Bill

It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly

back again, and looking anxiously about as

it went, as if it had lost something; and

she 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, as she

went hunting about, and called out 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!'

And Alice was so much frightened that she

ran off at once in the direction it pointed

to, without trying to explain the mistake

it had made.

'He took me for his housemaid,' she said to

herself as she ran.

'How surprised he'll be when he finds out

who I am!

But I'd better take him his fan and gloves-

-that is, if I can find them.'

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.

'How queer it seems,' Alice said to

herself, 'to be going messages for a

rabbit!

I suppose Dinah'll be sending me on

messages next!'

And she began fancying the sort of thing

that would happen: '"Miss Alice!

Come here directly, and get ready for your

walk!"

"Coming in a minute, nurse!

But I've got to see that the mouse doesn't

get out."

Only I don't think,' Alice went on, 'that

they'd let Dinah stop in the house if it

began ordering people about like that!'

By this time she had found her way into a

tidy little room with a table in the

window, and on it (as she had hoped) 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 eye fell upon a little

bottle that stood near the looking-glass.

There was no label this time with the words

'DRINK ME,' but nevertheless she uncorked

it and put it to her lips.

'I know SOMETHING interesting is sure to

happen,' she said to herself, 'whenever I

eat or drink anything; so I'll just see

what this bottle does.

I do hope it'll make me grow large again,

for really I'm quite tired of being such a

tiny little thing!'

It did so indeed, and much sooner than she

had expected: 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, saying to

herself 'That's quite enough--I hope I

shan't grow any more--As it is, I can't get

out at the door--I do wish I hadn't drunk

quite so much!'

Alas! it was too late to wish that!

She went on growing, and growing, and very

soon had to kneel down on the floor: in

another minute there was not even room for

this, and she tried the effect of lying

down with one elbow against the door, and

the other arm curled round her head.

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?'

Luckily for Alice, the little magic bottle

had now had its full effect, and she grew

no larger: still it was very uncomfortable,

and, as there seemed to be no sort of

chance of her ever getting out of the room

again, no wonder she felt unhappy.

'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought

poor Alice, 'when one wasn't always growing

larger and smaller, and being ordered about

by mice and rabbits.

I almost wish I hadn't gone down that

rabbit-hole--and yet--and yet--it's rather

curious, you know, this sort of life!

I do wonder what CAN have happened to me!

When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied

that kind of thing never happened, and now

here I am in the middle of one!

There ought to be a book written about me,

that there ought!

And when I grow up, I'll write one--but I'm

grown up now,' she added in a sorrowful

tone; 'at least there's no room to grow up

any more HERE.'

'But then,' thought Alice, 'shall I NEVER

get any older than I am now?

That'll be a comfort, one way--never to be

an old woman--but then--always to have

lessons to learn!

Oh, I shouldn't like THAT!'

'Oh, you foolish Alice!' she answered

herself.

'How can you learn lessons in here?

Why, there's hardly room for YOU, and no

room at all for any lesson-books!'

And so she went on, taking first one side

and then the other, and making quite a

conversation of it altogether; but 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 the sort.

Next came an angry voice--the Rabbit's--

'Pat!