e
mentioned Dinah to the others, and told them that was the name of her
cat, the birds got uneasy, and one by one the whole party gradually went
off and left her all alone. Just when she was beginning to cry, she
heard a pattering of little feet, and half thought it might be the Mouse
coming back to finish its story.

It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again, and looking
anxiously about as he went, as if he had lost something and she heard
him muttering to himself, "The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh, my dear paws!
Oh, my fur and whiskers! She'll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are
ferrets! Where _can_ I have dropped them, I wonder?"

Very soon the Rabbit noticed Alice, and called out to her in an angry
tone, "Why, Mary Ann, what _are_ you doing out here? Run home this
moment, and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan. Quick, now!"

"He took me for his housemaid," she said to herself as she ran. "How
surprised he'll be when he finds out who I am! But I'd better take him
his fan and gloves--that is, if I can find them." As she said this, she
came upon a neat little house, on the door of which was a bright brass
plate with the name W. RABBIT engraved upon it. Inside the house she had
a strange adventure, for she tried what the result of drinking from a
bottle she found in the room would be, and grew so large that the house
could hardly hold her. The White Rabbit and some of his friends,
including Bill, the Lizard, threw a lot of little pebbles through the
window, and these turned into tiny cakes. So Alice ate some and was
delighted to find that she began shrinking directly. As soon as she was
small enough to get through the door, she ran out of the house, and
found quite a crowd of little animals and birds waiting outside. The
poor Lizard, Bill, was in the middle, being held up by two guinea-pigs,
who were giving it something out of a bottle. They all made a rush at
Alice the moment she appeared but she ran off as hard as she could, and
soon found herself safe in a thick wood.

_III.--The Adventures in the Wood_

Once in the wood, she was anxious to get back to her right size again,
and then to get into that lovely garden. But how? Peeping over a
mushroom, she beheld a large blue caterpillar sitting on the top with
its arms folded, quietly smoking a long hookah, and taking not the
smallest notice of her or of anything else. At length, in a sleepy sort
of way, it began talking to her, and she told it what s