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<title>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland</title>
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<section epub:type="chapter">
<h2 id="pgepubid00005"><a id="II_THE_POOL_OF_TEARS"></a>The Pool Of Tears</h2>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>She went on shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool all 'round her
and reaching half down the hall.</p>
<p>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<a id="Page_10" class="pageno" title="[Pg 10]"></a> came trotting along in a great
hurry, muttering to himself, "Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! <i>won't</i> she be
savage if I've kept her waiting!"</p>
<figure class="small">
<img src="images/i005_th.jpg" alt="Illo5" />
</figure>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. <i>Was</i> 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, <i>that's</i> the great
puzzle!"</p>
<p>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
<i>can</i> 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<a id="Page_11" class="pageno" title="[Pg 11]"></a> 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.</p>
<p>"That <i>was</i> 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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<figure class="small">
<img src="images/i006_th.jpg" alt="Illo6" />
</figure>
<p>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.<a id="Page_12" class="pageno" title="[Pg 12]"></a></p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Not like cats!" cried the Mouse in a shrill, passionate voice. "Would <i>you</i>
like cats, if you were me?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"We, indeed!" cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end of its tail. "As if
<i>I</i> would talk on such a subject! Our family always <i>hated</i> cats<a id=
"Page_13" class="pageno" title="[Pg 13]"></a>—nasty, low, vulgar things! Don't
let me hear the name again!"</p>
<figure class="full">
<img src= "images/plate02_th.jpg" alt="Alice at the Mad Tea Party." title="Alice at the Mad Tea Party." />
<figcaption>
<p>Alice at the Mad Tea Party.</p>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<figure class="small">
<img src="images/i007_th.jpg" alt="Illo7" />
</figure>
<p><a id="Page_14" class="pageno" title="[Pg 14]"></a></p>
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