So you did, old fellow! said the others.
We must burn the house down! said the Rabbit s voice; and Alice
called out as loud as she could, If you do, I ll set Dinah at you!
There was a dead silence instantly, and Alice thought to herself, I
wonder what they _will_ do next! If they had any sense, they d take the
roof off. 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 can 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
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