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
8