master says you’ve got to go down the chimney!”
“Oh! So Bill’s got to come down the chimney, has he?' said Alice
to herself. “Why, they seem to put everything upon Bill! I wouldn't
be in Bill’s place for a good deal: this fireplace is narrow, to be
sure; but I think I can kick a little!”
She drew her foot as far down the chimney as she could, and
waited till she heard a little animal (she couldn’t guess of what
sort it was) scratching and scrambling about in the chimney close
above her: then, saying to herself “This is Bill”, 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—How was it, old fellow? What
happened to you? Tell us all about it!”
Last came a little feeble, squeaking voice (“That's Bill,”
thought Alice), “Well, I hardly know—No more, thank ye; I’m better
now—but I’m a deal too flustered to tell you—all I know is,
something comes at me like a Jack-in-the-box, and up I goes like a
sky-rocket!”
“So you did, old fellow!” said the others.
“We must burn the house down!” said the Rabbit’s voice; and
Alice called out as loud as she could, “If you do. I’ll set Dinah
at you!”
There was a dead silence instantly, and Alice thought to
herself, “I wonder what they will do next! If they had any sense,
they’d take the roof off.” After a minute or two, 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. “I’ll put a
stop to this,” she said to herself, and shouted out, “You'd better
not do that again!” which produced another dead silence.
Alice noticed, with some surprise, that the pebbles were allAlice 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; and, as it
ca’n’t possibly make me larger, it must make me smaller, I
suppose.”
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. The poor
little Lizard, Bill, was in the middle, being held up by two
guinea-pigs, who were giving it something out of a bottle. 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 think
that will be the best plan.”
It sounded an excellent plan, no doubt, and very neatly and
simply arranged: the only difficulty was, that she had not the
smallest idea how to set about it; and, while she was peering about
anxiously among the trees, a little sharp bark just over her head
made her look up in a great hurry.
An enormous puppy was looking down at her with large round eyes,
and feebly stretching out one paw, trying to touch her. “Poor
little thing!” said Alice, in a coaxing tone, and she tried hard to
whistle to it; but she was terribly frightened all the time at the
thought that it might be hungry, in which case it would be very
likely to eat her up in spite of all her coaxing.
Hardly knowing what she did, she picked up a little bit of
stick, and held it out to the puppy; whereupon the puppy jumped
into the air off all its feet at once, with a yelp of delight, and
rushed at the stick, and made believe to worry it; then Alicerushed at the stick, and made believe to worry it; then Alice
dodged behind a great thistle, to keep herself from being run over;
and the moment she appeared on the other side, the puppy made
another rush at the stick, and tumbled head over heels in its hurry
to get hold of it: then Alice, thinking it was very like having a
game of play with a cart-horse, and expecting every moment to be
trampled under its feet, ran round the thistle again: then the
puppy began a series of short charges at the stick, running a very
little way forwards each time and a long way back, and barking
hoarsely all the while, till at last it sat down a good way off,
panting, with its tongue hanging out of its mouth, and its great
eyes half shut.
This seemed to Alice a good opportunity for making her escape:
so she set off at once, and ran till she was quite tired and out of
breath, and till the puppy’s bark sounded quite faint in the
distance.
“And yet what a dear little puppy it was!” said Alice, as she
leant against a buttercup to rest herself, and fanned herself with
one of the leaves. “I should have liked teaching it tricks very
much, if—if I’d only been the right size to do it! Oh dear! I’d
nearly forgotten that I’ve got to grow up again! Let me see—how is
it to be managed? I suppose I ought to eat or drink something or
other; but the great question is, ‘What?’”
The great question certainly was “What?”. Alice looked all round
her at the flowers and the blades of grass, but she did 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; and, when she had looked under it, and
on both sides of it, and behind it, it occurred to her that she
might as well look and see what was on the top of it.
She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of
the mushroom, and her eyes immediately met those of a large blue
caterpillar, that was sitting on the top, with its arms folded,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.