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.
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