A very queer-looking party of dripping birds and animals now gathered on the bank of the Pool of Tears; but they were not so queer as their talk.  First the Mouse, who was quite a person of authority among them, tried to dry them by telling them frightfully dry stories from history.  But Alice confessed she was as wet as ever after she had listened to the bits of English history; so the Dodo proposed a Caucus race.  They all started off when they liked, and stopped when they liked.  The Dodo said everybody had won, and Alice had to give the prizes.  Luckily she had some sweets, which were not wet, and there was just one for each of them, but none for herself.  The party were anxious she, too, should have a prize, and as she happened to have a thimble, the Dodo commanded her to hand it to him, and then, with great ceremony, the Dodo presented it to her, saying, “We beg your acceptance of this elegant thimble,” and they all cheered.

Of course, Alice thought this all very absurd; but they were dry now, and began eating their sweets.  Then the Mouse began to tell Alice its history, and to explain why it hated C and D—­for it was afraid to say cats and dogs.  But she soon offended the Mouse, first by mistaking its “long and sad tale” for a “long tail,” and next by thinking it meant “knot” when it said “not,” so that it went off in a huff.  Then when she mentioned Dinah to the others, and told them that was the name of her cat, the birds got uneasy, and one by one the whole party gradually went off and left her all alone.  Just when she was beginning to cry, she heard a pattering of little feet, and half thought it might be the Mouse coming back to finish its story.

It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again, and looking anxiously about as he went, as if he had lost something and she heard him muttering to himself, “The Duchess!  The Duchess!  Oh, my dear paws!  Oh, my fur and whiskers!  She’ll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are ferrets!  Where can I have dropped them, I wonder?”

Very soon the Rabbit noticed Alice, and called out to her in an angry tone, “Why, Mary Ann, what are you doing out here?  Run home this moment, and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan.  Quick, now!”

“He took me for his housemaid,” she said to herself as she ran.  “How surprised he’ll be when he finds out who I am!  But I’d better take him his fan and gloves—­that is, if I can find them.”  As she said this, she came upon a neat little house, on the door of which was a bright brass plate with the name W. RABBIT engraved upon it.  Inside the house she had a strange adventure, for she tried what the result of drinking from a bottle she found in the room would be, and grew so large that the house could hardly hold her.  The White Rabbit and some of his friends, including Bill, the Lizard, threw a lot of little pebbles through the window, and these turned into tiny cakes.  So Alice ate some and was delighted to find that she began shrinking