out-of-the-way things had happened lately that Alice
had begun to think that very few things indeed were really
impossible.

There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she
went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on
it, or, at any rate, a book of rules for shutting people up like
telescopes. This time she found a little bottle on it ("which
certainly was not here before," said Alice), and round its neck a
paper label, with the words "DRINK ME" beautifully printed on it in
large letters.

It was all very well to say "Drink me," but the wise little Alice
was not going to do _that_ in a hurry. "No, I'll look first," she
said, "and see whether it's marked '_poison_' or not"; for she had
read several nice little histories about children who had got
burned, and eaten up by wild beasts, and many other unpleasant
things, all because they _would_ not remember the simple rules
their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will
burn you if you hold it too long; and that, if you cut your finger
_very_ deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never
forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked "_poison_,"
it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.

However, this bottle was _not_ marked "poison," so Alice ventured
to taste it, and, finding it very nice (it had, in fact, a sort of
mixed flavor of cherry-tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey,
toffee, and hot buttered toast), she very soon finished it off.

* * * * *

"What a curious feeling!" said Alice. "I must be shutting up like a
telescope."

And so it was, indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and her
face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size
for going through the little door into that lovely garden. First,
however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to
shrink any further: she felt a little nervous about this, "for it
might end, you know," said Alice, "in my going out altogether, like
a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?" And she tried to
fancy what the flame of a candle is like after it is blown out, for
she could not remember ever having seen such a thing.

After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided