Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank,
and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her
sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is
the use of a book,’ thought Alice ‘without pictures or conversation?’
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot
day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a
daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies,
when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
History
It was all very well to say ‘Drink me,’ but the wise little Alice was not
going to do THAT in a hurry. ‘No, I’ll look first,’ she said, ‘and see whether
it’s marked “poison” or not’; for she had read several nice little histories
about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other
unpleasant things, all because they WOULD not remember the simple rules
their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you
if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your finger VERY deeply with
a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, if you drink
much from a bottle marked ‘poison,’ it is almost certain to disagree with
you, sooner or later.
Team
‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for
the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); ‘now I’m opening
out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!’ (for when she
looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were
getting so far off). ‘Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your
shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I’m sure I shan’t be able! I shall
be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you: you must manage the
best way you can; –but I must be kind to them,’ thought Alice, ‘or perhaps
they won’t walk the way I want to go! Let me see: I’ll give them a new pair
of boots every Christmas.’
