ou to leave off this minute!" She generally gave
herself very good advice (though she very seldom followed it), and
sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her
eyes.

Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table:
she opened it and found in it a very small cake, on which the words "EAT
ME" were beautifully marked in currants. "Well, I'll eat it," said
Alice, "and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it
makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door: so either way I'll
get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!"

She ate a little bit and said anxiously to herself, "Which way? Which
way?" holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way she was
growing; and she was quite surprised to find that she remained the same
size. So she set to work and very soon finished off the cake.

[Illustration]

II--THE POOL OF TEARS

"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-by, feet! Oh,
my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings
for you now, dears? I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble
myself about you."

Just at this moment her head struck against the roof of the hall; in
fact, she was now rather more than nine feet high, and she at once took
up the little golden key and hurried off to the garden door.

Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one side, to
look through into the garden with one eye; but to get through was more
hopeless than ever. She sat down and began to cry again.

She went on shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool all
'round her and reaching half down the hall.

After a time, she heard a little pattering of feet in the distance and
she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming. It was the White
Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid-gloves in
one hand and a large fan in the other. He came trotting along in a
great hurry, muttering to himself, "Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh!
_won't_ she be savage if I've kept her waiting!"

When the Rabbit came near her, Alice began, in a low, timid voice, "If
you please, sir--" The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white
kid-gloves and the fan and skurried away into the darkness as hard as he
could go.

[Illustration