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!
Good-bye, 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 the carrier,’ she
thought; `and how funny it’ll seem, sending
presents to one’s own feet! And how odd
the directions will look!
Alice’sright foot, ESQ.
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 round 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 the 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 any one; 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 skurried 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 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.
