`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.
`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!
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