愛麗絲靠着姐姐坐在河岸邊很久了，由於沒有什麽事情可做，她開始感到厭倦，她一次又—次地瞧瞧姐姐正在讀的那本書，可是書裏沒有圖畫，也沒有對話，愛麗絲想：“要是一本書裏沒有圖畫和對話，那還有什麽意思呢？”
天熱得她非常睏，甚至迷糊了，但是愛麗絲還是認真地盤算着，做一隻雛菊花環的樂趣，能不能抵得上摘雛菊的麻煩呢？就在這時，突然一隻粉紅眼睛的白兔，貼着她身邊跑過去了。
愛麗絲並沒有感到奇怪，甚至於聽到兔子自言自語地說：“哦，親愛的，哦，親愛的，我太遲了。”愛麗絲也沒有感到離奇，雖然過後，她認為這事應該奇怪，可當時她的確感到很自然，但是兔於竟然從背心口袋裏襲裏掏出一塊懷錶看看，然後又匆匆忙忙跑了。這時，愛麗絲跳了起來，她突然想到：從來沒有見過穿着有口袋背心的兔子，更沒有見到過兔子還能從口袋裏拿出—塊表來，她好奇地穿過田野，緊緊地追趕那衹兔子，剛好看見兔子跳進了矮樹下面的一個大洞。
愛麗絲也緊跟着跳了進去，根本沒考慮怎麽再出來。
這個兔子洞開始像走廊，筆直地嚮前，後來就突然嚮下了，愛麗絲還沒有來得及站住，就掉進了—個深井裏。
也許是井太深了，也許是她自己感到下沉得太慢，因此，她有足夠的時間去東張西望，而且去猜測下一步會發生什麽事，首先，她往下看，想知道會掉到什麽地方。但是下面太黑了，什麽都看不見，於是，她就看四周的井壁，衹見井壁上排滿了碗櫥和書架，以及挂在釘子上的地圖和圖畫，她從一個架子上拿了一個罐頭，罐頭上寫着“桔子醬”，卻是空的，她很失望，她不敢把空罐頭扔下去，怕砸着下面的人，因此，在繼續往下掉的時候，她就把空罐頭放到另一個碗櫥裏去了。
“好啊，”愛麗絲想，“經過了這次鍛煉，我從樓梯上滾下來就不算回事。傢裏的人都會說我多麽勇敢啊，嘿，就是從屋頂上掉下來也沒什麽了不起，”——這點倒很可能是真的，屋頂上摔下來，會摔得說不出話的。
掉啊，掉啊，掉啊，難道永遠掉不到底了嗎？愛麗絲大聲說：“我很知道掉了多少英裏了，我一定已經靠近地球中心的一個地方啦！讓我想想：這就是說已經掉了大約四千英裏了，我想……”（你瞧，愛麗絲在學校裏已經學到了一點這類東西，雖然現在不是顯示知識的時機，因為沒一個人在聽她說話，但是這仍然是個很好的練習。）“……是的，大概就是這個距離。那麽，我現在究竟到了什麽經度和緯度了呢？”（愛麗絲不明白經度和緯度是什麽意思，可她認為這是挺時髦的字眼，說起來怪好聽的。）
不一會兒，她又說話了：“我想知道我會不會穿過地球，到那些頭朝下走路的人們那裏，這該多麽滑稽呀！我想這叫做‘對稱人’（19世紀中學地理教科書上流行個名洞，叫“對蹠人”，意思是說地球直徑兩端的人，腳心對着腳心。愛麗絲對“地球對面的人”的概念模糊，以為他們是“頭朝下”走路的，而且把“對蹠人”錯念成“對稱人”了。）吧？”這次她很高興沒人聽她說話，因為“對稱人”這個名詞似乎不十分正確。“我想我應該問他們這個國傢叫什麽名稱：太太，請問您知道這是新西蘭，還是澳大利亞？”（她說這話時，還試着行個屈膝禮，可是不成。你想想看，在空中掉下來時行這樣的屈膝禮，行嗎，）“如果我這樣問，人們一定會認為我是一個無知的小姑娘哩。不，永遠不能這樣問，也許我會看到它寫在哪兒的吧！”
掉啊，掉啊，掉啊，除此之外，沒別的事可幹了。因此，過一會兒愛麗絲又說話了：“我敢肯定，黛娜今晚一定非常想念我。”（黛娜是衹貓）“我希望他們別忘了午茶時給她準備一碟牛奶。黛娜，我親愛的，我多麽希望你也掉到這裏來，同我在一起呀，我怕空中沒有你吃的小老鼠，不過你可能捉到一隻蝙蝠，你要知道，它很像老鼠。可是貓吃不吃蝙蝠呢？”這時，愛麗絲開始瞌睡了，她睏得迷迷糊糊時還在說：“貓吃蝙蝠嗎？貓吃蝙蝠嗎？”有時又說成：“蝙蝠吃貓嗎？”這兩個問題她哪個也回答不出來，所以，她怎麽問都沒關係，這時候，她已經睡着了，開始做起夢來了。她夢見正同黛娜手拉着手走着，並且很認真地問：“黛娜，告訴我，你吃過蝙蝠嗎？，就在這時，突然“砰”地一聲，她掉到了一堆枯枝敗葉上了，總算掉到了底了！
愛麗絲一點兒也沒摔壞，她立即站起來，嚮上看看，黑洞洞的。朝前一看，是個很長的走廊，她又看見了那衹白兔正急急忙忙地朝前跑。這回可別錯過時機，愛麗絲像一陣風似地追了過去。她聽到兔子在拐彎時說：“哎呀，我的耳朵和鬍子呀，現在太遲了！”這時愛麗絲已經離兔子很近了，但是當她也趕到拐角，兔子卻不見了。她發現自己是在一個很長很低的大廳裏，屋頂上懸挂着一串燈，把大廳照亮了。
大廳四周都是門，全都鎖着，愛麗絲從這邊走到那邊，推一推，拉一拉，每扇門都打不開，她傷心地走到大廳中間，琢磨着該怎麽出去。
突然，她發現了一張三條腿的小桌，桌子是玻璃做的。桌上除了一把很小的金鑰匙，什麽也沒有，愛麗絲一下就想到這鑰匙可能是哪個門上的。可是，哎呀，要麽就是鎖太大了，要麽就是鑰匙太小了，哪個門也用不上。不過，在她繞第二圈時，突然發現剛纔沒註意到的一個低帳幕後面，有一扇約十五英寸高的小門。她用這個小金鑰匙往小門的鎖眼裏一插，太高興了，正合適。
愛麗絲打開了門，發現門外是一條小走廊，比老鼠洞還小，她跪下來，順着走廊望出去，見到一個從沒見過的美麗花園。她多想離開這個黑暗的大廳，到那些美麗的花圃和清涼的噴泉中去玩呀！可是那門框連腦袋都過不去，可憐的愛麗絲想：“哎，就算頭能過去，肩膀不跟着過去也沒用，我多麽希望縮成望遠鏡裏的小人呀（愛麗絲常常把望遠鏡倒着看，一切東西都變得又遠又小，所以她認為望遠鏡可以把人放大或縮小。），我想自己能變小的，衹要知道變的方法就行了。”你看，一連串稀奇古怪的事，使得愛麗絲認為沒有什麽事是不可能的了。看來，守在小門旁沒意思了，於是，她回到桌子邊，希望還能再找到一把鑰匙，至少也得找到一本教人變成望遠鏡裏小人的書，可這次，她發現桌上有一隻小瓶。愛麗絲說：“這小瓶剛纔確實不在這裏。”瓶口上係着一張小紙條，上面印着兩個很漂亮的大字：“喝我”。
說“喝我”倒不錯，可是聰明的小愛麗絲不會忙着去喝的。她說：“不行，我得先看看，上面有沒有寫着‘毒藥’兩個字。”因為她聽過一些很精彩的小故事，關於孩子們怎樣被燒傷、被野獸吃掉，以及其它一些令人不愉快的事情，所有這些，都是因為這些孩子們沒有記住大人的話，例如：握撥火棍時間太久就會把手燒壞；小刀割手指就會出血，等等。愛麗絲知道喝了寫着“毒藥”瓶裏的藥水，遲早會受害的。
然而瓶子上沒有“毒藥”字樣，所以愛麗絲冒險地嘗了嘗，感到非常好吃，它混合着櫻桃餡餅、奶油蛋糕、菠蘿、烤火雞、牛奶糖、熱奶油面包的味道。愛麗絲一口氣就把一瓶喝光了。
“多麽奇怪的感覺呀！”愛麗絲說，“我一定變成望遠鏡裏的小人了。”
的確是這樣，她高興得眉飛色舞，現在她衹有十英寸高了，已經可以到那個可愛的花園裏去了。不過，她又等了幾分鐘，看看會不會繼續縮小下去。想到這點，她有點不安了。“究竟會怎麽收場呢？”愛麗絲對自己說，“或許會像蠟燭的火苗那樣，全部縮沒了。那麽我會怎麽樣呢？”她又努力試着想象蠟燭滅了後的火焰會是個什麽樣幾。因為她從來沒有見過那樣的東西。
過了一小會，好像不會再發生什麽事情了，她决定立刻到花園去。可是，哎喲！可憐的愛麗絲！她走到門口，發覺忘拿了那把小金鑰匙。在回到桌子前準備再拿的時候，卻發現自己已經夠不着鑰匙，她衹能通過玻璃桌面清楚地看到它，她盡力攀着桌腿嚮上爬，可是桌腿太滑了，她一次又一次地溜了下來，弄得她精疲力竭。於是，這個可憐的小傢夥坐在地上哭了起來。
