Chapter: It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again and looking
anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something; Alice heard it
muttering to itself, "The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh, my dear paws! Oh, my
fur and whiskers! She'll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are
ferrets! Where _can_ I have dropped them, I wonder?" Alice guessed in a
moment that it was looking for the fan and the pair of white kid-gloves
and she very good-naturedly began hunting about for them, but they were
nowhere to be seen--everything seemed to have changed since her swim in
the pool, and the great hall, with the glass table and the little door,
had vanished completely.

Very soon the Rabbit noticed Alice, and called to her, in an angry tone,
"Why, Mary Ann, what _are_ you doing out here? Run home this moment and
fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan! Quick, now!"

"He took me for his housemaid!" said Alice, as she ran off. "How
surprised he'll be when he finds out who I am!" As she said this, she
came upon a neat little house, on the door of which was a bright brass
plate with the name "W. RABBIT" engraved upon it. She went in without
knocking and hurried upstairs, in great fear lest she should meet the
real Mary Ann and be turned out of the house before she had found the
fan and gloves.

By this time, Alice had found her way into a tidy little room with a
table in the window, and on it a fan and two or three pairs of tiny
white kid-gloves; she took up the fan and a pair of the gloves and was
just going to leave the room, when her eyes fell upon a little bottle
that stood near the looking-glass. She uncorked it and put it to her
lips, saying to herself, "I do hope it'll make me grow large again, for,
really, I'm quite tired of being such a tiny little thing!"

Before she had drunk half the bottle, she found her head pressing
against the ceiling, and had to stoop to save her neck from being
broken. She hastily put down the bottle, remarking, "That's quite
enough--I hope I sha'n't grow any more."

Alas! It was too late to wish that! She went on growing and growing and
very soon she had to kneel down on the floor. Still she went on growing,
and, as a last resource, she put one arm out of the window and one foot
up the chimney, and said to herself, "Now I can do no more, whatever
happens. What _will_ become of me?"

[Illustration]

Luckily for Alice, the little magic bottle had now had its full effect
and she grew no larger. After a few minutes she heard a voice outside
and stopped to listen.

"Mary Ann! Mary Ann!" said the voice. "Fetch me my gloves this moment!"
Then came a little pattering of feet on the stairs. Alice knew it was
the Rabbit coming to look for her and she trembled till she shook the
house, quite forgetting that she was now about a thousand times as large
as the Rabbit and had no reason to be afraid of it.

Presently the Rabbit came up to the door and tried to open it; but as
the door opened inwards and Alice's elbow was pressed hard against it,
that attempt proved a failure. Alice heard it say to itself, "Then I'll
go 'round and get in at the window."

"_That_ you won't!" thought Alice; and after waiting till she fancied
she heard the Rabbit just under the window, she suddenly spread out her
hand and made a snatch in the air. She did not get hold of anything,
but she heard a little shriek and a fall and a crash of broken glass,
from which she concluded that it was just possible it had fallen into a
cucumber-frame or something of that sort.

Next came an angry voice--the Rabbit's--"Pat! Pat! Where are you?" And
then a voice she had never heard before, "Sure then, I'm here! Digging
for apples, yer honor!"

"Here! Come and help me out of this! Now tell me, Pat, what's that in
the window?"

"Sure, it's an arm, yer honor!"

"Well, it's got no business there, at any rate; go and take it away!"

There was a long silence after this and Alice could only hear whispers
now and then, and at last she spread out her hand again and made another
snatch in the air. This time there were _two_ little shrieks and more
sounds of broken glass. "I wonder what they'll do next!" thought Alice.
"As for pulling me out of the window, I only wish they _could_!"

She waited for some time without hearing anything more. At last came a
rumbling of little cart-wheels and the sound of a good many voices all
talking together. She made out the words: "Where's the other ladder?
Bill's got the other--Bill! Here, Bill! Will the roof bear?--Who's to go
down the chimney?--Nay, _I_ sha'n't! _You_ do it! Here, Bill! The master
says you've got to go down the chimney!"

Alice drew her foot as far down the chimney as she could and waited till
she heard a little animal scratching and scrambling about in the chimney
close above her; then 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--What happened to you?"

Last came a little feeble, squeaking voice, "Well, I hardly know--No
more, thank ye. I'm better now--all I know is, something comes at me
like a Jack-in-the-box and up I goes like a sky-rocket!"

After a minute or two of silence, 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. 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."

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. 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.

[Illustration: "The Duchess tucked her arm affectionately into
Alice's."]

"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 suppose I
ought to eat or drink something or other, but the great question is
'What?'"

Alice looked all around her at the flowers and the blades of grass, but
she could 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. She stretched herself up on
tiptoe and peeped over the edge and her eyes immediately met those of a
large blue 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.

 It is at this time that the White Rabbit comes back and frantically searches for its fan and its gloves. Alice good-naturedly tries to help the Rabbit in searching for them. Very soon the Rabbit spots Alice, refers to her as Mary Ann, his house housekeeper and orders her to fetch him a pair of gloves and a fan. Alice in an effort to help him enters a house on which was engraved the words "W Rabbit". She enters the house and fetches a pair of gloves and a fan from the table and just as she is about to leave, spots a little bottle with no label on it. With the hop that it would help her grow large again, she drinks the contents. She is horrified when she realizes that she has grown so tall that she is incapable of getting out of the house. She is now so tall that one of her foot is up the chimney. By then the White Rabbit and Mary Ann are aware of the presence of a large being in their house. They try their best to get rid of it and are often silenced by the booming commands given by Alice. As part of the operation to get rid of Alice, the Rabbit sends in a shower of pebbles through the window. She is surprised to see that the pebbles were all turning into cakes. She eats one of the cakes and finally shrinks. Once she is small enough to get out of the door, she runs out of the house and finds herself amidst a crowd of little animals waiting outside for her. She runs and manages to escape from them. She finds herself in a thick wood where she encounters an enormous puppy. Alice has now grown so small that even a puppy seems "monstrous" to her. The puppy is friendly enough but Alice is terrified because of her miniscule appearance. Also the puppy keeps trampling on her, and so, after engaging the puppy in a game of sorts, she escapes from there and charges off till she drops down tired against a buttercup. Her major concern at present is to grow back to her original size. She looks around for something to eat or drink that would restore her to her original size. She finds a large mushroom growing near her and on stretching herself a bit she sees a caterpillar stretched out on the mushroom quietly smoking a large hookah, and taking not the least notice of her or of anything else.

