Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: HTML Edition

								

long ringlets, and mine doesn't go in ringlets at all; and I'm
sure I can'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 shall never get to twenty at that rate! However,
the Multiplication Table doesn't signify: let's try Geography.
London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome,
and Rome--no, that's all wrong, I'm certain! I must have
been changed for Mabel! I'll try and say "How doth the
little--"' and she crossed her hands on her lap as if she
were saying lessons, and began to repeat it, but her voice
sounded hoarse and strange, and the words did not come the same
as they used to do:--

'How doth the little crocodile

    Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile

    On every golden scale!
'How cheerfully he seems to grin,

    How neatly spread his claws,
And welcome little fishes in

    With gently smiling jaws!'
'I'm sure those are not the right words,' said poor Alice, and
her eyes filled with tears again as she went on, 'I must be Mabel
after all, and I shall have to go and live in that poky little
house, and have next to no toys to play with, and oh! ever so
many lessons to learn! No, I've made up my mind about it; if I'm
Mabel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no use their putting their
heads down and saying "Come up again, dear!" I shall only look up
and say "Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like
being that person, I'll come up: if not, I'll stay down here till
I'm somebody else"--but, oh dear!' cried Alice, with a sudden
burst of tears, 'I do wish they would put their heads
down! I am so very tired of being all alone here!'
As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was
surprised to see that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little
white kid gloves while she was talking. 'How can I have
done that?' she thought. 'I must be growing small again.' She got
up and went to the table to measure herself by it, and found
that, as nearly as she could guess, she was now about two feet
high, and was going on shrinking rapidly: she soon found out that
the cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped it
hastily, just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether.
'That was a narrow escape!' said Alice, a good deal
frightened at the sudden change, but very glad to find herself
still in existence; 'and now for the garden!' 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! And
I declare it's too bad, that it is!'