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 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 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 , XXXXX 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 !
After as at in of off on so to with