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The world’s digital edition to that of the

original. After weeks of toil he


most precise
replica
A L I C E ’S created an exact replica of the
original! The book was added
to VolumeOne’s print-on-

of the world’s Adventures in Wonderland demand offering. While a PDF


version is offered on various

most famous portals of the Net, BookVirtual


took the project to heart and
children’s book! added its interface designs and
programming. Welcome to the
world’s most precise all-digital
In 1998, Peter Zelchenko replica of the world’s most
began a project for Volume- famous children’s book. Thank
One Publishing: to create an you, Peter.
exact digital replica of Lewis
Carroll’s first edition of Alice. BookVirtual™
Working with the original Books made Virtual. Books made well.

1865 edition and numerous www.bookvirtual.com


other editions at the Newberry
Library in Chicago, Zelchenko
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the original work of Lewis
Carroll (aka Prof. Charles
Dodgson) who personally CONTROL
directed the typography for the
first Alice.
CLOSE THE BOOK
After much analyis, Peter then
painstakingly matched letter to
letter, line to line, of his new TURN THE PAGE
BY LEWIS CARROLL ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN TENNIEL
RABBIT-HOLE. 1
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ALICE’S ADVENTURES

IN WONDERLAND

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ALICE’S ADVENTURES

IN WONDERLAND

BY

LEWIS CARROLL

WITH FORTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS

BY JOHN TENNIEL

VolumeOne Publishing
Chicago, Illinois 1998

A BookVirtual Digital Edition, v.1.2


November, 2000

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First published in 1865


by Macmillan & Co., London All in the golden afternoon
Released 1866 by D. Appleton & Co., New York
Full leisurely we glide ;
For information For both our oars, with little skill,
about VolumeOne and unit-run printing, contact:
Peter Zelchenko (pete@chinet.com) By little arms are plied,
1757 W. Augusta Blvd. While little hands make vain pretence
Chicago, IL 60622-3209 USA
(312) 733-2473 Our wanderings to guide.

The text of this book was originally entered as an online etext


for Project Gutenberg,™ and was subsequently prepared
for print publishing by the VolumeOne staff. VolumeOne is
grateful to Project Gutenberg for its contribution to Ah, cruel Three ! In such an hour,
this work. VolumeOne holds harmless and indemnifies Project
Gutenberg of any liability arising from the use of Beneath such dreamy weather,
their text in this printed embodiment. To beg a tale of breath too weak
Text from Project Gutenberg To stir the tiniest feather !
“Alice in Wonderland” (March, 1994 edition).
Yet what can one poor voice avail
For more information on Project Gutenberg, contact:
Project Gutenberg, Michael S. Hart (hart@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu) Against three tongues together ?
P.O. Box 2782, Champaign, IL 61820

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Imperious Prima flashes forth


Her edict ‘ to begin it’—
In gentler tone Secunda hopes
‘ There will be nonsense in it!’—
While Tertia interrupts the tale Thus grew the tale of Wonderland :

Not more than once a minute. Thus slowly, one by one,


Its quaint events were hammered out—
And now the tale is done,
And home we steer, a merry crew,
Anon, to sudden silence won, Beneath the setting sun.
In fancy they pursue
The dream-child moving through a land
Of wonders wild and new,
In friendly chat with bird or beast— Alice ! a childish story take,

And half believe it true. And with a gentle hand


Lay it where Childhood’s dreams are twined
In Memory’s mystic band,
Like pilgrim’s withered wreath of flowers
And ever, as the story drained Plucked in a far-off land.
The wells of fancy dry,
And faintly strove that weary one
To put the subject by,
“ The rest next time—” “It is next time!”
The happy voices cry.

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CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

II. THE POOL OF TEARS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

III. A CAUCUS-RACE AND A LONG TALE . . . . . . . . 29

IV. THE RABBIT SENDS IN A LITTLE BILL . . . . . . 41

V. ADVICE FROM A CATERPILLAR . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

VI. PIG AND PEPPER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

VII. A MAD TEA-PARTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

VIII. THE QUEEN’S CROQUET-GROUND . . . . . . . . . . 112

IX. THE MOCK TURTLE’S STORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

X. THE LOBSTER QUADRILLE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

XI. WHO STOLE THE TARTS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

XII. ALICE’S EVIDENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

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CHAPTER I.

DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE.

ALICE was beginning to get very tired of


sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having
nothing to do : once or twice she had peeped into
the book her sister was reading, but it had no
pictures or conversations in it, “ and what is
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2 DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE. 3

the use of a book,” thought Alice, “ without burning with curiosity, she ran across the field
pictures or conversations ?” after it, and was just in time to see it pop
So she was considering in her own mind, down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
(as well as she could, for the hot day made In another moment down went Alice after
her feel very sleepy and stupid,) whether the it, never once considering how in the world
pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be she was to get out again.
worth the trouble of getting up and picking The rabbit-hole went straight on like a
the daisies, when suddenly a white rabbit with tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly
pink eyes ran close by her. down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment
There was nothing so very remarkable in to think about stopping herself before she found
that ; nor did Alice think it so very much out herself falling down what seemed to be a very
of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, deep well.
“ Oh dear ! Oh dear ! I shall be too late !” Either the well was very deep, or she fell
(when she thought it over afterwards, it oc- very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she
curred to her that she ought to have wondered went down to look about her, and to wonder
at this, but at the time it all seemed quite what was going to happen next. First, she tried
natural) ; but when the Rabbit actually took a to look down and make out what she was
watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at coming to, but it was too dark to see anything :
it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her then she looked at the sides of the well, and
feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had noticed that they were filled with cupboards
never before seen a rabbit with either a waist- and bookshelves : here and there she saw maps
coat-pocket or a watch to take out of it, and, and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down
B2

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4 DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE. 5

a jar from one of the shelves as she passed ; it her, still it was good practice to say it over)
was labelled “ ORANGE MARMALADE,” but “ —yes, that ’s about the right distance—but
to her great disappointment it was empty: she did then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude
not like to drop the jar for fear of killing some- I ’ve got to ?” (Alice had not the slightest
body underneath, so managed to put it into idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but
one of the cupboards as she fell past it. she thought they were nice grand words to say.)
“ Well !” thought Alice to herself, “ after Presently she began again. “ I wonder if
such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of I shall fall right through the earth ! How funny
tumbling down stairs ! How brave they ’ll all it ’ll seem to come out among the people that
think me at home ! Why, I wouldn’t say any- walk with their heads downwards ! The Anti-
thing about it, even if I fell off the top of pathies, I think—” (she was rather glad there
the house !” (Which was very likely true.) was no one listening, this time, as it didn ’t
Down, down, down. Would the fall never sound at all the right word) “ —but I shall
come to an end ? “ I wonder how many miles have to ask them what the name of the country
I ’ve fallen by this time ?” she said aloud. “ I is, you know. Please, Ma’am, is this New
must be getting somewhere near the centre of Zealand or Australia ?” (and she tried to curtsey
the earth. Let me see : that would be four as she spoke—fancy curtseying as you ’re falling
thousand miles down, I think—” (for, you see, through the air ! Do you think you could
Alice had learnt several things of this sort in manage it ?) “ And what an ignorant little girl
her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this she ’ll think me for asking ! No, it ’ll never do
was not a very good opportunity for showing off to ask : perhaps I shall see it written up
her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to somewhere.”

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6 DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE. 7

Down, down, down. There was nothing else to Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up
do, so Alice soon began talking again. “ Dinah ’ll on to her feet in a moment : she looked up,
miss me very much to-night, I should think !” but it was all dark overhead ; before her was
(Dinah was the cat.) “ I hope they’ll remember another long passage, and the White Rabbit was
her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah, my dear ! still in sight, hurrying down it. There was
I wish you were down here with me ! There not a moment to be lost : away went Alice like
are no mice in the air, I’m afraid, but you the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as
might catch a bat, and that ’s very like a mouse, it turned a corner, “ Oh my ears and whiskers,
you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder ?” how late it ’s getting !” She was close behind
And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit
went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort was no longer to be seen : she found herself in
of way, “ Do cats eat bats ? Do cats eat bats ?” a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of
and sometimes, “ Do bats eat cats ?” for, you lamps hanging from the roof.
see, as she couldn’t answer either question, it There were doors all round the hall, but they
didn’t much matter which way she put it. She were all locked, and when Alice had been all
felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun the way down one side and up the other, trying
to dream that she was walking hand in hand every door, she walked sadly down the middle,
with Dinah, and was saying to her very wondering how she was ever to get out again.
earnestly, “ Now, Dinah, tell me the truth : did Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged
you ever eat a bat ?” when suddenly, thump ! table, all made of solid glass ; there was nothing
thump ! down she came upon a heap of sticks on it but a tiny golden key, and Alice’s first
and dry leaves, and the fall was over. idea was that this might belong to one of the

