Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: HTML EditionCarroll, Lewis
General
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: HTML Edition
Carroll, Lewis
Alice (Fictitious character from Carroll) -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Fantasy fiction; Imaginary places -- Juvenile fiction
'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, and had to stoop to save her neck from being
broken. She hastily put down the bottle, saying to herself
'That's quite enough--I hope I shan't grow any more--As it is, I
can't get out at the door--I do wish I hadn't drunk quite so
much!'
Alas! it was too late to wish that! She went on growing, and
growing, and very soon had to kneel down on the floor: in another
minute there was not even room for this, and she tried the effect
of lying down with one elbow against the door, and the other arm
curled round her head. Still she went on growing, and, as a last
resource, she put one arm out of the window, and one foot up the
chimney, and said to herself 'Now I can do no more, whatever
happens. What _will_ become of me?'
Luckily for Alice, the little magic bottle had now had its
full effect, and she grew no larger: still it was very
uncomfortable, and, as there seemed to be no sort of chance of
her ever getting out of the room again, no wonder she felt
unhappy.
'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice, 'when
one wasn't always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered
about by mice and rabbits. I almost wish I hadn't gone down that
rabbit-hole--and yet--and yet--it's rather curious, you know,
this sort of life! I do wonder what _can_ have happened to
me! When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that kind of thing
never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one! There
ought to be a book written about me, that there ought! And when I
grow up, I'll write one--but I'm grown up now,' she added in a
sorrowful tone; 'at least there's no room to grow up any more
_here_.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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