“起來，哭是沒用的！”愛麗絲嚴厲地對自己說，“限你—，分鐘內就停止哭！”她經常愛給自己下個命令（雖然她很少聽從這種命令），有時甚至把自己駡哭了。記得有一次她同自己比賽槌球，由於她騙了自己，她就打了自己一記耳光，這個小孩很喜歡裝成兩個人，“但是現在還裝什麽兩個人呢？”可憐的小愛麗絲想，“唉！現在我小得連做一個像樣的人都不夠了。”
不一會兒，她的眼光落在桌子下面的一個小玻璃盒子上。打開一看，裏面有塊很小的點心，點心上用葡萄幹精緻地嵌着“吃我”兩個字，“好，我就吃它，”愛麗絲說，“如果它使我變大，我就能夠着鑰匙了；如果它使我變得更小，我就可以從門縫下面爬過去，反正不管怎樣，我都可以到那個花園裏去了。因此無論怎麽變，我都不在乎。”
她衹吃了一小口，就焦急地問自己：“是哪一種，變大還是變小？”她用手摸摸頭頂，想知道變成哪種樣子。可是非常奇怪，一點沒變，說實話，這本來是吃點心的正常現象，可是愛麗絲已經習慣了稀奇古怪的事了，生活中的正常事情倒顯得難以理解了。
於是，她又吃開了，很塊就把一塊點心吃完了。
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, `Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT- POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was labelled `ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.
`Well!' thought Alice to herself, `after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!' (Which was very likely true.)
Down, down, down. Would the fall NEVER come to an end! `I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. `I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think--' (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a VERY good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) `--yes, that's about the right distance--but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?' (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)
Presently she began again. `I wonder if I shall fall right THROUGH the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think--' (she was rather glad there WAS no one listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) `--but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?' (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke--fancy CURTSEYING as you're falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) `And what an ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.'
Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. `Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!' (Dinah was the cat.) `I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, `Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, `Do bats eat cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question, it didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly, `Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?' when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.
Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, `Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!' She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof.
There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how 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 it 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 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 histories 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 you 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, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off.
* * * * * * *
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* * * * * * *
`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 through 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 is 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.
`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 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.
