== The Pool of Tears
“Curiouser and curiouser!” alt/first and second or third/pov/S
cried/cried pov/S/ (pov/s vrb/be/ so much surprised, that for the moment
pov/s quite forgot how to speak good English); “now I'm opening out like
the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!” (for when pov/s
looked down at pov/p feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they
were getting so far off). “Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will
put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I'm sure #emph[I]
shan't be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself
about you: you must manage the best way you can;---but I must be kind to
them,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S thought/thought pov/S/, “or
perhaps they won't walk the way I want to go! Let me see: I'll give them
a new pair of boots every Christmas.”

And pov/s went on planning to pov/r how pov/s would manage it. “They
must go by the carrier,” pov/s thought; “and how funny it'll seem,
sending presents to one's own feet! And how odd the directions will
look!

#include "poems/right-foot-esq.typ"

Oh dear, what nonsense I'm talking!”

Just then pov/p head struck against the roof of the hall: in fact pov/s
was now more than nine feet high, and pov/s at once took up the little
golden key and hurried off to the garden door.

Poor pov/S! It was as much as pov/s could do, lying down on one side, to
look through into the garden with one eye; but to get through was more
hopeless than ever: pov/s sat down and began to cry again.

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” alt/first and second or
third/pov/S said/said pov/S/, “a great prn/n like you,” (pov/s might
well say this), “to go on crying in this way! Stop this moment, I tell
you!” But pov/s went on all the same, shedding gallons of tears, until
there was a large pool all round pov/o, about four inches deep and
reaching half down the hall.

After a time pov/s heard a little pattering of feet in the distance, and
pov/s hastily dried pov/p eyes to see what was coming. It was the White
Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in
one hand and a large fan in the other: he came trotting along in a great
hurry, muttering to himself as he came, “Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess!
Oh! won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting!” Pov/S felt so
desperate that pov/s was ready to ask help of any one; so, when the
Rabbit came near pov/p, pov/s began, in a low, timid voice, “If you
please, sir---” The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid
gloves and the fan, and skurried away into the darkness as hard as he
could go.

Pov/S took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, pov/s
kept fanning pov/r all the time pov/s 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 in 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, #emph[that's] the great puzzle!” And pov/s began
thinking over all the children pov/s knew that were of the same age as
pov/r, to see if pov/s could have been changed for any of them.

“I'm sure I'm not Ada,” pov/s said, “for prn/p 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 prn/s, oh! prn/s knows
such a very little! Besides, #emph[prn/s's] prn/s, and #emph[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, #emph[that's] all wrong, I'm certain! I
must have been changed for Mabel! I'll try and say ‘#emph[How doth the
little];---'” and pov/s crossed pov/p hands on pov/p lap as if pov/s
were saying lessons, and began to repeat it, but pov/p voice sounded
hoarse and strange, and the words did not come the same as they used to
do:---

#include "poems/how-doth-the-little-crocodile.typ"

“I'm sure those are not the right words,” alt/first and second or
third/pov/s said/said poor pov/O/, and pov/p eyes filled with tears
again as pov/s went on, “I must be Mabel after all, and I shall have to
go and live in that poky little house, and have next to no toys to play
with, and oh! ever so many lessons to learn! No, I've made up my mind
about it; if I'm Mabel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no use their
putting their heads down and saying ‘Come up again, dear!' I shall only
look up and say ‘Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like
being that person, I'll come up: if not, I'll stay down here till I'm
somebody else'---but, oh dear!” alt/first and second or third/pov/S
cried/cried pov/S/, with a sudden burst of tears, “I do wish they
#emph[would] put their heads down! I am so #emph[very] tired of being
all alone here!”

As pov/s said this pov/s looked down at pov/p hands, and was surprised
to see that pov/s had put on one of the Rabbit's little white kid gloves
while pov/s was talking. “How #emph[can] I have done that?” pov/s
thought. “I must be growing small again.” Pov/s got up and went to the
table to measure pov/r by it, and found that, as nearly as pov/s could
guess, pov/s vrb/be/ now about two feet high, and vrb/be/ going on
shrinking rapidly: pov/s soon found out that the cause of this was the
fan pov/s was holding, and pov/s dropped it hastily, just in time to
avoid shrinking away altogether.

