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,
18