you wouldn't mind,"
said Alice. "Three inches is such a wretched height to
be."
"It is a very good height indeed!" said the Caterpillar
angrily, rearing itself upright as it spoke (it was exactly
three inches high).
In a minute or two, the Caterpillar got down off the
mushroom and crawled away into the grass, merely
remarking, as it went, "One side will make you grow
taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter."
"One side of what? The other side of what?" thought
Alice to herself.
"Of the mushroom," said the Caterpillar, just as if she
had asked it aloud; and in another moment, it was out of
sight.
Alice remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for
a minute, trying to make out which were the two sides of
it. At last she stretched her arms 'round it as far as they
would go, and broke off a bit of the edge with each hand.
"And now which is which?" she said to herself, and
nibbled a little of the right-hand bit to try the effect. The
next moment she felt a violent blow underneath her
chin—it had struck her foot!
She was a good deal frightened by this very sudden
change, as she was shrinking rapidly; so she set to work
at once to eat some of the other bit. Her chin was
pressed so closely against her foot that there was hardly
room to open her mouth; but she did it at last and
managed to swallow a morsel of the left-hand bit....
"Come, my head's free at last!" said Alice; but all she
could see, when she looked down, was an immense
length of neck, which seemed to rise like a stalk out of a
sea of green leaves that lay far below her.
"Where have my shoulders got to? And oh, my poor
hands, how is it I can't see you?" She was delighted to
find that her neck would bend about easily in any
direction, like a serpent. She had just succeeded in
curving it down into a graceful zigzag and was going to
dive in among the leaves, when a sharp hiss made her
draw back in a hurry—a large pigeon had flown into her
face and was beating her violently with its wings.
"Serpent!" cried the Pigeon.
"I'm not a serpent!" said Alice indignantly. "Let me alone!"
"I've tried the roots of trees, and I've tried banks, and I've
tried hedges," the Pigeon went on, "but those serpents!
There's no pleasing them!"
Alice was more and more puzzled.
"As if it wasn't trouble enough hatching the eggs," said
the Pigeon, "but I must be on the look-out for serpents,
night and day! And just as I'd taken the highest tree in
the wood," continued the Pigeon, raising its voice to a
shriek, "and just as I was thinking I should be free of
them at last, they must needs come wriggling down from
the sky! Ugh, Serpent!"
"But I'm not a serpent, I tell you!" said Alice. "I'm a—I'm
a—I'm a little girl," she added rather doubtfully, as she
remembered the number of changes she had gone
through that day.
"You're looking for eggs, I know that well enough," said
the Pigeon; "and what does it matter to me whether
you're a little girl or a serpent?"
"It matters a good deal to me," said Alice hastily; "but I'm
not looking for eggs, as it happens, and if I was, I
shouldn't want yours—I don't like them raw."
"Well, be off, then!" said the Pigeon in a sulky tone, as it
settled down again into its nest. Alice crouched down
among the trees as well as she could, for her neck kept
getting entangled among the branches, and every now
and then she had to stop and untwist it. After awhile she
remembered that she still held the pieces of mushroom in
her hands, and she set to work very carefully, nibbling
first at one and then at the other, and growing
sometimes taller and sometimes shorter, until she had
succeeded in bringing herself down to her usual height.
It was so long since she had been anything near the right
size that it felt quite strange at first. "The next thing is to
get into that beautiful garden—how is that to be done, I
wonder?" As she said this, she came suddenly upon an
open place, with a little house in it about four feet high.
"Whoever lives there," thought Alice, "it'll never do to
come upon them this size; why, I should frighten them
out of their wits!" She did not venture to go near the
house till she had brought herself down to nine inches
high.
VI—PIG AND PEPPER
For a minute or two she stood looking at the house,
when suddenly a footman in livery came running out of
the wood (judging by his face only, she would have
called him a fish)—and rapped loudly at the door with
his knuckles. It was opened by another footman in livery,
with a round face and large eyes like a frog.
The Fish-Footman began by producing from under his
arm a great letter, and this he handed over to the other,
saying, in a solemn tone, "For the Duchess. An invitation
from the Queen to play croquet." The Frog-Footman
repeated, in the same solemn tone, "From the Queen. An
invitation for the Duchess to play croquet." Then they
both bowed low and their curls got entangled together.
