such a dear thing," Al-ice went on half to
her-self as she swam round in the pool, "and she sits and purrs by the
fire and licks her paws and wash-es her face--and she is such a nice
soft thing to nurse--and she's a fine one to catch mice--Oh, dear!"
cried Al-ice, for this time the Mouse was in a great fright and each
hair stood on end. "We won't talk of her if you don't like it."

"We talk!" cried the Mouse, who shook down to the end of his tail. "As
if _I_ would talk of such low, mean things as cats! All rats hate them.
Don't let me hear the name a-gain!"

"I won't," said Al-ice, in great haste to change the theme. "Are you
fond--of--of dogs?" The mouse did not speak, so Al-ice went on: "There
is such a nice dog near our house, I should like to show you! A ti-ny
bright-eyed dog, you know, with oh! such long cur-ly brown hair! And
it'll fetch things when you throw them, and it'll sit up and beg for its
meat and do all sorts of things--I can't tell you half of them. And it
kills all the rats, and m--oh dear!" cried Al-ice in a sad tone, "I've
made it mad a-gain!" For the Mouse swam off from her as fast as it could
go, and made quite a stir in the pool as it went.

So she called it in a soft, kind voice, "Mouse dear! Do come back and we
won't talk of cats or dogs if you don't like them!" When the Mouse heard
this it turned round and swam back to her; its face was quite pale (with
rage, Al-ice thought), and it said in a low, weak voice, "Let us get to
the shore, and then I'll tell you why it is I hate cats and dogs."

It was high time to go, for the pool was by this time quite crowded with
the birds and beasts that had slipped in-to it. Al-ice led the way and
they all swam to the shore.

CHAPTER III.

A RACE.

They were a queer look-ing crowd as they stood or sat on the bank--the
wings and tails of the birds drooped to the earth; the fur of the beasts
clung close to them, and all were as wet and cross as could be.

[Illustration]

The first thought, of course, was how to get dry. They had a long talk
a-bout this, and Al-ice joined with, them as if she had known them all
her life. But it was hard to tell what was best.

"What I want to say," at last spoke up the Do-do, "is that the best
thing to get us dry would be a race."

"What kind of race?" asked Al-ice, not that she much want-ed to know,
but the Do-do had paused as if it thought that some one ought to speak,
and no one else would say a word. "Wh