“That #emph[was] a narrow escape!” alt/first and second or third/pov/S
said/said pov/S/, a good deal frightened at the sudden change, but very
glad to find pov/r still in existence; “and now for the garden!” and
pov/s ran with all speed back to the little door: but, alas! the little
door was shut again, and the little golden key was lying on the glass
table as before, “and things are worse than ever,” thought the poor
child, “for I never was so small as this before, never! And I declare
it's too bad, that it is!”

As pov/s said these words pov/p foot slipped, and in another moment,
splash! pov/s vrb/be/ up to pov/p chin in salt water. Pov/p first idea
was that pov/s had somehow fallen into the sea, “and in that case I can
go back by railway,” pov/s said to pov/r. (Pov/S had been to the seaside
once in pov/p life, and had come to the general conclusion, that
wherever you go to on the English coast you find a number of bathing
machines in the sea, some children digging in the sand with wooden
spades, then a row of lodging houses, and behind them a railway
station.) However, pov/s soon made out that pov/s was in the pool of
tears which pov/s had wept when pov/s was nine feet high.

“I wish I hadn't cried so much!” alt/first and second or third/pov/S
said/said pov/S/, as pov/s swam about, trying to find pov/p way out. “I
shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own
tears! That #emph[will] be a queer thing, to be sure! However,
everything is queer to-day.”

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

“Would it be of any use, now,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S
thought/thought pov/S/, “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 pov/s began: “O Mouse, do
you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming about
here, O Mouse!” (Pov/S thought this must be the right way of speaking to
a mouse: pov/s had never done such a thing before, but pov/s remembered
having seen in pov/p brother's Latin Grammar, “A mouse---of a mouse---to
a mouse---a mouse---O mouse!”) The Mouse looked at pov/o rather
inquisitively, and seemed to pov/o to wink with one of its little eyes,
but it said nothing.

“Perhaps it doesn't understand English,” alt/first and second or
third/pov/S thought/thought pov/S/; “I daresay it's a French mouse, come
over with William the Conqueror.” (For, with all pov/p knowledge of
history, pov/S had no very clear notion how long ago anything had
happened.) So pov/s began again: “Où est ma chatte?” which was the first
sentence in pov/p 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!” alt/first and second or third/pov/S cried/cried pov/S/ hastily,
afraid that pov/s 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
#emph[you] like cats if you were me?”

“Well, perhaps not,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said
pov/S/ 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,” pov/S went on, half
to pov/r, as pov/s 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!” alt/first and second or
third/pov/S cried/cried pov/S/ again, for this time the Mouse was
bristling all over, and pov/s felt certain it must be really offended.
“We won't talk about her any more if you'd rather not.”

“We indeed!” cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end of his
tail. “As if #emph[I] would talk on such a subject! Our family always
#emph[hated] cats: nasty, low, vulgar things! Don't let me hear the name
again!”

“I won't indeed!” alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said pov/S/,
in a great hurry to change the subject of conversation. “Are you---are
you fond---of---of dogs?” The Mouse did not answer, so pov/S went on
eagerly: “There is such a nice little dog near our house I should like
to show you! A little bright-eyed terrier, you know, with oh, such long
curly brown hair! And it'll fetch things when you throw them, and it'll
sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts of things---I can't
remember half of them---and it belongs to a farmer, you know, and he
says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds! He says it kills all
the rats and---oh dear!” alt/first and second or third/pov/S cried/cried
pov/S/ in a sorrowful tone, “I'm afraid I've offended it again!” For the
Mouse was swimming away from pov/o as hard as it could go, and making
quite a commotion in the pool as it went.

So pov/s called softly after it, “Mouse dear! Do come back again, and we
won't talk about cats or dogs either, if you don't like them!” When the
Mouse heard this, it turned round and swam slowly back to pov/o: its
face was quite pale (with passion, pov/S thought), and it said in a low
trembling voice, “Let us get to the shore, and then I'll tell you my
history, and you'll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.”

It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with the
birds and animals that had fallen into it: there were a Duck and a Dodo,
a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures. Pov/S led the
way, and the whole party swam to the shore.
