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
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 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!'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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