as he came, "Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess!
Oh! won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting!" Alice felt so
desperate that she was ready to ask help of any one; so, when the
Rabbit came near her, she began, in a low, timid voice, "If you please,
sir----" The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid gloves and
the fan, and scurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go.

Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she
kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking! "Dear, dear! How
queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual.
I wonder if I've been changed during the night? Let me think: _was_ I
the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember
feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question
is, who in the world am I? Ah, _that's_ the great puzzle!" And she began
thinking over all the children she knew that were of the same age as
herself, to see if she could have been changed for any of them.

"I'm sure I'm not Ada," she said, "for her hair goes in such 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 spreads his claws,
And welcomes 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