She soon found out that the cause
of this, was the fan she held and she dropped it at once, or she might
have shrunk to the size of a gnat.
Al-ice was, at first, in a sad fright at the quick change, but glad that
it was no worse. "Now for the gar-den," and she ran with all her speed
back to the small door; but, oh dear! the door was shut, and the key lay
on the glass stand, "and things are worse than ev-er," thought the poor
child, "for I nev-er was so small as this, nev-er! It's too bad, that it
is!"
As she said these words her foot slipped, and splash! she was up to her
chin in salt wa-ter. At first she thought she must be in the sea, but
she soon made out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept
when she was nine feet high.
[Illustration]
"I wish I hadn't cried so much!" said Al-ice as she swam round and tried
to find her way out. "I shall now be drowned in my own tears. That will
be a queer thing, to be sure! But all things are queer to-day."
Just then she heard a splash in the pool a lit-tle way off, and she swam
near to make out what it was; at first she thought it must be a whale,
but when she thought how small she was now, she soon made out that it
was a mouse that had slipped in the pond.
"Would it be of an-y use now to speak to this mouse? All things are so
out-of-way down here, I should think may-be it can talk, at least
there's no harm to try." So she said: "O Mouse, do you know the way out
of this pool? I have swum here till I'm quite tired, O Mouse!" The Mouse
looked at her and seemed to her to wink with one of its small eyes, but
it did not speak.
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