When Alice next peeped out, the Fish-Footman was gone,
and the other was sitting on the ground near the door,
staring stupidly up into the sky. Alice went timidly up to
the door and knocked.
"There's no sort of use in knocking," said the Footman,
"and that for two reasons. First, because I'm on the same
side of the door as you are; secondly, because they're
making such a noise inside, no one could possibly hear
you." And certainly there was a most extraordinary noise
going on within—a constant howling and sneezing, and
every now and then a great crash, as if a dish or kettle
had been broken to pieces.
"How am I to get in?" asked Alice.
"Are you to get in at all?" said the Footman. "That's the
first question, you know."
Alice opened the door and went in. The door led right
into a large kitchen, which was full of smoke from one
end to the other; the Duchess was sitting on a three-
legged stool in the middle, nursing a baby; the cook was
leaning over the fire, stirring a large caldron which
seemed to be full of soup.
"There's certainly too much pepper in that soup!" Alice
said to herself, as well as she could for sneezing. Even
the Duchess sneezed occasionally; and as for the baby, it
was sneezing and howling alternately without a moment's
pause. The only two creatures in the kitchen that did not
sneeze were the cook and a large cat, which was grinning
from ear to ear.
"Please would you tell me," said Alice, a little timidly,
"why your cat grins like that?"
"It's a Cheshire-Cat," said the Duchess, "and that's why."
"I didn't know that Cheshire-Cats always grinned; in fact,
I didn't know that cats could grin," said Alice.
"You don't know much," said the Duchess, "and that's a
fact."
Just then the cook took the caldron of soup off the fire,
and at once set to work throwing everything within her
reach at the Duchess and the baby—the fire-irons came
first; then followed a shower of saucepans, plates and
dishes. The Duchess took no notice of them, even when
they hit her, and the baby was howling so much already
that it was quite impossible to say whether the blows
hurt it or not.
"Oh, please mind what you're doing!" cried Alice, jumping
up and down in an agony of terror.
"Here! You may nurse it a bit, if you like!" the Duchess
said to Alice, flinging the baby at her as she spoke. "I
must go and get ready to play croquet with the Queen,"
and she hurried out of the room.
Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was a
queer-shaped little creature and held out its arms and
legs in all directions. "If I don't take this child away with
me," thought Alice, "they're sure to kill it in a day or two.
Wouldn't it be murder to leave it behind?" She said the
last words out loud and the little thing grunted in reply.
"If you're going to turn into a pig, my dear," said Alice,
"I'll have nothing more to do with you. Mind now!"
Alice was just beginning to think to herself, "Now, what
am I to do with this creature, when I get it home?" when
it grunted again so violently that Alice looked down into
its face in some alarm. This time there could be no
mistake about it—it was neither more nor less than a pig;
so she set the little creature down and felt quite relieved
to see it trot away quietly into the wood.
Alice was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire-Cat
sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off. The Cat only
grinned when it saw her. "Cheshire-Puss," began Alice,
rather timidly, "would you please tell me which way I
ought to go from here?"
"In that direction," the Cat said, waving the right paw
'round, "lives a Hatter; and in that direction," waving the
other paw, "lives a March Hare. Visit either you like;
they're both mad."
"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice
remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat; "we're all mad
here. Do you play croquet with the Queen to-day?"
"I should like it very much," said Alice, "but I haven't
been invited yet."
"You'll see me there," said the Cat, and vanished.
Alice had not gone much farther before she came in sight
of the house of the March Hare; it was so large a house
that she did not like to go near till she had nibbled some
more of the left-hand bit of mushroom.
VII—A MAD TEA-PARTY
There was a table set out under a tree in front of the
house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having
tea at it; a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast
asleep.
The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded
together at one corner of it. "No room! No room!" they
cried out when they saw Alice coming. "There's plenty of
room!" said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a
large arm-chair at one end of the table.
The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this,
but all he said was "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?"
"I'm glad they've begun asking riddles—I believe I can
guess that," she added aloud.
"Do you mean that you think you can find out the
answer to it?" said the March Hare.
"Exactly so," said Alice.
"Then you should say what you mean," the March Hare
went on.
"I do," Alice hastily replied; "at least—at least I mean
what I say—that's the same thing, you know."
