[Illustration: GRAND EXCURSION TO BLUNDERTOWN AND BACK]
[Illustration: Three] little boys (whose names you must not know—so,
choosing something like them, they shall be called Norval, Jaques, and
Ranulf) had been reading all about Alice, and the strange, funny things
she saw and did when fast asleep.
[Sidenote: IF WE COULD.]
“I wonder,” said Jaques, “if I could ever get to sleep like her, so as to
walk through looking-glasses, and that sort of thing, without breaking
them or coming up against the wall!”
“Oh,” said Ranulf, “wouldn’t it be nice if we could! Only the funniest
thing is how she got through the wall. I don’t see how being asleep would
help her to do that.”
Norval, the eldest, broke in—“Oh, you big stupid! she didn’t go through
it; she only thought she did.”
“Well, then,” said Jaques, “I want to think it too. Last night when I was
in bed I tried to go to sleep, and to get through the wall; but when I
fell asleep I forgot all about it, and dreamed that I was sick, and that
the doctor gave me a big glass of something horrid.”
“Ah, but,” said Norval, “that was because you tried. Alice didn’t try,
you know. She knew nothing about being asleep till she woke up.”
“Well, I didn’t know I was asleep till I woke up, either,” answered
Jaques.
Ranulf looked very wise, although he was the smallest, and said, “Perhaps
if Alice was here, she would tell us how to do it.”
[Sidenote: HOW TO DO IT.]
“Of course I would,” said a sweet voice behind them; and, turning round,
who should they see but little Alice herself, looking exactly as she does
on page 35, where she is getting her thimble from the Dodo?
“Oh, how awfully jolly!” cried Norval; “will you help us?” He was very
much surprised, not at seeing Alice, but at not being surprised.
“Indeed I will,” said she, “although I don’t know, you know, whether boys
can manage it.”
Ranulf was just going to say, saucily, “A great deal better than girls, I
should think,” when Norval, who was older, and knew better how to behave,
checked him, and said—
[Sidenote: BY ORDER.]
“But, Alice, dear, surely if it’s done by going to sleep, boys can do
that as well as girls.”
“Well, so they can,” said she; “but then, you see, everybody who goes to
sleep doesn’t get to Wonderland.”
“Oh, but perhaps,” said Jaques, “if you will go to sleep too, you will
come with us, and show us the way.”
“Ah! I can’t do that to-day,” said Alice, looking very grave; “for, you
see, when I came to you I was just going to give Dollys their dinner—such
a nice dinner! cake and currants; and it would be cruel to leave them
looking at it till I came back.”
Now Norval suddenly remembered that he knew some boys whose uncle was a
Director at the Aquarium, and who, when he could not go with them and
pass them in himself, gave them a written order; so, turning to Alice, he
said—
“Oh, but if you would give us a pass, it might help us.” And sitting down
at the writing-table, he wrote in stiff letters, imitating the papers he
had seen, and laying the pass before her, said, “Now, write ‘Alice’ there
ever so big, and put a grand whirly stroke under it.”
Alice obeyed, and the pass was ready.
“Now then,” said she, “you had better go to sleep.”
Norval threw himself down on a sofa; Jaques and Ranulf coiled themselves
up on the rug.
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: SHUT UP.]
Norval could not resist the temptation to keep one eye half open, that
he might see what Alice did. But she, noticing this, held up her little
forefinger, and said, “Come, come, that won’t do.” Thus rebuked, Norval
shut his other eye.
“Now, all go to sleep at once,” said Alice.
[Sidenote: PLAGUEY BOYS.]
“I’m nearly asleep already,” said Jaques.
“Oh!” said Norval.
“No!” said Ranulf.
“That’s talking, not going to sleep,” said Alice.
All was still for a little, then Jaques half uncoiled himself and looked
at Ranulf.
Ranulf uncoiled himself and looked at Norval.
Norval raised his head, and looked at Jaques.
On finding that they were all awake, the three burst out laughing.
“That’s laughing, not going to sleep,” said Alice.
Down they all flopped again, and then Alice, to help them, said, “Hushaby
baby, on the tree-top!”
“I’m not a baby,” said Ranulf, much offended, as he was nearly six.
“I’m not on a tree-top,” said Jaques.
“You’ve waked me up,” said Norval.
[Sidenote: WE’LL BE GOOD.]
“That’s chattering, not going to sleep,” said Alice.
“I’m sure I must be asleep now,” said Norval.
“So am I,” said Jaques.
“And me too,” said Ranulf.
“That’s talking nonsense, not going to sleep,” said she. “I see it’s no
use; Alice’s way won’t do with wild rogues like you, and I really must go
back to Dollys.”
“What _are_ we to do?” said Norval; “we can’t fall asleep. Don’t you
think we could get to the funny places you went to without going to
sleep?”
“Will you do what I tell you?” asked Alice, holding up her little
forefinger in a dignified kind of way.
Jaques had some misgivings about compromising his position as a small
lord of the creation by agreeing to do what a little girl told him; but
his anxiety to see some wonders prevailed, and they all said that they
would obey.
“Shut your eyes, then, and don’t open them till I tell you, and perhaps
something will happen.”
[Sidenote: AN EYE-OPENER.]
Norval rolled down from the sofa to the side of his brothers. Then all
squeezed up their eyes quite tight, and although they heard a curious
rumbling noise, did not open them.
“That’s right,” said Alice; “you would have spoiled everything if you
had peeped. Boys who don’t do what they are told spoil everything, and
themselves besides. Now you may look!”
They had squeezed their eyes so tight that it took ever so long to get
them unfastened. Jaques got his open first, and saw that little Alice was
gone.
“Oh, Alice, where are you?” he cried.
A distant voice replied, “Off to Dollys!”
[Sidenote: OVER THE SLEEPERS.]
[Illustration]
Just as he was going to say, “What a shame, when I squeezed so hard!”
Norval and Ranulf got their eyes open, and before Jaques could speak,
they gave a wild shout, “Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!” Jaques’ head had been
looking the wrong way, but when he turned round he saw what the others
had seen—