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Said Alice, a good deal frightened at the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence. ” And she ran with all speed back to the little door; but, alas! the little door was shut again, and the little golden key was lying on the glass table as before, “and things are worse than ever,” thought the poor child, “for I never was so small as this before, never! ” As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash! she was up to her chin in salt-­water. Her first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea, “and in that case I can go back by railway,” she said to herself.

In a little while, however, she again heard a little pattering of footsteps in the distance, and she looked up eagerly, half hoping that the Mouse had changed his mind, and was coming back to finish his story. This page intentionally left blank Chapter Four The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill I T WAS THE WHI TE Rabbit, trotting slowly back again, and looking anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something; and she heard it muttering to itself, “The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh my fur and whiskers!

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 ca’n’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 18 Chapter T wo shall never get to twenty at that rate!