Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: HTML Edition

								

one for catching mice--oh, I beg your pardon!' cried Alice again,
for this time the Mouse was bristling all over, and she felt
certain it must be really offended. 'We won't talk about her any
more if you'd rather not.'
'We indeed!' cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the
end of his tail. 'As if I would talk on such a subject! Our
family always hated cats: nasty, low, vulgar things! Don't
let me hear the name again!'
'I won't indeed!' said Alice, in a great hurry to change the
subject of conversation. 'Are you--are you fond--of--of dogs?'
The Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly: 'There is
such a nice little dog near our house I should like to show you!
A little bright-eyed terrier, you know, with oh, such long curly
brown hair! And it'll fetch things when you throw them, and it'll
sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts of things--I can't
remember half of them--and it belongs to a farmer, you know, and
he says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds! He says it
kills all the rats and--oh dear!' cried Alice in a sorrowful
tone, 'I'm afraid I've offended it again!' For the Mouse was
swimming away from her as hard as it could go, and making quite a
commotion in the pool as it went.
So she called softly after it, 'Mouse dear! Do come back
again, and we won't talk about cats or dogs either, if you don't
like them!' When the Mouse heard this, it turned round and swam
slowly back to her: its face was quite pale (with passion, Alice
thought), and it said in a low trembling voice, 'Let us get to
the shore, and then I'll tell you my history, and you'll
understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.'
It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded
with the birds and animals that had fallen into it: there were a
Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious
creatures. Alice led the way, and the whole party swam to the
shore.

CHAPTER III
A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale

They were indeed a queer-looking party that assembled on the
bank--the birds with draggled feathers, the animals with their
fur clinging close to them, and all dripping wet, cross, and
uncomfortable.
The first question of course was, how to get dry again: they
had a consultation about this, and after a few minutes it seemed
quite natural to Alice to find herself talking familiarly with
them, as if she had known them all her life. Indeed, she had
quite a long argument with the Lory, who at last turned sulky,
and would only say, 'I am older than you, and must know better';
and this Alice would not allow without knowing how old it was,
and, as the Lory positively refused to tell its age, there was no
more to be said.
At last the Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority
among them, called out, 'Sit down, all of you, and listen to me!
I'll soon make you dry enough!' They all sat down at once,
in a large ring, with the Mouse in the middle. Alice kept her