Let me see: four times five is twelve,
and four times six is thir-teen, and four times sev-en is--oh dear! that
is not right. I must have been changed for Ma-bel! I'll try if I know
'How doth the lit-tle--'" and she placed her hands on her lap, as if
she were at school and tried to say it, but her voice was hoarse and
strange and the words did not come the same as they used to do.
"I'm sure those are not the right words," said poor Al-ice, and her eyes
filled with tears as she went on, "I must be Ma-bel af-ter all, and I
shall have to go and live in that po-ky house and have next to no toys
to play with, and oh! such hard things to learn. No, I've made up my
mind; if I'm Ma-bel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no use for them to
put their heads down and say, 'Come up, dear!' I shall look up and say,
'Who am I, then? Tell me that first, and then if I like it, I'll come
up; if not, I'll stay down here till I'm some one else'--but, oh dear,"
cried Al-ice with a fresh burst of tears, "I do wish they would put their
heads down! I am so tired of this place!"
As she said this she looked down at her hands and saw that she had put
on one of the Rab-bit's white kid gloves while she was talk-ing. "How
can I have done that?" she thought. "I must have grown small once more."
She got up and went to the glass stand to test her height by that, and
found that as well as she could guess she was now not more than two feet
high, and still shrink-ing quite fast.
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