she was ever to get out again.
Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of
solid glass: there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and
Alice’s first thought 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 though the doorway; “and even if my head would go
through,” thought poor Alice, “it would be of very little use
without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a
telescope! I think I could, if I only know how to begin.” For, you
see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice
had begun to think that very few things indeed were really
impossible.
There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she
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.
It was all very well to say “Drink me,” but the wise little
Alice was not going to do that in a hurry. “No, I’ll look first,”
she said, “and see whether it’s marked ‘poison’ or not”; for she
had read several nice little stories about children who had gothad read several nice little stories about children who had got
burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts, and other unpleasant things,
all because they would not remember the simple rules their friends
had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if
your hold it too long; and that, if you cut your finger very deeply
with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that,
if you drink much 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, in fact, a sort of
mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, 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 though the little door into that lovely garden. First,
however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to
shrink any further: she felt a little nervous about this; “for it
might end, you know,” said Alice to herself, “in my going out
altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?”
And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle looks like after
the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having
seen such a thing.
After a while, 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.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; and once she remembered trying to box
her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she
was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond
of pretending to be two people. “But it’s no use now,” thought poor
Alice, “to pretend to be two people! Why, there's hardly enough of
me left to make one respectable person!”
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 it was growing; and she was quite surprised to find that she
remained the same size. To be sure, this is what generally happens
when one eats cake; but Alice had got so much into the way of
expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it
seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common
way.
So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.
* * * * * * *
* * * * * *
* * * * * * *