天熱得她非常睏，甚至迷糊了，但是愛麗絲還是認真地盤算着，做一隻雛菊花環的樂趣，能不能抵得上摘雛菊的麻煩呢？就在這時，突然一隻粉紅眼睛的白兔，貼着她身邊跑過去了。
愛麗絲並沒有感到奇怪，甚至於聽到兔子自言自語地說：“哦，親愛的，哦，親愛的，我太遲了。”愛麗絲也沒有感到離奇，雖然過後，她認為這事應該奇怪，可當時她的確感到很自然，但是兔於竟然從背心口袋裏襲裏掏出一塊懷錶看看，然後又匆匆忙忙跑了。這時，愛麗絲跳了起來，她突然想到：從來沒有見過穿着有口袋背心的兔子，更沒有見到過兔子還能從口袋裏拿出—塊表來，她好奇地穿過田野，緊緊地追趕那衹兔子，剛好看見兔子跳進了矮樹下面的一個大洞。
愛麗絲也緊跟着跳了進去，根本沒考慮怎麽再出來。
這個兔子洞開始像走廊，筆直地嚮前，後來就突然嚮下了，愛麗絲還沒有來得及站住，就掉進了—個深井裏。
也許是井太深了，也許是她自己感到下沉得太慢，因此，她有足夠的時間去東張西望，而且去猜測下一步會發生什麽事，首先，她往下看，想知道會掉到什麽地方。但是下面太黑了，什麽都看不見，於是，她就看四周的井壁，衹見井壁上排滿了碗櫥和書架，以及挂在釘子上的地圖和圖畫，她從一個架子上拿了一個罐頭，罐頭上寫着“桔子醬”，卻是空的，她很失望，她不敢把空罐頭扔下去，怕砸着下面的人，因此，在繼續往下掉的時候，她就把空罐頭放到另一個碗櫥裏去了。
“好啊，”愛麗絲想，“經過了這次鍛煉，我從樓梯上滾下來就不算回事。傢裏的人都會說我多麽勇敢啊，嘿，就是從屋頂上掉下來也沒什麽了不起，”——這點倒很可能是真的，屋頂上摔下來，會摔得說不出話的。
掉啊，掉啊，掉啊，難道永遠掉不到底了嗎？愛麗絲大聲說：“我很知道掉了多少英裏了，我一定已經靠近地球中心的一個地方啦！讓我想想：這就是說已經掉了大約四千英裏了，我想……”（你瞧，愛麗絲在學校裏已經學到了一點這類東西，雖然現在不是顯示知識的時機，因為沒一個人在聽她說話，但是這仍然是個很好的練習。）“……是的，大概就是這個距離。那麽，我現在究竟到了什麽經度和緯度了呢？”（愛麗絲不明白經度和緯度是什麽意思，可她認為這是挺時髦的字眼，說起來怪好聽的。）
不一會兒，她又說話了：“我想知道我會不會穿過地球，到那些頭朝下走路的人們那裏，這該多麽滑稽呀！我想這叫做‘對稱人’（19世紀中學地理教科書上流行個名洞，叫“對蹠人”，意思是說地球直徑兩端的人，腳心對着腳心。愛麗絲對“地球對面的人”的概念模糊，以為他們是“頭朝下”走路的，而且把“對蹠人”錯念成“對稱人”了。）吧？”這次她很高興沒人聽她說話，因為“對稱人”這個名詞似乎不十分正確。“我想我應該問他們這個國傢叫什麽名稱：太太，請問您知道這是新西蘭，還是澳大利亞？”（她說這話時，還試着行個屈膝禮，可是不成。你想想看，在空中掉下來時行這樣的屈膝禮，行嗎，）“如果我這樣問，人們一定會認為我是一個無知的小姑娘哩。不，永遠不能這樣問，也許我會看到它寫在哪兒的吧！”
掉啊，掉啊，掉啊，除此之外，沒別的事可幹了。因此，過一會兒愛麗絲又說話了：“我敢肯定，黛娜今晚一定非常想念我。”（黛娜是衹貓）“我希望他們別忘了午茶時給她準備一碟牛奶。黛娜，我親愛的，我多麽希望你也掉到這裏來，同我在一起呀，我怕空中沒有你吃的小老鼠，不過你可能捉到一隻蝙蝠，你要知道，它很像老鼠。可是貓吃不吃蝙蝠呢？”這時，愛麗絲開始瞌睡了，她睏得迷迷糊糊時還在說：“貓吃蝙蝠嗎？貓吃蝙蝠嗎？”有時又說成：“蝙蝠吃貓嗎？”這兩個問題她哪個也回答不出來，所以，她怎麽問都沒關係，這時候，她已經睡着了，開始做起夢來了。她夢見正同黛娜手拉着手走着，並且很認真地問：“黛娜，告訴我，你吃過蝙蝠嗎？，就在這時，突然“砰”地一聲，她掉到了一堆枯枝敗葉上了，總算掉到了底了！
愛麗絲一點兒也沒摔壞，她立即站起來，嚮上看看，黑洞洞的。朝前一看，是個很長的走廊，她又看見了那衹白兔正急急忙忙地朝前跑。這回可別錯過時機，愛麗絲像一陣風似地追了過去。她聽到兔子在拐彎時說：“哎呀，我的耳朵和鬍子呀，現在太遲了！”這時愛麗絲已經離兔子很近了，但是當她也趕到拐角，兔子卻不見了。她發現自己是在一個很長很低的大廳裏，屋頂上懸挂着一串燈，把大廳照亮了。
大廳四周都是門，全都鎖着，愛麗絲從這邊走到那邊，推一推，拉一拉，每扇門都打不開，她傷心地走到大廳中間，琢磨着該怎麽出去。
突然，她發現了一張三條腿的小桌，桌子是玻璃做的。桌上除了一把很小的金鑰匙，什麽也沒有，愛麗絲一下就想到這鑰匙可能是哪個門上的。可是，哎呀，要麽就是鎖太大了，要麽就是鑰匙太小了，哪個門也用不上。不過，在她繞第二圈時，突然發現剛纔沒註意到的一個低帳幕後面，有一扇約十五英寸高的小門。她用這個小金鑰匙往小門的鎖眼裏一插，太高興了，正合適。
愛麗絲打開了門，發現門外是一條小走廊，比老鼠洞還小，她跪下來，順着走廊望出去，見到一個從沒見過的美麗花園。她多想離開這個黑暗的大廳，到那些美麗的花圃和清涼的噴泉中去玩呀！可是那門框連腦袋都過不去，可憐的愛麗絲想：“哎，就算頭能過去，肩膀不跟着過去也沒用，我多麽希望縮成望遠鏡裏的小人呀（愛麗絲常常把望遠鏡倒着看，一切東西都變得又遠又小，所以她認為望遠鏡可以把人放大或縮小。），我想自己能變小的，衹要知道變的方法就行了。”你看，一連串稀奇古怪的事，使得愛麗絲認為沒有什麽事是不可能的了。看來，守在小門旁沒意思了，於是，她回到桌子邊，希望還能再找到一把鑰匙，至少也得找到一本教人變成望遠鏡裏小人的書，可這次，她發現桌上有一隻小瓶。愛麗絲說：“這小瓶剛纔確實不在這裏。”瓶口上係着一張小紙條，上面印着兩個很漂亮的大字：“喝我”。
說“喝我”倒不錯，可是聰明的小愛麗絲不會忙着去喝的。她說：“不行，我得先看看，上面有沒有寫着‘毒藥’兩個字。”因為她聽過一些很精彩的小故事，關於孩子們怎樣被燒傷、被野獸吃掉，以及其它一些令人不愉快的事情，所有這些，都是因為這些孩子們沒有記住大人的話，例如：握撥火棍時間太久就會把手燒壞；小刀割手指就會出血，等等。愛麗絲知道喝了寫着“毒藥”瓶裏的藥水，遲早會受害的。
然而瓶子上沒有“毒藥”字樣，所以愛麗絲冒險地嘗了嘗，感到非常好吃，它混合着櫻桃餡餅、奶油蛋糕、菠蘿、烤火雞、牛奶糖、熱奶油面包的味道。愛麗絲一口氣就把一瓶喝光了。
“多麽奇怪的感覺呀！”愛麗絲說，“我一定變成望遠鏡裏的小人了。”
的確是這樣，她高興得眉飛色舞，現在她衹有十英寸高了，已經可以到那個可愛的花園裏去了。不過，她又等了幾分鐘，看看會不會繼續縮小下去。想到這點，她有點不安了。“究竟會怎麽收場呢？”愛麗絲對自己說，“或許會像蠟燭的火苗那樣，全部縮沒了。那麽我會怎麽樣呢？”她又努力試着想象蠟燭滅了後的火焰會是個什麽樣幾。因為她從來沒有見過那樣的東西。
過了一小會，好像不會再發生什麽事情了，她决定立刻到花園去。可是，哎喲！可憐的愛麗絲！她走到門口，發覺忘拿了那把小金鑰匙。在回到桌子前準備再拿的時候，卻發現自己已經夠不着鑰匙，她衹能通過玻璃桌面清楚地看到它，她盡力攀着桌腿嚮上爬，可是桌腿太滑了，她一次又一次地溜了下來，弄得她精疲力竭。於是，這個可憐的小傢夥坐在地上哭了起來。
“起來，哭是沒用的！”愛麗絲嚴厲地對自己說，“限你—，分鐘內就停止哭！”她經常愛給自己下個命令（雖然她很少聽從這種命令），有時甚至把自己駡哭了。記得有一次她同自己比賽槌球，由於她騙了自己，她就打了自己一記耳光，這個小孩很喜歡裝成兩個人，“但是現在還裝什麽兩個人呢？”可憐的小愛麗絲想，“唉！現在我小得連做一個像樣的人都不夠了。”
不一會兒，她的眼光落在桌子下面的一個小玻璃盒子上。打開一看，裏面有塊很小的點心，點心上用葡萄幹精緻地嵌着“吃我”兩個字，“好，我就吃它，”愛麗絲說，“如果它使我變大，我就能夠着鑰匙了；如果它使我變得更小，我就可以從門縫下面爬過去，反正不管怎樣，我都可以到那個花園裏去了。因此無論怎麽變，我都不在乎。”
她衹吃了一小口，就焦急地問自己：“是哪一種，變大還是變小？”她用手摸摸頭頂，想知道變成哪種樣子。可是非常奇怪，一點沒變，說實話，這本來是吃點心的正常現象，可是愛麗絲已經習慣了稀奇古怪的事了，生活中的正常事情倒顯得難以理解了。
於是，她又吃開了，很塊就把一塊點心吃完了。
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, `Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT- POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was labelled `ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.
