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Chapter 2. The Pool of Tears
Curiouser and curiouser, cried Alice, she was somuch surprised, that for the moment she quite
forgot how to speak good English, now I'm openingout like the largest telescope that ever was.
Goodbye, feet. For when she looked down at herfeet, they seemed to be almost out of sight,
they were getting so far off. Oh, I poor littlefeet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and
stockings for you now, dears? I'm sure I shan't beable. I shall be a great deal too far off to
trouble myself about you, you must manage the bestway you can, but I must be kind to them,
thought Alice, or perhaps they won't walk the wayI want to go. Let me see, I'll give them a new
pair of boots every Christmas. And she went onplanning to herself how she would manage it.
They must go by the carrier, she thought, and howfunny it'll seem, sending presents to one's own
feet. And how odd the directions will look.Alice's right foot, esquire, hearthrug, near thefender,
with Alice's love. Oh dear, what nonsense I'mtalking.
Just then her head struck against the roof of thehall, in fact she was now more than nine feet
high, and she at once took up a little golden keyand hurried off to the garden door. Poor Alice!
It was as much as she could do, lying down on oneside, to look through into the garden with
one eye, but to get through was more hopeless thanever, she sat down and began to cry again.
You ought to be ashamed of yourself, said Alice, agreat girl like you, she might well say this,
to go on crying in this way. Stop this moment, Itell you. But she went on all the same, shedding
gallons of tears, until there was a large pool allround her, about four inches deep and reaching
half down the hall. After a time she heard alittle pattering of feet in the distance,
and she hastily dried her eyes to see what wascoming. It was the white rabbit returning,
splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kidgloves in one hand and a large fan in the other,
he came trotting along in a great hurry, mutteringto himself as he came,
O! the Duchess, the Duchess! O! won't she besavage if I've kept her waiting? Alice felt
so desperate that she was ready to ask help of anyone, 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, andscurried 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! Howqueer everything is today! And yesterday
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things went on just as usual. I wonder if I'vebeen changed in the night? Let me think, was I
the same when I got up this morning? I almostthink I can remember feeling a little different.
But if I'm not the same, the next question is, whoin the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.
And she began thinking over all the children sheknew that were of the same age as herself,
to see if she could have been changed for any ofthem. I'm sure I'm not Ada, she said,
for her hair goes in such long ringlets, and minedoesn't go in ringlets at all,
and I'm sure I can't be Mabel, for I know allsorts of things, and she, oh! she knows such a
little? Besides, she's she, and I'm I, and, ohdear, how puzzling it all is! I'll try if I know
all the things I used to know. Let me see, fourtimes five is twelve, and four times six isthirteen,
and four times seven is, oh dear! I shall neverget to twenty at that rate. However,
the multiplication table doesn't signify, let'stry 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 doththe little, and she crossed her hands on her lap
as if she were saying lessons, and began to repeatit, but her voice sounded hoarse and strange,
and the words did not come the same as they usedto do. How doth the little crocodile
improve his shining tail, and pour the waters ofthe Nile on every golden scale?
How cheerfully he seems to grin! How neatly spreadhis claws! And welcome little fishes in,
with gently smiling jaws! I'm sure those are notthe right words, said poor Alice,
and her eyes filled with tears again as she wenton, I must be Mabel after all,
and I shall have to go and live in that pokeylittle 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 puttingtheir 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 heretill I'm somebody else, but, oh dear, cried Alice,
with a sudden burst of tears, I do wish they wouldput their heads down. I'm so very tired
of being all alone here. As she said this shelooked down at her hands, and was surprised to
see that she had put on one of the rabbit's littlewhite kid gloves while she was talking.
How can I have done that? she thought. I must begrowing small again. She got up and went to the
table to measure herself by it, and found that, asnearly as she could guess, she was now about two
feet high, and was going on shrinking rapidly, shesoon found out that the cause of this was the fan
she was holding, and she dropped it hastily, justin time to avoid shrinking away altogether.