"You might just as well say," added the Dormouse, which
seemed to be talking in its sleep, "that 'I breathe when I
sleep' is the same thing as 'I sleep when I breathe!'"
"It is the same thing with you," said the Hatter, and he
poured a little hot tea upon its nose. The Dormouse
shook its head impatiently and said, without opening its
eyes, "Of course, of course; just what I was going to
remark myself."
"Have you guessed the riddle yet?" the Hatter said,
turning to Alice again.
"No, I give it up," Alice replied. "What's the answer?"
"I haven't the slightest idea," said the Hatter.
"Nor I," said the March Hare.
Alice gave a weary sigh. "I think you might do something
better with the time," she said, "than wasting it in asking
riddles that have no answers."
"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very
earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone,
"so I can't take more."
"You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter; "it's very
easy to take more than nothing."
At this, Alice got up and walked off. The Dormouse fell
asleep instantly and neither of the others took the least
notice of her going, though she looked back once or
twice; the last time she saw them, they were trying to
put the Dormouse into the tea-pot.
"At any rate, I'll never go there again!" said Alice, as she
picked her way through the wood. "It's the stupidest tea-
party I ever was at in all my life!" Just as she said this,
she noticed that one of the trees had a door leading right
into it. "That's very curious!" she thought. "I think I may
as well go in at once." And in she went.
Once more she found herself in the long hall and close to
the little glass table. Taking the little golden key, she
unlocked the door that led into the garden. Then she set
to work nibbling at the mushroom (she had kept a piece
of it in her pocket) till she was about a foot high; then
she walked down the little passage; and then—she found
herself at last in the beautiful garden, among the bright
flower-beds and the cool fountains.
VIII—THE QUEEN'S CROQUET
GROUND
A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the
garden; the roses growing on it were white, but there
were three gardeners at it, busily painting them red.
Suddenly their eyes chanced to fall upon Alice, as she
stood watching them. "Would you tell me, please," said
Alice, a little timidly, "why you are painting those roses?"
Five and Seven said nothing, but looked at Two. Two
began, in a low voice, "Why, the fact is, you see, Miss,
this here ought to have been a red rose-tree, and we put
a white one in by mistake; and, if the Queen was to find
it out, we should all have our heads cut off, you know.
So you see, Miss, we're doing our best, afore she comes,
to—" At this moment, Five, who had been anxiously
looking across the garden, called out, "The Queen! The
Queen!" and the three gardeners instantly threw
themselves flat upon their faces. There was a sound of
many footsteps and Alice looked 'round, eager to see the
Queen.
First came ten soldiers carrying clubs, with their hands
and feet at the corners: next the ten courtiers; these were
ornamented all over with diamonds. After these came the
royal children; there were ten of them, all ornamented
with hearts. Next came the guests, mostly Kings and
Queens, and among them Alice recognized the White
Rabbit. Then followed the Knave of Hearts, carrying the
King's crown on a crimson velvet cushion; and last of all
this grand procession came THE KING AND THE
QUEEN OF HEARTS.
When the procession came opposite to Alice, they all
stopped and looked at her, and the Queen said severely,
"Who is this?" She said it to the Knave of Hearts, who
only bowed and smiled in reply.
"My name is Alice, so please Your Majesty," said Alice
very politely; but she added to herself, "Why, they're only
a pack of cards, after all!"
"Can you play croquet?" shouted the Queen. The
question was evidently meant for Alice.
"Yes!" said Alice loudly.
"Come on, then!" roared the Queen.
"It's—it's a very fine day!" said a timid voice to Alice. She
was walking by the White Rabbit, who was peeping
anxiously into her face.
"Very," said Alice. "Where's the Duchess?"
"Hush! Hush!" said the Rabbit. "She's under sentence of
execution."
"What for?" said Alice.
"She boxed the Queen's ears—" the Rabbit began.
"Get to your places!" shouted the Queen in a voice of
thunder, and people began running about in all
directions, tumbling up against each other. However,
they got settled down in a minute or two, and the game
began.
Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-
ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows. The
croquet balls were live hedgehogs, and the mallets live
flamingos and the soldiers had to double themselves up
and stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.