`Well!' thought Alice to herself, `after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!' (Which was very likely true.)
Down, down, down. Would the fall NEVER come to an end! `I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. `I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think--' (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a VERY good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) `--yes, that's about the right distance--but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?' (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)
Presently she began again. `I wonder if I shall fall right THROUGH the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think--' (she was rather glad there WAS no one listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) `--but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?' (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke--fancy CURTSEYING as you're falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) `And what an ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.'
Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. `Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!' (Dinah was the cat.) `I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, `Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, `Do bats eat cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question, it didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly, `Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?' when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.
Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, `Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!' She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof.
There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how 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 it 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 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 histories 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 you 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, toffee, 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 through 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 is 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.
`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 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.
“奇怪啊奇怪，”愛麗絲喊道，她那麽驚奇，霎時，竟說不成話了，“現在我一定變成最大的望遠鏡裏的人了。再見了，我的雙腳！”她俯視自己的腳，遠得快看不見了。“哦，我的可憐的小腳喲！誰再給你們穿鞋和係鞋帶呢，親愛的，我可不能了，我離你們太遠了，沒法再照顧你們了，以後你們衹好自己照顧自己吧！……但是我必須對它們好一些，”愛麗絲又想道，“否則它們會不願走到我想去的地方的，對啦，每次聖誕節我一定要送它們一雙新的長統靴。”
她繼續盤算該怎麽送禮：“我得把禮物打成包裹寄給它們，”她想，“呀，多滑稽，給自己的腳寄禮物鼠這地址寫起來可太離奇了：
壁爐邊擱腳攔桿上
愛麗絲的右腳收
愛麗絲寄
“哦，親愛的，我說的什麽廢話呀！”就在這一剎那，她的頭撞到了大廳的屋頂上。她現在至少有九英尺高了，她急忙拿起小金鑰匙嚮小花園的門跑去。
可憐的愛麗絲！現在最多衹能側身躺在地下，用一隻眼睛往花園裏望，更沒有可能進去了，於是她又哭了。
“你不害澡嗎？”愛麗絲對自己說，“像你這麽大的姑娘（說得很對），還要哭。馬上停止，我命令你！”但她還不停地哭，足足掉了一桶眼淚。她還繼續哭，直到身邊成了個大池塘，有四英尺深，半個大廳都變成池塘了。
過了一會兒，她聽到遠處輕微的腳步聲，她急忙擦幹眼淚，看看誰來了。原來那衹小白兔又回來了，打扮得漂漂亮亮的，一隻手裏本着一雙白羊羔皮手套，另一隻手裏拿着一把大扇子，正急急忙忙地小跑着過來。小白兔一邊走．一邊喃喃自語地說：“哦，公爵夫人，公爵夫人！唉！假如我害她久等了，她可別生氣呵！”愛麗絲很希望來個人幫助自己，因此見到小白兔很失望。但是在小白兔走近時，她還是怯生生地小聲說：“勞駕，先生……”這可把兔子嚇了一跳，扔掉了白羔皮手套和扇子，拼命地跑進暗處去了。
愛麗絲拾起了扇子和手套。這時屋裏很熱，她就一邊搧着扇子，一邊自言自語地說：“親愛的，親愛的，今天可淨是怪事，昨天還是那麽正常，是不是夜裏發生的變化？讓我想想：我早晨起來時是不是還是我自己，我想起來了，早晨就覺得有點不對頭。但是，要是我不是自己的話，那麽我能是誰呢，唉！這可真是個謎啊！”於是她就挨個兒地去想和她相同年齡的女孩子，她是變成了她們中的哪一個了？
“我敢說，我不是愛達，”愛麗絲說，“因為她是長長的捲發，而我的根本不捲。我肯定不是瑪貝爾，因為我知道各種各祥的事情，而她，哼！她什麽也不知道。而且，她是她，我是我，哎喲！親愛的，把我迷惑住了，真叫人傷腦筋。我試試看，還記得不自己得過去知道的事情。讓我想一想四乘五是十二，四乘六是十三，四乘七……唉，這樣背下去永遠到不了二十；況且乘法表也沒大意思。讓我試試地理知識看：倫敦是巴黎的首都，而巴黎是羅馬的首都，羅馬是……不，不，全錯了。我一定，一定已經變成了瑪貝爾了。讓我再試試背《小鰐魚怎樣……》。”於是她把手交叉地放在膝蓋上，就像背課文那樣，一本正經地背起來了。她的聲音嘶啞、古怪，吐字也和平時不一樣：
小鰐魚怎樣保養
它閃亮的尾巴，
把尼羅河水灌進
每一片金色的鱗甲。
它笑得多麽快樂，
伸開爪子的姿勢多麽文雅，
它在歡迎那些小魚
遊進它溫柔微笑着的嘴巴。
