The characters have colours so we can read aloud together.
- CHARACTERS
- Narrator
- Alice
- White Rabbit
- The Mouse
"Curiouser and curiouser!" cried Alice. "Now I'm getting bigger and bigger like the largest telescope that ever was! Goodbye, feet! Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I shall be too far away to do it now."
Just at this moment, she hit her head on the roof of the hall. In fact, she was now more than two and a half metres tall and immediately she picked up the little golden key and hurried off to the garden door. Poor Alice! She had to lie down on one side and look through the door into the garden with one eye. Getting through the door was more hopeless now than ever. She sat down and started crying again. She continued crying lots of tears until there was a large pool all around her, reaching halfway down the hall.
After a time, she heard a little pattering of feet in the distance and she quickly dried her eyes to see what was coming. It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other. He came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to himself, "Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! She'll be so angry if I've kept her waiting!"
When the Rabbit came near her, Alice began, in a low, timid voice, "If you please, sir." The Rabbit jumped up in surprise, dropped the white gloves and the fan too and ran away into the darkness as fast as he could go. Alice picked up the fan and gloves and she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking. "Dear, dear! How strange everything is today! And yesterday things were so normal. Was I the same when I got up this morning? But if I'm not the same, the next question is, 'Who am I now?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!"
As she said this, she looked down at her hands and was surprised to see that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little white gloves while she was talking. "How can I have done that?" she thought. "I must be growing small again."
She got up and went to the table so she could measure herself and she found that she was now only sixty centimetres tall and that she was still shrinking rapidly. She soon found out that the cause of this was the fan she was holding so she dropped it quickly, just in time to save herself from disappearing completely.
"That was a narrow escape!" said Alice, a good deal frightened at the sudden change but very glad to find herself still in existence. "And now for the garden!" And she 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 the same as before. "Things are worse than ever," thought the poor child, "because I was never ever as small as this before!"
As she said these words, her foot slipped and in another moment, splash! She was up to her chin in salt water. Her first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea. However, she soon realised that she was in the pool of tears which she had cried when she was two and a half metres tall.
Just then, she heard something splashing about in the pool quite near and she swam closer to see what it was. She soon realised that it was only a mouse that had fallen in like herself.
"Would it be helpful," thought Alice, "to speak to this mouse? Everything is so stange down here that it can probably talk. Well, there's no harm in trying." So she began, "Oh Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming. Oh Mouse!" The Mouse looked at her with curiosity and seemed to wink at her with one of its little eyes but it said nothing.
"Perhaps it doesn't understand English," thought Alice. "Maybe it's a French mouse who came to England with William the Conqueror."
So she began again: "Où est ma chatte?" which was the first sentence in her French school book. The Mouse suddenly jumped up out of the water and shivered with fright. "Oh, I beg your pardon!" cried Alice quickly, afraid that she had hurt the poor animal's feelings. "I quite forgot you don't like cats."
"Not like cats!" cried the Mouse in a squeaky, angry voice. "Would you like cats, if you were me?"
"Well, perhaps not," said Alice in a kind voice. "But don't be angry about it. Nevertheless, I wish I could show you my cat Dinah. I think you would like cats if you could only see her. She is such a dear, quiet thing." The Mouse was shaking all over and Alice was certain it was really offended. "We won't talk about cats anymore if you'd prefer not to."
"We?!" cried the Mouse, "I never talk about cats! My family always hated cats. They are nasty! Don't mention them again!"
"I won't. I won't" said Alice, in a great hurry to change the subject of conversation. "Do you like... dogs? There is such a nice little dog near our house. I should like to show you! It kills all the rats and... oh, dear!" cried Alice in a sorrowful tone. "I'm afraid I've offended it again!" With lots of splashes, the Mouse swam away from Alice as fast as it could.
"Mouse dear! Please come back. We won't talk about cats or dogs if you don't like them!" When the Mouse heard this, it turned around and swam slowly back to her. Its face was pale and it said in a low, trembling voice, "Let us get to the shore and then I'll tell you my story and you'll understand why I hate cats and dogs."
It was time to go because the pool was getting crowded with the birds and animals that had fallen in. There were a Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet and several other strange creatures. Alice led the way and all the animals swam to the shore.