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8 DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE. 9

doors of the hall ; but alas ! either the locks flowers and those cool fountains, but she could
were too large, or the key was too small, but not even get her head though the doorway ;
at any rate it would not open any of them. “ and even if my head would go through,”
However, on the second time round, she came thought poor Alice, “ it would be of very little
upon a low use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I
curtain she had could shut up like a telescope ! I think I could,
not noticed be- if I only knew how to begin.” For, you see, so
fore, and be- many out-of-the-way things had happened lately
hind it was that Alice had begun to think that very few
a little door things indeed were really impossible.
about fifteen There seemed to be no use in waiting by
inches high : the little door, so she went back to the table,
she tried the half hoping she might find another key on it,
little golden or at any rate a book of rules for shutting
key in the people up like telescopes : this time she found
lock, and to her great delight it fitted ! a little bottle on it, (“ which certainly was not
Alice opened the door and found that it led here before,” said Alice,) and tied round the
into a small passage, not much larger than a neck of the bottle was a paper label with the
rat-hole : she knelt down and looked along the words “ DRINK ME” beautifully printed on
passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. it in large letters.
How she longed to get out of that dark hall, It was all very well to say “ Drink me,” but
and wander about among those beds of bright the wise little Alice was not going to do that

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10 DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE. 11

in a hurry: “ no, I ’ll look first,” she said, so Alice ventured to taste it, and finding it
“ and see whether very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed
it ’s marked ‘ poison’ flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast
or not :” for she had turkey, toffy, and hot buttered toast,) she very
read several nice soon finished it off.
little stories about * * * *
children who had * * *
got burnt, and eaten * * * *
up by wild beasts, “ What a curious feeling !” said Alice, “ I
and other unpleasant must be shutting up like a telescope.”
things, all because And so it was indeed : she was now only
they would not re- ten inches high, and her face brightened up
member the simple at the thought that she was now the right
rules their friends size for going through the little door into that
had taught them, such as, that a red-hot poker lovely garden. First, however, she waited for a
will burn you if you hold it too long ; and few minutes to see if she was going to shrink
that if you cut your finger very deeply with any further : she felt a little nervous about
a knife, it usually bleeds ; and she had never this, “ for it might end, you know,” said Alice
forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle to herself, “ in my going out altogether, like a
marked “ poison,” it is almost certain to dis- candle. I wonder what I should be like then ?”
agree with you, sooner or later. And she tried to fancy what the flame of a
However, this bottle was not marked “ poison,” candle looks like after the candle is blown out,

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12 DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE. 13

for she could not remember ever having seen in a game of croquet she was playing against
such a thing. herself, for this curious child was very fond of
After a while, finding that nothing more pretending to be two people. “ But it ’s no use
happened, she decided on going into the garden now,” thought poor Alice, “ to pretend to be two
at once, but, alas for poor Alice ! when she got people ! Why, there ’s hardly enough of me left
to the door, she found she had forgotten the to make one respectable person !”
little golden key, and when she went back to Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that
the table for it, she found she could not possibly was lying under the table : she opened it, and
reach it : she could see it quite plainly through found in it a very small cake, on which the
the glass, and she tried her best to climb up words “ EAT ME” were beautifully marked in
one of the legs of the table, but it was too currants. “ Well, I ’ll eat it,” said Alice, “ and if
slippery, and when she had tired herself out it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key ;
with trying, the poor little thing sat down and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep
and cried. under the door ; so either way I ’ll get into the
“ Come, there ’s no use in crying like that !” garden, and I don’t care which happens !”
said Alice to herself, rather sharply, “ I advise She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to
you to leave off this minute !” She generally herself “ Which way ? Which way ?” holding her
gave herself very good advice, (though she hand on the top of her head to feel which way
very seldom followed it,) and sometimes she it was growing, and she was quite surprised
scolded herself so severely as to bring tears to find that she remained the same size : to be
into her eyes, and once she remembered trying sure, this is what generally happens when one
to box her own ears for having cheated herself eats cake, but Alice had got so much into the