“我相信背錯了。”可憐的愛麗絲一邊說着，一邊又掉下了眼淚：“我一定真的成了瑪貝爾了，我得住在破房子裏，什麽玩具也沒有，還得學那麽多的功課。不行！我拿定主意了，如果我是瑪貝爾，我就呆在這井下，他們把頭伸到井口說：‘上來吧！親愛的！”我衹往上問他們：‘你們先得告訴我，我是誰，如果變成我喜歡的人，我就上來，如果不是，我就一直呆在這裏，除非我再變成什麽人’……可是，親愛的！”愛麗絲突然哭起來：“我真想讓他們來叫我上去呀！實在不願意孤零零地呆在這兒了。”
她說話時，無意中看了一下自己的手，見到一隻手上戴了小白兔的白羊羔皮手套，她奇怪極了，“這怎麽搞的？”她想，“我一定又變小了，”她起來步到桌子邊，量一量自己，正像她猜測的那樣，她現在大約衹有二英寸高了，而且還在迅速地縮下去，她很快發現是拿着的那把扇子在作怪，於是她趕緊扔掉扇子，總算快，要不就縮得沒有了。
“好險呀！”愛麗絲說。她真的嚇壞了，但總算自己還存在，因此很高興，“現在，該去花園了！”她飛快地跪到小門那兒，但是，哎喲，小門又鎖上了，小金鑰匙像從前一樣仍在玻璃桌子上。“現在更糟糕了，”可憐的小愛麗絲想，“因為我還沒有這樣小過，從來沒有重我該說這太糟了！太糟了！”
她說話時，突然滑倒了，“撲通”一聲，鹹鹹的水已經淹到她的下巴了。她第一個念頭是掉進海裏了。她對自己說：“那麽我可以坐火車回去了，”——愛麗絲到海邊去過，看到海濱有許多車，孩子們在沙灘上用木鏟挖洞玩。還有一排出租的住房，住房後面是個火車站——然而不久，她就明白了，自己是在一個眼淚的池塘裏，這是她九英尺高的時候流出來的眼淚。
“但願我剛纔沒哭得這麽厲害！”愛麗絲說話時來回遊着，想找條路遊出去，現在我受報應了，我的眼沼快要把自己淹死啦！這又是樁怪事，說真的，今天盡是怪事！”
就在這時，她聽到不遠的地方有劃水聲，就嚮前遊去，想看看是什麽，起初，她以為這一定是衹海象或者河馬。然而，她一想起自己是多麽小的時候，就立即明白了，這不過是衹老鼠，是像自己一樣滑進水裏來的。
“它來有什麽用處呢？”愛麗絲想，“同一隻老鼠講話嗎？這井底下的事情都是那麽奇怪，也許它會說話的，不管怎樣，試試也沒害處，”於是，愛麗絲就說，“喂，老鼠！你知道從池塘裏出去的路嗎？我已經遊得很纍了。喂，老鼠！”愛麗絲認為這是同老鼠談話的方式，以前，她沒有做過這種事，可她記得哥哥的《拉丁文語法》中有：“一隻老鼠……一隻老鼠……喂，老鼠！”現在這老鼠狐疑地看着她，好像還把一隻小眼睛嚮她眨了眨，但沒說話。
“也許它不懂英語，”愛麗絲想，“她是同徵服者威廉（威廉（1027或1028-1087）原為諾曼第（現法國的諾曼第半島）公爵，後來徵服並統一了英國）一起來的，”（儘管愛麗絲有些歷史知識，可搞不清這些事情已經多久了。）於是，她又用法語說：“我的貓在哪裏，”這是她的法文課本的第一句話。老鼠一聽這話，突然跳出水面，嚇得渾身發抖，愛麗絲怕傷害了這個可憐的小動物的感情，趕快說：“請原諒我！我忘了你不喜歡貓。”
“不喜歡貓！”老鼠激動而尖聲地喊着，“假如你是我的話，你喜歡貓嗎？”
“也許不，”愛麗絲撫慰着說，“別生我的氣了。可是我還是希望你能夠看到我的貓——，黛娜，衹要你看到她，就會喜歡貓了，她是一個多麽可愛而又安靜的小東西呀。”愛麗絲一面懶散地遊着，一面自言自語地繼續說，“她坐在火爐邊打起呼嚕來真好玩，還不時舔舔爪子，洗洗臉，摸起來綿軟得可愛。還有，她抓起老鼠來真是個好樣的……，哦，請原諒我。”這次真把老鼠氣壞了。愛麗絲又喊道：“如果你不高興的話，咱們就不說她了。”
“還說‘咱們’呢！”老鼠喊着，連尾巴梢都發抖了，“好像我願意說似的！我們傢族都仇恨貓，這種可惡的、下賤的、粗鄙的東西！再別讓我聽到這個名字了！”
“我不說了，真的！”愛麗絲說着，急忙改變了話題，“你……喜歡……喜歡……狗嗎？”老鼠沒回答，於是，愛麗絲熱心地說了下去，“告訴你，我傢不遠有一隻小狗，—衹眼晴明亮的小獵狗，你知道，它長着那麽長的棕色捲毛。它還會接住你扔的東西，又會坐起來討吃的，還會玩各式各樣的把戲，它是一個農民的，你可知道，那個農民說它真頂用，要值一百英鎊哪！說它還能殺掉所有的老鼠……哦，親愛的！”愛麗絲傷心地說，“我怕又惹你生氣了。”老鼠已經拼命遊遠了，它遊開時，還弄得池塘的水一陣波動。
愛麗絲跟在老鼠的後面柔聲細氣地招呼它：“老鼠啊，親愛的，你還是回來吧，你不喜歡的話，咱們再也不談貓和狗了！”老鼠聽了這話，就轉過身慢慢地嚮她遊來，它臉色蒼白（愛麗絲想一定是氣成這樣的），用低而顫抖的聲音說：“讓我們上岸去吧，然後我將把我的歷史告訴你，這樣你就會明白我為什麽也恨貓和狗了。”
真是該走了，因為池塘裏已經有了一大群鳥獸，有一隻鴨子、—衹渡渡鳥（一種現已絶種的鳥，原産非洲毛裏求斯。）、一隻鸚鵡，一隻小鷹和一些稀奇古怪的動物。愛麗絲領着路，和這群鳥獸一起自岸邊遊去。
And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it. `They must go by the carrier,' she thought; `and how funny it'll seem, sending presents to one's own feet! And how odd the directions will look!
ALICE'S RIGHT FOOT, ESQ. HEARTHRUG, NEAR THE FENDER, (WITH ALICE'S LOVE).
Oh dear, what nonsense I'm talking!'
Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall: in fact she was now more than nine feet high, and she at once took up the little golden key and hurried off to the garden door.
Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one side, to look through into the garden with one eye; but to get through was more hopeless than ever: she sat down and began to cry again.
`You ought to be ashamed of yourself,' said Alice, `a great girl like you,' (she might well say this), `to go on crying in this way! Stop this moment, I tell you!' But she went on all the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool all round her, about four inches deep and reaching half down the hall.
After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the distance, and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming. It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other: he came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to himself as he came, `Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting!' Alice felt so desperate that she was ready to ask help of any one; so, when the Rabbit came near her, she began, in a low, timid voice, `If you please, sir--' The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid gloves and the fan, and skurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go.
Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: `Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, THAT'S the great puzzle!' And she began thinking over all the children she knew that were of the same age as herself, to see if she could have been changed for any of them.
`I'm sure I'm not Ada,' she said, `for her hair goes in such long ringlets, and mine doesn't go in ringlets at all; and I'm sure I can't be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she, oh! she knows such a very little! Besides, SHE'S she, and I'm I, and--oh dear, how puzzling it all is! I'll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is--oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the Multiplication Table doesn't signify: let's try Geography. London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and Rome--no, THAT'S all wrong, I'm certain! I must have been changed for Mabel! I'll try and say "How doth the little--"' and she crossed her hands on her lap as if she were saying lessons, and began to repeat it, but her voice sounded hoarse and strange, and the words did not come the same as they used to do:--
`How doth the little crocodile Improve his shining tail, And pour the waters of the Nile On every golden scale!
`How cheerfully he seems to grin, How neatly spread his claws, And welcome little fishes in With gently smiling jaws!'
`I'm sure those are not the right words,' said poor Alice, and her eyes filled with tears again as she went on, `I must be Mabel after all, and I shall have to go and live in that poky little house, and have next to no toys to play with, and oh! ever so many lessons to learn! No, I've made up my mind about it; if I'm Mabel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no use their putting their heads down and saying "Come up again, dear!" I shall only look up and say "Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I'll come up: if not, I'll stay down here till I'm somebody else"--but, oh dear!' cried Alice, with a sudden burst of tears, `I do wish they WOULD put their heads down! I am so VERY tired of being all alone here!'
As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was surprised to see that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little white kid gloves while she was talking. `How CAN I have done that?' she thought. `I must be growing small again.' She got up and went to the table to measure herself by it, and found that, as nearly as she could guess, she was now about two feet high, and was going on shrinking rapidly: she soon found out that the cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped it hastily, just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether.
`That WAS a narrow escape!' said Alice, a good deal frightened at the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence; `and now for the garden!' and she ran with all speed back to the little door: but, alas! the little door was shut again, and the little golden key was lying on the glass table as before, `and things are worse than ever,' thought the poor child, `for I never was so small as this before, never! And I declare it's too bad, that it is!'
As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. Her first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea, `and in that case I can go back by railway,' she said to herself. (Alice had been to the seaside once in her life, and had come to the general conclusion, that wherever you go to on the English coast you find a number of bathing machines in the sea, some children digging in the sand with wooden spades, then a row of lodging houses, and behind them a railway station.) However, she soon made out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine feet high.
`I wish I hadn't cried so much!' said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. `I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That WILL be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.'
Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little way off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was: at first she thought it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she was now, and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped in like herself.
`Would it be of any use, now,' thought Alice, `to speak to this mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think very likely it can talk: at any rate, there's no harm in trying.' So she began: `O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!' (Alice thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse: she had never done such a thing before, but she remembered having seen in her brother's Latin Grammar, `A mouse--of a mouse--to a mouse--a mouse--O mouse!' The Mouse looked at her rather inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but it said nothing.
`Perhaps it doesn't understand English,' thought Alice; `I daresay it's a French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror.' (For, with all her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion how long ago anything had happened.) So she began again: `Ou est ma chatte?' which was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. `Oh, I beg your pardon!' cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor animal's feelings. `I quite forgot you didn't like cats.'
`Not like cats!' cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice. `Would YOU like cats if you were me?'
`Well, perhaps not,' said Alice in a soothing tone: `don't be angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah: I think you'd take a fancy to cats if you could only see her. She is such a dear quiet thing,' Alice went on, half to herself, as she swam lazily about in the pool, `and she sits purring so nicely by the fire, licking her paws and washing her face--and she is such a nice soft thing to nurse--and she's such a capital one for catching mice--oh, I beg your pardon!' cried Alice again, for this time the Mouse was bristling all over, and she felt certain it must be really offended. `We won't talk about her any more if you'd rather not.'
`We indeed!' cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end of his tail. `As if I would talk on such a subject! Our family always HATED cats: nasty, low, vulgar things! Don't let me hear the name again!'
`I won't indeed!' said Alice, in a great hurry to change the subject of conversation. `Are you--are you fond--of--of dogs?' The Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly: `There is such a nice little dog near our house I should like to show you! A little bright-eyed terrier, you know, with oh, such long curly brown hair! And it'll fetch things when you throw them, and it'll sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts of things--I can't remember half of them--and it belongs to a farmer, you know, and he says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds! He says it kills all the rats and--oh dear!' cried Alice in a sorrowful tone, `I'm afraid I've offended it again!' For the Mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it could go, and making quite a commotion in the pool as it went.
So she called softly after it, `Mouse dear! Do come back again, and we won't talk about cats or dogs either, if you don't like them!' When the Mouse heard this, it turned round and swam slowly back to her: its face was quite pale (with passion, Alice thought), and it said in a low trembling voice, `Let us get to the shore, and then I'll tell you my history, and you'll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.'
It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with the birds and animals that had fallen into it: there were a Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures. Alice led the way, and the whole party swam to the shore.