The players all played at once, without waiting for turns,
quarrelling all the while and fighting for the hedgehogs;
and in a very short time, the Queen was in a furious
passion and went stamping about and shouting, "Off
with his head!" or "Off with her head!" about once in a
minute.
"They're dreadfully fond of beheading people here,"
thought Alice; "the great wonder is that there's anyone
left alive!"
She was looking about for some way of escape, when she
noticed a curious appearance in the air. "It's the
Cheshire-Cat," she said to herself; "now I shall have
somebody to talk to."
"How are you getting on?" said the Cat.
"I don't think they play at all fairly," Alice said, in a
rather complaining tone; "and they all quarrel so
dreadfully one can't hear oneself speak—and they don't
seem to have any rules in particular."
"How do you like the Queen?" said the Cat in a low
voice.
"Not at all," said Alice.
Alice thought she might as well go back and see how the
game was going on. So she went off in search of her
hedgehog. The hedgehog was engaged in a fight with
another hedgehog, which seemed to Alice an excellent
opportunity for croqueting one of them with the other;
the only difficulty was that her flamingo was gone across
to the other side of the garden, where Alice could see it
trying, in a helpless sort of way, to fly up into a tree. She
caught the flamingo and tucked it away under her arm,
that it might not escape again.
Just then Alice ran across the Duchess (who was now out
of prison). She tucked her arm affectionately into Alice's
and they walked off together. Alice was very glad to find
her in such a pleasant temper. She was a little startled,
however, when she heard the voice of the Duchess close
to her ear. "You're thinking about something, my dear,
and that makes you forget to talk."
"The game's going on rather better now," Alice said, by
way of keeping up the conversation a little.
"'Tis so," said the Duchess; "and the moral of that is—
'Oh, 'tis love, 'tis love that makes the world go 'round!'"
"Somebody said," Alice whispered, "that it's done by
everybody minding his own business!"
"Ah, well! It means much the same thing," said the
Duchess, digging her sharp little chin into Alice's
shoulder, as she added "and the moral of that is—'Take
care of the sense and the sounds will take care of
themselves.'"
To Alice's great surprise, the Duchess's arm that was
linked into hers began to tremble. Alice looked up and
there stood the Queen in front of them, with her arms
folded, frowning like a thunderstorm!
"Now, I give you fair warning," shouted the Queen,
stamping on the ground as she spoke, "either you or your
head must be off, and that in about half no time. Take
your choice!" The Duchess took her choice, and was gone
in a moment.
"Let's go on with the game," the Queen said to Alice; and
Alice was too much frightened to say a word, but slowly
followed her back to the croquet-ground.
All the time they were playing, the Queen never left off
quarreling with the other players and shouting, "Off with
his head!" or "Off with her head!" By the end of half an
hour or so, all the players, except the King, the Queen
and Alice, were in custody of the soldiers and under
sentence of execution.
Then the Queen left off, quite out of breath, and walked
away with Alice.
Alice heard the King say in a low voice to the company
generally, "You are all pardoned."
Suddenly the cry "The Trial's beginning!" was heard in
the distance, and Alice ran along with the others.
IX—WHO STOLE THE TARTS?
The King and Queen of Hearts were seated on their
throne when they arrived, with a great crowd assembled
about them—all sorts of little birds and beasts, as well as
the whole pack of cards: the Knave was standing before
them, in chains, with a soldier on each side to guard
him; and near the King was the White Rabbit, with a
trumpet in one hand and a scroll of parchment in the
other. In the very middle of the court was a table, with a
large dish of tarts upon it. "I wish they'd get the trial
done," Alice thought, "and hand 'round the refreshments!"
The judge, by the way, was the King and he wore his
crown over his great wig. "That's the jury-box," thought
Alice; "and those twelve creatures (some were animals
and some were birds) I suppose they are the jurors."
Just then the White Rabbit cried out "Silence in the
court!"
"Herald, read the accusation!" said the King.
On this, the White Rabbit blew three blasts on the
trumpet, then unrolled the parchment-scroll and read as
follows:
"The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,All on a
summer day;The Knave of Hearts, he stole those
tartsAnd took them quite away!"
"Call the first witness," said the King; and the White
Rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet and called out,
"First witness!"
The first witness was the Hatter. He came in with a
teacup in one hand and a piece of bread and butter in
the other.
"You ought to have finished," said the King. "When did
you begin?"
