“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-bye, feet!” (for when she looked down at her feet, they
seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off).
“Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and
stockings for you now, dears? I’m sure I sha’n’t be able! I shall
be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you: you must
manage the best way you can—but I must be kind to them,” thought
Alice, “or perhaps they wo’n’t walk the way I want to go! Let me
see. I’ll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas.”
And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it.
“They must go by the carrier,” she thought; “and how funny it’ll
seem, sending presents to one’s own feet! And how odd the
directions will look!
Alice’s Right Foot, Esq.
 ? Hearthrug,
 ? near the Fender,
 ? (with Alice’s love).
Oh dear, what nonsense I’m talking!”
Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall: in fact
she was now 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.
“You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” said Alice, “a great girl
like you,” (she might well say this), “to go on crying in this way!
Stop this moment, I tell you!” But she went on all the same,
shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool all around
her, about four inches deep 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 camewhite kid-gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other: he came
trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to himself, as he came,
“Oh! The Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! Wo’n’t she be savage if I’ve
kept her waiting!” Alice felt so desperate that she was ready to
ask help of any one: so, when the Rabbit came near her, she 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, as the hall was very hot,
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 wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me
think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I
can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same,
the next question is, ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great
puzzle!” And she began thinking over all the children she knew that
were of the same age as herself, to see if she could have been
changed for any of them.
“I'm sure I’m not Ada,” she said, “for her hair goes in such
long ringlets, and mine doesn’t go in ringlets at all; and I’m sure
I ca’n’t be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she, oh, she
knows such a very little! Besides, she’s she, and I’m I, and—oh
dear, how puzzling it all is! I’ll try if I know all the things I
used to know. Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times
six is thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear! I shall never get
to twenty at that rate! However, the Multiplication-Table doesn’t
signify: let’s try Geography. London is the capital of Paris, and
Paris is the capital of Rome, and Rome—no, that’s all wrong, I’m
certain! I must have been changed for Mabel! I’ll try and say ‘How
doth the little—’,” and she crossed her hands on her lap, as if she
were saying lessons, and began to repeat it, but her voice soundedwere saying lessons, and began to repeat it, but her voice sounded
hoarse and strange, and the words did not come the same as they
used to do:—
“How doth the little crocodile
 ? Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
 ? On every golden scale!
“How cheerfully he seems to grin,
 ? How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcome little fishes in,
 ? With gently smiling jaws!”
“I’m sure those are not the right words,” said poor Alice, and
her eyes filled with tears again as she went on, “I must be Mabel
after all, and I shall have to go and live in that poky little
house, and have next to no toys to play with, and oh, ever so many
lessons to learn! No, I’ve made up my mind about it: if I’m Mabel,
I’ll stay down here! It’ll be no use their putting their heads down
and saying ‘Come up again, dear!’ I shall only look up and say ‘Who
am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that
person, I’ll come up: if not, I’ll stay down here till I’m somebody
else’—but, oh dear!” cried Alice, with a sudden burst of tears, “I
do wish they would put their heads down! I am so very tired of
being all alone here!”
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, as nearly as
she could guess, 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,