她繼續盤算該怎麽送禮：“我得把禮物打成包裹寄給它們，”她想，“呀，多滑稽，給自己的腳寄禮物鼠這地址寫起來可太離奇了：
壁爐邊擱腳攔桿上
愛麗絲的右腳收
愛麗絲寄
“哦，親愛的，我說的什麽廢話呀！”就在這一剎那，她的頭撞到了大廳的屋頂上。她現在至少有九英尺高了，她急忙拿起小金鑰匙嚮小花園的門跑去。
可憐的愛麗絲！現在最多衹能側身躺在地下，用一隻眼睛往花園裏望，更沒有可能進去了，於是她又哭了。
“你不害澡嗎？”愛麗絲對自己說，“像你這麽大的姑娘（說得很對），還要哭。馬上停止，我命令你！”但她還不停地哭，足足掉了一桶眼淚。她還繼續哭，直到身邊成了個大池塘，有四英尺深，半個大廳都變成池塘了。
過了一會兒，她聽到遠處輕微的腳步聲，她急忙擦幹眼淚，看看誰來了。原來那衹小白兔又回來了，打扮得漂漂亮亮的，一隻手裏本着一雙白羊羔皮手套，另一隻手裏拿着一把大扇子，正急急忙忙地小跑着過來。小白兔一邊走．一邊喃喃自語地說：“哦，公爵夫人，公爵夫人！唉！假如我害她久等了，她可別生氣呵！”愛麗絲很希望來個人幫助自己，因此見到小白兔很失望。但是在小白兔走近時，她還是怯生生地小聲說：“勞駕，先生……”這可把兔子嚇了一跳，扔掉了白羔皮手套和扇子，拼命地跑進暗處去了。
愛麗絲拾起了扇子和手套。這時屋裏很熱，她就一邊搧着扇子，一邊自言自語地說：“親愛的，親愛的，今天可淨是怪事，昨天還是那麽正常，是不是夜裏發生的變化？讓我想想：我早晨起來時是不是還是我自己，我想起來了，早晨就覺得有點不對頭。但是，要是我不是自己的話，那麽我能是誰呢，唉！這可真是個謎啊！”於是她就挨個兒地去想和她相同年齡的女孩子，她是變成了她們中的哪一個了？
“我敢說，我不是愛達，”愛麗絲說，“因為她是長長的捲發，而我的根本不捲。我肯定不是瑪貝爾，因為我知道各種各祥的事情，而她，哼！她什麽也不知道。而且，她是她，我是我，哎喲！親愛的，把我迷惑住了，真叫人傷腦筋。我試試看，還記得不自己得過去知道的事情。讓我想一想四乘五是十二，四乘六是十三，四乘七……唉，這樣背下去永遠到不了二十；況且乘法表也沒大意思。讓我試試地理知識看：倫敦是巴黎的首都，而巴黎是羅馬的首都，羅馬是……不，不，全錯了。我一定，一定已經變成了瑪貝爾了。讓我再試試背《小鰐魚怎樣……》。”於是她把手交叉地放在膝蓋上，就像背課文那樣，一本正經地背起來了。她的聲音嘶啞、古怪，吐字也和平時不一樣：
小鰐魚怎樣保養
它閃亮的尾巴，
把尼羅河水灌進
每一片金色的鱗甲。
它笑得多麽快樂，
伸開爪子的姿勢多麽文雅，
它在歡迎那些小魚
遊進它溫柔微笑着的嘴巴。
“我相信背錯了。”可憐的愛麗絲一邊說着，一邊又掉下了眼淚：“我一定真的成了瑪貝爾了，我得住在破房子裏，什麽玩具也沒有，還得學那麽多的功課。不行！我拿定主意了，如果我是瑪貝爾，我就呆在這井下，他們把頭伸到井口說：‘上來吧！親愛的！”我衹往上問他們：‘你們先得告訴我，我是誰，如果變成我喜歡的人，我就上來，如果不是，我就一直呆在這裏，除非我再變成什麽人’……可是，親愛的！”愛麗絲突然哭起來：“我真想讓他們來叫我上去呀！實在不願意孤零零地呆在這兒了。”
她說話時，無意中看了一下自己的手，見到一隻手上戴了小白兔的白羊羔皮手套，她奇怪極了，“這怎麽搞的？”她想，“我一定又變小了，”她起來步到桌子邊，量一量自己，正像她猜測的那樣，她現在大約衹有二英寸高了，而且還在迅速地縮下去，她很快發現是拿着的那把扇子在作怪，於是她趕緊扔掉扇子，總算快，要不就縮得沒有了。
“好險呀！”愛麗絲說。她真的嚇壞了，但總算自己還存在，因此很高興，“現在，該去花園了！”她飛快地跪到小門那兒，但是，哎喲，小門又鎖上了，小金鑰匙像從前一樣仍在玻璃桌子上。“現在更糟糕了，”可憐的小愛麗絲想，“因為我還沒有這樣小過，從來沒有重我該說這太糟了！太糟了！”
她說話時，突然滑倒了，“撲通”一聲，鹹鹹的水已經淹到她的下巴了。她第一個念頭是掉進海裏了。她對自己說：“那麽我可以坐火車回去了，”——愛麗絲到海邊去過，看到海濱有許多車，孩子們在沙灘上用木鏟挖洞玩。還有一排出租的住房，住房後面是個火車站——然而不久，她就明白了，自己是在一個眼淚的池塘裏，這是她九英尺高的時候流出來的眼淚。
“但願我剛纔沒哭得這麽厲害！”愛麗絲說話時來回遊着，想找條路遊出去，現在我受報應了，我的眼沼快要把自己淹死啦！這又是樁怪事，說真的，今天盡是怪事！”
就在這時，她聽到不遠的地方有劃水聲，就嚮前遊去，想看看是什麽，起初，她以為這一定是衹海象或者河馬。然而，她一想起自己是多麽小的時候，就立即明白了，這不過是衹老鼠，是像自己一樣滑進水裏來的。
“它來有什麽用處呢？”愛麗絲想，“同一隻老鼠講話嗎？這井底下的事情都是那麽奇怪，也許它會說話的，不管怎樣，試試也沒害處，”於是，愛麗絲就說，“喂，老鼠！你知道從池塘裏出去的路嗎？我已經遊得很纍了。喂，老鼠！”愛麗絲認為這是同老鼠談話的方式，以前，她沒有做過這種事，可她記得哥哥的《拉丁文語法》中有：“一隻老鼠……一隻老鼠……喂，老鼠！”現在這老鼠狐疑地看着她，好像還把一隻小眼睛嚮她眨了眨，但沒說話。
“也許它不懂英語，”愛麗絲想，“她是同徵服者威廉（威廉（1027或1028-1087）原為諾曼第（現法國的諾曼第半島）公爵，後來徵服並統一了英國）一起來的，”（儘管愛麗絲有些歷史知識，可搞不清這些事情已經多久了。）於是，她又用法語說：“我的貓在哪裏，”這是她的法文課本的第一句話。老鼠一聽這話，突然跳出水面，嚇得渾身發抖，愛麗絲怕傷害了這個可憐的小動物的感情，趕快說：“請原諒我！我忘了你不喜歡貓。”
“不喜歡貓！”老鼠激動而尖聲地喊着，“假如你是我的話，你喜歡貓嗎？”
“也許不，”愛麗絲撫慰着說，“別生我的氣了。可是我還是希望你能夠看到我的貓——，黛娜，衹要你看到她，就會喜歡貓了，她是一個多麽可愛而又安靜的小東西呀。”愛麗絲一面懶散地遊着，一面自言自語地繼續說，“她坐在火爐邊打起呼嚕來真好玩，還不時舔舔爪子，洗洗臉，摸起來綿軟得可愛。還有，她抓起老鼠來真是個好樣的……，哦，請原諒我。”這次真把老鼠氣壞了。愛麗絲又喊道：“如果你不高興的話，咱們就不說她了。”
“還說‘咱們’呢！”老鼠喊着，連尾巴梢都發抖了，“好像我願意說似的！我們傢族都仇恨貓，這種可惡的、下賤的、粗鄙的東西！再別讓我聽到這個名字了！”
“我不說了，真的！”愛麗絲說着，急忙改變了話題，“你……喜歡……喜歡……狗嗎？”老鼠沒回答，於是，愛麗絲熱心地說了下去，“告訴你，我傢不遠有一隻小狗，—衹眼晴明亮的小獵狗，你知道，它長着那麽長的棕色捲毛。它還會接住你扔的東西，又會坐起來討吃的，還會玩各式各樣的把戲，它是一個農民的，你可知道，那個農民說它真頂用，要值一百英鎊哪！說它還能殺掉所有的老鼠……哦，親愛的！”愛麗絲傷心地說，“我怕又惹你生氣了。”老鼠已經拼命遊遠了，它遊開時，還弄得池塘的水一陣波動。
愛麗絲跟在老鼠的後面柔聲細氣地招呼它：“老鼠啊，親愛的，你還是回來吧，你不喜歡的話，咱們再也不談貓和狗了！”老鼠聽了這話，就轉過身慢慢地嚮她遊來，它臉色蒼白（愛麗絲想一定是氣成這樣的），用低而顫抖的聲音說：“讓我們上岸去吧，然後我將把我的歷史告訴你，這樣你就會明白我為什麽也恨貓和狗了。”
真是該走了，因為池塘裏已經有了一大群鳥獸，有一隻鴨子、—衹渡渡鳥（一種現已絶種的鳥，原産非洲毛裏求斯。）、一隻鸚鵡，一隻小鷹和一些稀奇古怪的動物。愛麗絲領着路，和這群鳥獸一起自岸邊遊去。
And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it. `They must go by the carrier,' she thought; `and how funny it'll seem, sending presents to one's own feet! And how odd the directions will look!