The Hatter looked at the March Hare, who had followed
him into the court, arm in arm with the Dormouse.
"Fourteenth of March, I think it was," he said.
"Give your evidence," said the King, "and don't be
nervous, or I'll have you executed on the spot."
This did not seem to encourage the witness at all; he
kept shifting from one foot to the other, looking uneasily
at the Queen, and, in his confusion, he bit a large piece
out of his teacup instead of the bread and butter.
Just at this moment Alice felt a very curious sensation—
she was beginning to grow larger again.
The miserable Hatter dropped his teacup and bread and
butter and went down on one knee. "I'm a poor man,
Your Majesty," he began.
"You're a very poor speaker," said the King.
"You may go," said the King, and the Hatter hurriedly left
the court.
"Call the next witness!" said the King.
The next witness was the Duchess's cook. She carried the
pepper-box in her hand and the people near the door
began sneezing all at once.
"Give your evidence," said the King.
"Sha'n't," said the cook.
The King looked anxiously at the White Rabbit, who said,
in a low voice, "Your Majesty must cross-examine this
witness."
"Well, if I must, I must," the King said. "What are tarts
made of?"
"Pepper, mostly," said the cook.
For some minutes the whole court was in confusion and
by the time they had settled down again, the cook had
disappeared.
"Never mind!" said the King, "call the next witness."
Alice watched the White Rabbit as he fumbled over the
list. Imagine her surprise when he read out, at the top of
his shrill little voice, the name "Alice!"
X—ALICE'S EVIDENCE
"Here!" cried Alice. She jumped up in such a hurry
that she tipped over the jury-box, upsetting all the
jurymen on to the heads of the crowd below.
"Oh, I beg your pardon!" she exclaimed in a tone of great
dismay.
"The trial cannot proceed," said the King, "until all the
jurymen are back in their proper places—all," he repeated
with great emphasis, looking hard at Alice.
"What do you know about this business?" the King said
to Alice.
"Nothing whatever," said Alice.
The King then read from his book: "Rule forty-two. All
persons more than a mile high to leave the court."
"I'm not a mile high," said Alice.
"Nearly two miles high," said the Queen.
"Well, I sha'n't go, at any rate," said Alice.
The King turned pale and shut his note-book hastily.
"Consider your verdict," he said to the jury, in a low,
trembling voice.
"There's more evidence to come yet, please Your
Majesty," said the White Rabbit, jumping up in a great
hurry. "This paper has just been picked up. It seems to
be a letter written by the prisoner to—to somebody." He
unfolded the paper as he spoke and added, "It isn't a
letter, after all; it's a set of verses."
"Please, Your Majesty," said the Knave, "I didn't write it
and they can't prove that I did; there's no name signed at
the end."
"You must have meant some mischief, or else you'd have
signed your name like an honest man," said the King.
There was a general clapping of hands at this.
"Read them," he added, turning to the White Rabbit.
There was dead silence in the court whilst the White
Rabbit read out the verses.
"That's the most important piece of evidence we've heard
yet," said the King.
"I don't believe there's an atom of meaning in it,"
ventured Alice.
"If there's no meaning in it," said the King, "that saves a
world of trouble, you know, as we needn't try to find
any. Let the jury consider their verdict."
"No, no!" said the Queen. "Sentence first—verdict
afterwards."
"Stuff and nonsense!" said Alice loudly. "The idea of
having the sentence first!"
"Hold your tongue!" said the Queen, turning purple.
"I won't!" said Alice.
"Off with her head!" the Queen shouted at the top of her
voice. Nobody moved.
"Who cares for you?" said Alice (she had grown to her full
size by this time). "You're nothing but a pack of cards!"
At this, the whole pack rose up in the air and came flying
down upon her; she gave a little scream, half of fright
and half of anger, and tried to beat them off, and found
herself lying on the bank, with her head in the lap of her
sister, who was gently brushing away some dead leaves
that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face.
"Wake up, Alice dear!" said her sister. "Why, what a long
sleep you've had!"
"Oh, I've had such a curious dream!" said Alice. And she
told her sister, as well as she could remember them, all
these strange adventures of hers that you have just been
reading about. Alice got up and ran off, thinking while
she ran, as well she might, what a wonderful dream it
had been.
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