Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little
way off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was. At first she
thought it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then she
remembered how small she was now, and she soon made out that it was
only a mouse that had slipped in like herself.

"Would it be of any use, now," thought Alice, "to speak to this
mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here that I should
think very likely it can talk; at any rate, there's no harm in
trying." So she began: "O Mouse, do you know the way out of this
pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!" (Alice
thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse. She had
never done such a thing before, but she remembered having seen in
her brother's Latin Grammar, "A mouse--of a mouse--to a mouse--a
mouse--O mouse!") The Mouse looked at her rather inquisitively,
and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but it said
nothing.

"Perhaps it doesn't understand English," thought Alice; "I dare say
it's a French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror." (For
with all her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion
how long ago anything had happened.) So she began again: "Ou est ma
chatte?" which was the first sentence in her French lesson-book.
The Mouse gave a sudden leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver
all over with fright. "Oh, I beg your pardon!" cried Alice,
hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor animal's feelings. "I
quite forgot you didn't like cats."

"Not like cats!" cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice.
"Would _you_ like cats if you were me?"

"Well, perhaps not," said Alice, in a soothing tone. "Don't be
angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah: I
think you'd take a fancy to cats if you could only see her. She is
such a dear, quiet thing," Alice went on, half to herself, as she
swam lazily about in the pool, "and she sits purring so nicely by
the fire, licking her paws and washing her face--and she is such a
nice soft thing to nurse--and she's such a capital one for catching
mice--oh, I beg your pardon!" cried Alice again, for this time the
Mouse was bristling all over, and she felt certain it must be
really offended. "We won't talk about her any more,