That was a narrow escape, said Alice, a good dealfrightened at the sudden change,
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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! thelittle door was shut again, and the little golden
key was lying on the glass table as before, andthings are worse than ever, thought the poorchild,
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 inanother moment,
splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. Herfirst idea was that she had somehow fallen
into the sea, and in that case I can go back byrailway, 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 youfind a number of bathing machines in the sea,
some children digging in the sand with woodenspades, then a row of lodging houses,
and behind them a railway station, however, shesoon made out that she was in the pool of tears
which she had wept when she was nine feet high. Iwish I hadn't cried so much, said Alice,
as she swam about, trying to find her way out. Ishall be punished for it now, I suppose,
by being drowned in my own tears. That will be aqueer thing, to be sure. However,
everything is queer today. Just then she heardsomething splashing about in the pool a little
way off, and she swam nearer to make out what itwas, at first she thought it must be a walrus
or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how smallshe was now, and she soon made out that
it was only a mouse that had slipped in likeherself. Would it be of any use, now, thought
Alice, to speak to this mouse? Everything is soout of the way down here, that I should think
very likely it can talk, at any rate, there's noharm in trying. So she began, Oh mouse,
do you know the way out of this pool? I am verytired of swimming about here,
oh mouse. Alice thought this must be the right wayof speaking to a mouse, she had never done
such a thing before, but she remembered havingseen in her brother's Latin grammar, a mouse,
of a mouse, to a mouse, a mouse, oh mouse, themouse looked at her rather inquisitively,
and seemed to her to wink with one of its littleeyes, but it said nothing.
Perhaps it doesn't understand English, thoughtAlice, I dare say it's a French mouse,
come over with William the Conqueror. For, withall her knowledge of history,
Alice had no very clear notion how long agoanything had happened, so she began again,
Où est ma chatte? which was the first sentence inher French lesson-book. The mouse gave a
sudden leap out of the water, and seemed to quiverall over with fright. Oh, I beg your pardon,
cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt thepoor 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 Alicein a soothing tone, don't be angry about it.
And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah, Ithink 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 lazilyabout
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in the pool, and she sits purring so nicely by thefire, licking her paws and washing her face,
and she is such a nice soft thing to nurse, andshe's such a capital one for catching mice,
Oh, I beg your pardon, cried Alice again, for thistime 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 tremblingdown to the end of his tail.
As if I would talk on such a subject. Our familyalways hated cats, nasty, low,
vulgar things. Don't let me hear the name again.
I won't indeed, said Alice, in a great hurry tochange the subject of conversation.
Are you—are you fond—of—of dogs? The mouse did notanswer, so Alice went on eagerly,
There is such a nice little dog near our house Ishould 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 forits dinner, and all sorts of things,
I can't remember half of them, and it belongs to afarmer, you know, and he says it's so useful,
it's worth a hundred pounds. He says it kills allthe rats and—oh dear, cried Alice in a sorrowful
tone, I'm afraid I've offended it again. For themouse was swimming away from her as hard as it
could go, and making quite a commotion in the poolas it went. So she called softly after it,
Mouse dear. Do come back again, and we won't talkabout cats or dogs either, if you don't like them.
When the mouse heard this, it turned round andswam slowly back to her, its face was quite pale,
with passion, Alice thought, and it said in a lowtrembling voice, Let us get to the shore,
and then I'll tell you my history, and you'llunderstand why it is I hate cats and dogs.
It was high time to go, for the pool was gettingquite crowded with the birds and animals that had
fallen into it, there were a duck and a dodo, alaureate and an eaglet, and several other curious
creatures. Alice led the way, and the whole partyswam to the shore.
CHAPTER III. A COCTUS RACE AND A LONG TAIL.
They were indeed a queer-looking party thatassembled on the bank—the birds with
draggled feathers, the animals with their furclinging close to them, and all dripping wet,
cross and uncomfortable. The first question ofcourse was, how to get dry again—they
had a consultation about this, and after a fewminutes it seemed quite natural to Alice to find
herself talking familiarly with them, as if shehad known them all her life. Indeed, she had quite
a long argument with the lorry, who at last turnedsulky, and would only say, I am older than you,
and must know better, and this Alice would notallow without knowing how old it was,
and, as the lorry positively refused to tell itsage, there was no more to be said.
At last the mouse, who seemed to be a person ofauthority among them, called out,
Sit down, all of you, and listen to me. I'll soonmake you dry enough. They all sat down at once,
in a large ring, with the mouse in the middle.Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it,
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for she felt sure she would catch a bad cold ifshe did not get dry very soon.
Ahem, said the mouse with an important air, areyou all ready? This is the driest thing I know.
Silence all round, if you please. William theConqueror, whose cause was favored by the Pope,
was soon submitted to by the English, who wantedleaders, and had been of late much
accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin andMorcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria.
Uck, said the lorry with a shiver. I beg yourpardon, said the mouse,
frowning, but very politely, did you speak? Not I,said the lorry hastily.
I thought you did, said the mouse. I proceed.Edwin and Morcar,
the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared forhim, and even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop
of Canterbury, found it advisable. Found what?said the duck.
Found it, the mouse replied rather crossly, ofcourse you know what it means.
I know what it means well enough, when I find athing, said the duck,
it's generally a frog or a worm. The question is,what did the archbishop find?
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