now i’m going to tell you about alice’s adventures in the white rabbit’s house.
do you remember how the rabbit dropped his gloves and his fan, when he was so frightened at hearing alice’s voice, that seemed to come down from the sky? well, of course he couldn’t go to visit the duchess without his gloves and his fan: so, after a bit, he came back again to look for them.
by this time the dodo and all the other curious creatures had gone away, and alice was wandering about all alone.
so what do you think he did? actually he thought she was his housemaid, and began[18] ordering her about! “mary ann!” he said. “go home this very minute, and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan! quick, now!”
perhaps he couldn’t see very clearly with his pink eyes: for i’m sure alice doesn’t look very like a housemaid, does she? however she was a very good-natured little girl: so she wasn’t a bit offended, but ran off to the rabbit’s house as quick as she could.
it was lucky she found the door open: for, if she had had to ring, i suppose the real mary ann would have come to open the door: and she would never have let alice come in. and i’m sure it was very lucky she didn’t meet the real mary ann, as she trotted upstairs: for i’m afraid she would have taken alice for a robber!
so at last she found her way into the rabbit’s room: and there was a pair of gloves lying on the table, and she was just going to take them up and go away, when she happened to see a little bottle on the table. and of course it had the words “drink me!” on the label. and of course alice drank some!
well, i think that was rather lucky, too: don’t you? for, if she hadn’t drunk any, all this wonderful adventure, that i’m going to tell you about, wouldn’t have happened at all. and wouldn’t that have been a pity?
bill the lizard flying out of a chimney
you’re getting so used to alice’s adventures, that i daresay you can guess what happened next? if you can’t, i’ll tell you.
she grew, and she grew, and she grew. and in a very short time the room was full of alice: just in the same way as a jar is full of jam! there was alice all the way up to the ceiling: and alice in every corner of the room!
the door opened inwards: so of course there wasn’t any room to open it: so when the rabbit got tired of waiting, and came to fetch his gloves for himself, of course he couldn’t get in.
so what do you think he did? (now we come to the picture). he sent bill, the lizard, up to the roof of the house, and told him to get down the chimney. but alice happened to have one of her feet in the fire-place: so, when she heard bill coming down the chimney, she just gave a little tiny kick, and away went bill, flying up into the sky!
poor little bill! don’t you pity him very much? how frightened he must have been!
