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[Illustration]
ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
RETOLD IN WORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE
By MRS. J.C. GORHAM
_FULLY ILLUSTRATED_
A.L. BURT COMPANY
PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT 1905
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
CHAPTER II.
THE POOL OF TEARS
CHAPTER III.
A RACE
CHAPTER IV.
THE RABBIT SENDS IN A BILL
CHAPTER V.
A CATERPILLAR TELLS ALICE WHAT TO DO
CHAPTER VI.
PIG AND PEPPER
CHAPTER VII.
A MAD TEA PARTY
CHAPTER VIII.
THE QUEEN'S CROQUET GROUND
CHAPTER IX.
THE MOCK TURTLE
CHAPTER X.
THE LOBSTER DANCE
CHAPTER XI.
WHO STOLE THE TARTS?
CHAPTER XII.
ALICE ON THE STAND
CHAPTER I.
DOWN THE RAB-BIT HOLE.
Al-ice had sat on the bank by her sis-ter till she was tired. Once or
twice she had looked at the book her sis-ter held in her hand, but there
were no pict-ures in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice,
"with-out pict-ures?" She asked her-self as well as she could, for the
hot day made her feel quite dull, if it would be worth while to get up
and pick some dai-sies to make a chain. Just then a white rab-bit with
pink eyes ran close by her.
[Illustration]
That was not such a strange thing, nor did Alice think it so much out of
the way to hear the Rab-bit say, "Oh dear! Oh, dear! I shall be late!"
But when the Rab-bit took a watch out of its pock-et, and looked at it
and then ran on, Al-ice start-ed to her feet, for she knew that was the
first time she had seen a Rab-bit with a watch. She jumped up and ran to
get a look at it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large
rab-bit hole near the hedge.
As fast as she could go, Al-ice went down the hole af-ter it, and did
not once stop to think how in the world she was to get out.
The hole went straight on for some way and then turned down with a sharp
bend, so sharp that Al-ice had no time to think to stop till she found
her-self fall-ing in what seemed a deep well.
She must not have moved fast, or the well must have been quite deep, for
it took her a long time to go down, and as she went she had time to look
at the strange things she passed. First she tried to look down and make
out what was there, but it was too dark to see; then she looked at the
sides of the well and saw that they were piled with book-shelves; here
and there she saw maps hung on pegs. She took down a jar from one of the
shelves as she passed. On it was the word _Jam_, but there was no jam in
it, so she put it back on one of the shelves as she fell past it.
"Well," thought Al-ice to her-self, "af-ter such a fall as this, I shall
not mind a fall down stairs at all. How brave they'll all think me at
home! Why, I wouldn't say a thing if I fell off the top of the house."
(Which I dare say was quite true.)
Down, down, down. Would the fall nev-er come to an end? "I should like
to know," she said, "how far I have come by this time. Wouldn't it be
strange if I should fall right through the earth and come out where the
folks walk with their feet up and their heads down?"
Down, down, down. "Di-nah will miss me to-night," Al-ice went on.
(Di-nah was the cat.) "I hope they'll think to give her her milk at
tea-time. Di-nah, my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are
no mice in the air, but you might catch a bat, and that's much like a
mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats?" And here Al-ice must have gone
to sleep, for she dreamed that she walked hand in hand with Di-nah, and
just as she asked her, "Now, Di-nah, tell me the truth, do you eat
bats?" all at once, thump! thump! down she came on a heap of sticks and
dry leaves, and the long fall was o-ver.
Al-ice was not a bit hurt, but at once jumped to her feet. She looked
up, but all was dark there. At the end of a long hall in front of her
the white rab-bit was still in sight. There was no time to be lost, so
off Al-ice went like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, "Oh,
my ears, how late it is!" then it was out of sight. She found she was in
a long hall with a low roof, from which hung a row of light-ed lamps.
There were doors on all sides, but when Al-ice had been all round and
tried each one, she found they were all locked. She walked back and
forth and tried to think how she was to get out. At last she came to a
stand made all of glass. On it was a ti-ny key of gold, and Al-ice's
first thought was that this might be a key to one of the doors of the
hall, but when she had tried the key in each lock, she found the locks
were too large or the key was too small--it did not fit one of them. But
when she went round the hall once more she came to a low cur-tain which
she had not seen at first, and when she drew this back she found a small
door, not much more than a foot high; she tried the key in the lock, and
to her great joy it fit-ted!
[Illustration]
Al-ice found that the door led to a hall the size of a rat hole; she
knelt down and looked through it in-to a gar-den of gay flow-ers. How
she longed to get out of that dark hall and near those bright blooms;
but she could not so much as get her head through the door; "and if my
head would go through," thought Al-ice, "it would be of no use, for the
rest of me would still be too large to go through. Oh, how I wish I
could shut up small! I think I could if I knew how to start."
There seemed to be no use to wait by the small door, so she went back to
the stand with the hope that she might find a key to one of the large
doors, or may-be a book of rules that would teach her to grow small.
This time she found a small bot-tle on it ("which I am sure was not here
just now," said Al-ice), and tied round the neck of the bot-tle was a
tag with the words "Drink me" printed on it.
It was all right to say "Drink me," but Al-ice was too wise to do that
in haste: "No, I'll look first," she said, "and see if it's marked
'poi-son' or not," for she had been taught if you drink much from a
bot-tle marked 'poi-son,' it is sure to make you sick. This had no such
mark on it, so she dared to taste it, and as she found it nice (it had,
in fact, a taste of pie, ice-cream, roast fowl, and hot toast), she soon
drank it off.
"How strange I feel," said Al-ice. "I am sure I am not so large as I
was!"
And so it was; she was now not quite a foot high, and her face light-ed
up at the thought that she was now the right size to go through the
small door and get out to that love-ly gar-den.
[Illustration]
Poor Al-ice! When she reached the door she found that she had left the
key on the stand, and when she went back for it, she found she could by
no means reach it. She could see it through the glass, and she tried her
best to climb one of the legs of the stand, but it was too sleek, and
when she was quite tired out, she sat down and cried.
"Come, there's no use to cry like that!" Al-ice said to her-self as
stern as she could speak. "I tell you to leave off at once!"
Soon her eyes fell on a small glass box that lay on the floor. She
looked in it and found a tiny cake on which were the words "Eat me,"
marked in grapes. "Well, I'll eat it," said Al-ice, "and if it makes me
grow tall, I can reach the key, and if it makes me shrink up, I can
creep un-der the door; so I'll get out some way."
So she set to work and soon ate all the cake.