Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

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The Pool Of Tears

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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."

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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.

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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.

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She went on shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool all 'round her + and reaching half down the hall.

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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!"

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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.

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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!"

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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.

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"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!"

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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.

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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.

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"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.

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"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."

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"Not like cats!" cried the Mouse in a shrill, passionate voice. "Would you + like cats, if you were me?"

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"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."

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"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!"

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"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.

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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."

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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.

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