Hello,
This is Mandy.
I hope you've had a good day so far,
But even if you haven't,
Or especially if you haven't,
I'm inviting you now to forget all about it for a little while,
To make yourself super comfy and join me and the writer Lewis Carroll as we join Alice in the next part of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
There's literally nothing for you to do in this moment except relax and listen to my voice.
Chapter two,
The pool of tears.
Curiouser and curiouser,
Cried Alice.
She was so much surprised that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English.
Now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was.
Goodbye feet.
For when she looked down at her feet,
They seemed to be almost out of sight.
They were getting so far off.
Oh my poor little feet.
I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now,
Dears.
I'm sure I shan't be able.
I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you.
You must manage the best way you can.
But I must be kind to them,
Thought Alice,
Or perhaps they won't walk the way I want to go.
Let me see,
I'll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas.
And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it.
They must go by carrier,
She thought,
And how funny it'll seem sending presents to one's own feet and how odd the directions will look.
Alice's right foot,
Esquire,
Hearthrug,
Near the fender with Alice's love.
Oh dear,
What nonsense I'm talking.
Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall.
In fact,
She was now more than nine feet high and she at once took up the little golden 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 around 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 a 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 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,
And scurried 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 strange everything is today,
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 was 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 pokey 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'm staying down here.
It'll be no use there 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 I'll be Mabel.
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 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 so she dropped it hastily just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether.
That was a narrow escape said Alice a good deal frightened by the sudden change but very glad to find herself still in existence and now for the garden and she ran with all her speed back to the little door but alas the little door was shut again and the little golden key was lying on the glass table as before and things are worse than ever thought the poor child for I never was so small as this before never and I declare it's too bad that it is.
As she said these her words her foot slipped and in another moment splash she was up to her chin in salt water.
Her first idea was that she'd somehow fallen into the sea and in that case I can go back by railway 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 you find a number of bathing machines in the sea.
Some children digging in the sand with wooden spades then a row of lodging houses and behind them a railway station.
However she soon made out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine feet high.
I wish I hadn't cried so much said Alice as she swam about trying to find a way out.
I shall be punished for it now I suppose by being drowned in my own tears.
That will be a strange thing to be sure however everything is strange today.
Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little way off and she swam nearer to make out what it was.
At first she thought it must be a walrus or a hippopotamus but then she remembered how small she was and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped in like herself.
Would it be of any use now thought Alice to speak to this mouse?
Everything is so out of the way down here that I should think very likely it can talk.
At any rate there's no harm in trying.
So she began.
Oh mouse do you know the way out of this pool?
I am very tired of swimming about here oh mouse.
Alice thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse.
She had never done such a thing before but she remembered having seen in her brother's Latin grammar a mouse of a mouse to a mouse a mouse oh mouse.
The mouse looked at her rather inquisitively and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes but it said nothing.
Perhaps it doesn't understand English thought Alice.
I dare say it's a French mouse come over with William the Conqueror.
For with all her knowledge of history Alice had no very clear notion of how long ago anything had happened.
So she began again.
Où est ma chute?
Which was the first sentence in her French lesson book?
The mouse gave a sudden leap out of the water and seemed to quiver all over with fright.
Oh I beg your pardon cried Alice hastily afraid that she'd hurt the poor animal's feelings.
I quite forgot you didn't like cats.
Not like cats cried the mouse in a shrill passionate voice.
Would you not like cats if you were me?
Well perhaps not said Alice in a soothing tone.
Don't be angry about it and yet I wish I could show you our cat diner.
I think you'd take a fancy to cats if you could only see her.
She's such a dear quiet thing.
Alice went on after herself as she swam lazily about in the pool and she sits pairing so nicely by the fire licking her paws and washing her face and she is such a nice soft thing to nurse and she's such a capital one for catching mice.
Oh I beg your pardon cried Alice again for this time the mouse was bristling all over and she felt certain it must be really offended.
We won't talk about her anymore if you'd rather not.
We indeed cried the mouse who was trembling right down to the end of his tail as if I would talk on such a subject.
Our family always hated cats nasty low vulgar things.
Don't let me hear the name again.
I won't indeed said Alice in a great hurry to change the subject of conversation.
Are you are you fond of of dogs?
The mouse didn't answer so Alice went on eagerly.
There is such a nice little dog near our house I should 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 for its dinner and all sorts of things.
I can't remember half of them and it's a very nice little dog.
I can't remember half of them and it belongs to a farmer you know and he says it's so useful it's worth a hundred pounds.
He says it kills all the rats and oh dear cried Alice in a sorrowful tone I'm afraid I've offended it again.
For the mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it could go and making quite a commotion in the pool as it went.
So she called softly after it.
Alice said dear do you come back again and we won't talk about cats or dogs either if you don't like them.
When the mouse heard this it turned round and swam slowly back to her.
Its face was quite pale with passion Alice thought and it said in a low trembling voice let us get to the shore and then I'll tell you my history and you'll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.
It was high time to go for the pool was getting quite crowded with the birds and animals that had fallen into it.
There was a duck and a dodo a lorry and an eaglet and several other curious creatures.
Alice led the way and the whole party swam to the shore.
To be continued.