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DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE.

way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way


things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and CHAPTER II.
stupid for life to go on in the common way.
So she set to work, and very soon finished THE POOL OF TEARS.

off the cake.


* * * * “ Curiouser and cu-
* * * riouser !” cried Alice
* * * * (she was so much sur-
prised, that for the
moment she quite for-
got 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

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16 THE POOL OF TEARS. 17

who will put on your shoes and stockings for Poor Alice ! It was as much as she could do,
you now, dears ? I’m sure I shan ’t be able ! I lying down on one side, to look through into
shall be a great deal too far off to trouble my- the garden with one eye ; but to get through
self about you : you must manage the best way was more hopeless than ever : she sat down and
you can ;—but I must be kind to them,” thought began to cry again.
Alice, “ or perhaps they won ’t walk the way I “ You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” said
want to go ! Let me see : I ’ll give them a new Alice, “ a great girl like you,” (she might well
pair of boots every Christmas.” say this,) “ to go on crying in this way ! Stop
And she went on planning to herself how she this moment, I tell you !” But she went on all
would manage it. “ They must go by the carrier,” the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there
she thought ; “ and how funny it ’ll seem, sending was a large pool all round her, about four inches
presents to one’s own feet ! And how odd the deep and reaching half down the hall.
directions will look ! After a time she heard a little pattering of
Alice’s Right Foot, Esq., feet in the distance, and she hastily dried her
Hearthrug, eyes to see what was coming. It was the White
near the Fender. Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair
(with Alice’s love.)
of white kid gloves in one hand and a large
Oh dear, what nonsense I ’m talking !” fan in the other : he came trotting along in a
Just at this moment her head struck against the great hurry, muttering to himself as he came,
roof of the hall : in fact she was now rather more “ Oh ! the Duchess, the Duchess ! Oh ! won’t she
than nine feet high, and she at once took up the be savage if I ’ve kept her waiting !” Alice
little golden key and hurried off to the garden door. felt so desperate that she was ready to ask help
C

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18 THE POOL OF TEARS. 19

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 yester-
day 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
of any one ; so, when the Rabbit came near her, Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she,
she began, in a low, timid voice, “ If you please, oh ! she knows such a very little ! Besides, she’s
sir——” The Rabbit started violently, dropped she, and I’m I, and—oh dear, how puzzling it
the white kid gloves and the fan, and skurried all is ! I ’ll try if I know all the things I used
away into the darkness as hard as he could go. to know. Let me see : four times five is twelve,
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20 THE POOL OF TEARS. 21

and four times six is thirteen, and four times “ I ’m sure those are not the right words,”
seven is—oh dear ! I shall never get to twenty said poor Alice, and her eyes filled with tears
at that rate ! However, the Multiplication Table again as she went on, “ I must be Mabel after
don’t signify : let ’s try Geography. London is all, and I shall have to go and live in that
the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of poky little house, and have next to no toys to
Rome, and Rome—no, that’s all wrong, I ’m play with, and oh ! ever so many lessons to
certain ! I must have been changed for Mabel ! learn ! No, I ’ve made up my mind about it :
I ’ll try and say ‘ How doth the little—’ ” and she if I ’m Mabel, I ’ll stay down here ! It ’ll be no
crossed her hands on her lap, as if she were use their putting their heads down and saying,
saying lessons, and began to repeat it, but her ‘ Come up again, dear !’ I shall only look up
voice sounded hoarse and strange, and the words and say, ‘ Who am I then ? Tell me that first,
did not come the same as they used to do :— and then, if I like being that person, I ’ll come
up : if not, I ’ll stay down here till I ’m some-
“ How doth the little crocodile body else’—but, oh dear !” cried Alice with a
Improve his shining tail, sudden burst of tears, “ I do wish they would
And pour the waters of the Nile put their heads down ! I am so very tired of
On every golden scale ! being all alone here !”
As she said this, she looked down at her
hands, and was surprised to see that she had
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
put on one of the Rabbit’s little white kid gloves
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcome little fishes in while she was talking. “ How can I have done
With gently smiling jaws !” that ?” she thought. “ I must be growing small

