either the locks were too large , or the key too small , but at any rate it would open none of them . However , on the second time round , she came to a low curtain , behind which was a door about eighteen inches high : she tried the little key in the keyhole , and it fitted ! Alice opened the door , and looked down a small passage , not larger than a rat-hole , 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 through the doorway , `` and even if my head would go through , '' thought poor Alice , `` it would be very little use without my shoulders . Oh , how I wish I could shut up like a telescope ! I think I could , if I only knew how to begin . '' For , you see , so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately , that Alice began to think very few things indeed were really impossible . There was nothing else to do , 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 up people like telescopes : this time there was a little bottle on it -- `` which certainly was not there 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 I 'll look first , '' said the wise little Alice , `` and see whether the bottle 's marked `` poison '' or not , '' for Alice had read several nice little stories about children that got burnt , and eaten up by wild beasts , and other unpleasant things , because they would not remember the simple rules their friends had given them , such as , that , if you get into the fire , it will burn you , and that , if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife , it generally bleeds , and she had never forgotten that , if you drink a bottle marked `` poison , '' it is almost certain to disagree with you , sooner or later . However , this bottle was not marked poison , so Alice tasted it , and finding it very nice , -LRB- it had , in fact , a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart , custard , pine-apple , roast turkey , toffy , and hot buttered toast , -RRB- she very soon finished it off . * * * * * `` What a curious feeling ! '' said Alice , `` I must be shutting up like a telescope . '' It was so indeed : she was now only ten inches high , and her face brightened up as it occurred to her that she was now the right size for going through the little door into that lovely garden . First , however , she waited for a few minutes to see whether 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 , and what should I be like then , I wonder ? '' and she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle is like after the candle is blown out , for she could not remember having ever seen one . However , nothing more happened so 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 the key , she found she could not possibly reach it : she could see it plainly enough 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 . -LSB- Illustration -RSB- `` Come ! there 's no use in crying ! '' said Alice to herself rather sharply , `` I advise you to leave off this minute ! ''
-LRB- she generally gave herself very good advice , and sometimes scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes , and once she remembered boxing her own ears for having been unkind to herself in a game of croquet she was playing with herself , for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people , -RRB- `` but it 's no use now , '' thought poor XXXXX , `` to pretend to be two people !
Alice burn cherry-tart fire first minutes pine-apple rat-hole right second