ALICE'S RIGHT FOOT, ESQ. HEARTHRUG, NEAR THE FENDER, (WITH ALICE'S LOVE).
Oh dear, what nonsense I'm talking!'
Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall: in fact she was now more than nine feet high, and she at once took up the little golden key and hurried off to the garden door.
Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one side, to look through into the garden with one eye; but to get through was more hopeless than ever: she sat down and began to cry again.
`You ought to be ashamed of yourself,' said Alice, `a great girl like you,' (she might well say this), `to go on crying in this way! Stop this moment, I tell you!' But she went on all the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool all round her, about four inches deep and reaching half down the hall.
After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the distance, and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming. It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other: he came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to himself as he came, `Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting!' Alice felt so desperate that she was ready to ask help of any one; so, when the Rabbit came near her, she began, in a low, timid voice, `If you please, sir--' The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid gloves and the fan, and skurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go.
Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: `Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, THAT'S the great puzzle!' And she began thinking over all the children she knew that were of the same age as herself, to see if she could have been changed for any of them.
`I'm sure I'm not Ada,' she said, `for her hair goes in such long ringlets, and mine doesn't go in ringlets at all; and I'm sure I can't be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she, oh! she knows such a very little! Besides, SHE'S she, and I'm I, and--oh dear, how puzzling it all is! I'll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is--oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the Multiplication Table doesn't signify: let's try Geography. London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and Rome--no, THAT'S all wrong, I'm certain! I must have been changed for Mabel! I'll try and say "How doth the little--"' and she crossed her hands on her lap as if she were saying lessons, and began to repeat it, but her voice sounded hoarse and strange, and the words did not come the same as they used to do:--
`How doth the little crocodile Improve his shining tail, And pour the waters of the Nile On every golden scale!
`How cheerfully he seems to grin, How neatly spread his claws, And welcome little fishes in With gently smiling jaws!'
`I'm sure those are not the right words,' said poor Alice, and her eyes filled with tears again as she went on, `I must be Mabel after all, and I shall have to go and live in that poky little house, and have next to no toys to play with, and oh! ever so many lessons to learn! No, I've made up my mind about it; if I'm Mabel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no use their putting their heads down and saying "Come up again, dear!" I shall only look up and say "Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I'll come up: if not, I'll stay down here till I'm somebody else"--but, oh dear!' cried Alice, with a sudden burst of tears, `I do wish they WOULD put their heads down! I am so VERY tired of being all alone here!'
As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was surprised to see that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little white kid gloves while she was talking. `How CAN I have done that?' she thought. `I must be growing small again.' She got up and went to the table to measure herself by it, and found that, as nearly as she could guess, she was now about two feet high, and was going on shrinking rapidly: she soon found out that the cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped it hastily, just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether.
`That WAS a narrow escape!' said Alice, a good deal frightened at the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence; `and now for the garden!' and she ran with all speed back to the little door: but, alas! the little door was shut again, and the little golden key was lying on the glass table as before, `and things are worse than ever,' thought the poor child, `for I never was so small as this before, never! And I declare it's too bad, that it is!'
As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. Her first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea, `and in that case I can go back by railway,' she said to herself. (Alice had been to the seaside once in her life, and had come to the general conclusion, that wherever you go to on the English coast you find a number of bathing machines in the sea, some children digging in the sand with wooden spades, then a row of lodging houses, and behind them a railway station.) However, she soon made out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine feet high.
`I wish I hadn't cried so much!' said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. `I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That WILL be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.'
Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little way off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was: at first she thought it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she was now, and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped in like herself.
`Would it be of any use, now,' thought Alice, `to speak to this mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think very likely it can talk: at any rate, there's no harm in trying.' So she began: `O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!' (Alice thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse: she had never done such a thing before, but she remembered having seen in her brother's Latin Grammar, `A mouse--of a mouse--to a mouse--a mouse--O mouse!' The Mouse looked at her rather inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but it said nothing.
`Perhaps it doesn't understand English,' thought Alice; `I daresay it's a French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror.' (For, with all her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion how long ago anything had happened.) So she began again: `Ou est ma chatte?' which was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. `Oh, I beg your pardon!' cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor animal's feelings. `I quite forgot you didn't like cats.'
`Not like cats!' cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice. `Would YOU like cats if you were me?'
`Well, perhaps not,' said Alice in a soothing tone: `don't be angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah: I think you'd take a fancy to cats if you could only see her. She is such a dear quiet thing,' Alice went on, half to herself, as she swam lazily about in the pool, `and she sits purring so nicely by the fire, licking her paws and washing her face--and she is such a nice soft thing to nurse--and she's such a capital one for catching mice--oh, I beg your pardon!' cried Alice again, for this time the Mouse was bristling all over, and she felt certain it must be really offended. `We won't talk about her any more if you'd rather not.'
`We indeed!' cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end of his tail. `As if I would talk on such a subject! Our family always HATED cats: nasty, low, vulgar things! Don't let me hear the name again!'
`I won't indeed!' said Alice, in a great hurry to change the subject of conversation. `Are you--are you fond--of--of dogs?' The Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly: `There is such a nice little dog near our house I should like to show you! A little bright-eyed terrier, you know, with oh, such long curly brown hair! And it'll fetch things when you throw them, and it'll sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts of things--I can't remember half of them--and it belongs to a farmer, you know, and he says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds! He says it kills all the rats and--oh dear!' cried Alice in a sorrowful tone, `I'm afraid I've offended it again!' For the Mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it could go, and making quite a commotion in the pool as it went.
So she called softly after it, `Mouse dear! Do come back again, and we won't talk about cats or dogs either, if you don't like them!' When the Mouse heard this, it turned round and swam slowly back to her: its face was quite pale (with passion, Alice thought), and it said in a low trembling voice, `Let us get to the shore, and then I'll tell you my history, and you'll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.'
It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with the birds and animals that had fallen into it: there were a Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures. Alice led the way, and the whole party swam to the shore.