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22 THE POOL OF TEARS. 23

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, and she dropped it hastily,
just in time to save herself from shrinking away
altogether.
“ That was a narrow escape !” said Alice, a
good deal frightened at the sudden change, but that case I can go back by railway,” she said
very glad to find herself still in existence ; “ and to herself. (Alice had been to the seaside once
now for the garden !” and she ran with all in her life, and had come to the general con-
speed back to the little door : but, alas ! the clusion, that wherever you go to on the English
little door was shut again, and the little golden coast you find a number of bathing machines
key was lying on the glass table as before, “ and in the sea, some children digging in the sand
things are worse than ever,” thought the poor with wooden spades, then a row of lodging
child, “ for I never was so small as this before, houses, and behind them a railway station.)
never ! And I declare it ’s too bad, that it is !” However, she soon made out that she was in
As she said these words her foot slipped, the pool of tears which she had wept when she
and in another moment, splash ! she was up to was nine feet high.
her chin in salt water. Her first idea was that “ I wish I hadn’t cried so much !” said Alice,
she had somehow fallen into the sea, “ and in as she swam about, trying to find her way out.

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24 THE POOL OF TEARS. 25

“ I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by of a mouse—to a mouse—a mouse—O mouse !”)
being drowned in my own tears ! That will be The Mouse looked at her rather inquisitively,
a queer thing, to be sure ! However, everything and seemed to her to wink with one of its
is queer to-day.” little eyes, but it said nothing.
Just then she heard something splashing “ Perhaps it doesn’t understand English,”
about in the pool a little way off, and she swam thought Alice ; “ I daresay it ’s a French mouse,
nearer to make out what it was : at first she come over with William the Conqueror.” (For,
thought it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, with all her knowledge of history, Alice had no
but then she remembered how small she was very clear notion how long ago anything had
now, and she soon made out that it was only happened.) So she began again : “ Ou est ma
a mouse, that had slipped in like herself. chatte ?” which was the first sentence in her
“ Would it be of any use, now,” thought French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden
Alice, “ to speak to this mouse ? Everything is leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver
so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think all over with fright. “ Oh, I beg your pardon !”
very likely it can talk : at any rate there ’s cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the
no harm in trying.” So she began : “ O Mouse, poor animal’s feelings. “ I quite forgot you didn’t
do you know the way out of this pool ? I am like cats.”
very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse !” “ Not like cats !” cried the Mouse, in a shrill,
(Alice thought this must be the right way of passionate voice. “ Would you like cats if you
speaking to a mouse : she had never done such were me ?”
a thing before, but she remembered having seen “ Well, perhaps not,” said Alice in a sooth-
in her brother’s Latin Grammar, “ A mouse— ing tone : “ don’t be angry about it. And yet

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26 THE POOL OF TEARS. 27

I wish I could show you our cat Dinah : I offended. “ We won’t talk about her any more
think you ’d take a fancy to cats if you could if you ’d rather not.”
only see her. She is such a dear quiet thing,” “ We, indeed !” cried the Mouse, who was
Alice went on, half to herself, as she swam lazily trembling 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 did not 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
about in the pool, “ and she sits purring so you throw them, and it ’ll sit up and beg for
nicely by the fire, licking her paws and wash- its dinner, and all sorts of things—I can’t re-
ing her face—and she is such a nice soft thing member half of them—and it belongs to a
to nurse—and she ’s such a capital one for catch- farmer, you know, and he says it ’s so useful,
ing mice——oh, I beg your pardon !” cried Alice it ’s worth a hundred pounds ! He says it kills
again, for this time the Mouse was bristling all the rats and—oh dear !” cried Alice in a
all over, and she felt certain it must be really sorrowful tone. “ I ’m afraid I ’ve offended it

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