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It was a very strange group of creatures that arrived at the bank of the pool of tears. The birds' feathers and the mammals' fur were wet and dripping and everyone was in a bad mood.

The first question, of course, was how to get dry again. They had a consultation about this and after a few minutes, Alice was talking to the animals as if she had known them all her life.

At last the Mouse, who seemed to be the boss, called out, "Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! I'll soon make you dry!" They all sat down in a large circle with the Mouse in the middle.

"Ahem!" said the Mouse with an important air. "Are you all ready? This is the driest thing I know. Silence everyone, if you please! William the Conqueror conquered England in 1066. Soon Earl Edwin of Mercia and Earl Morcar of Northumbria offered the crown to William so he could become the new king of England."

"Ugh! How boring," said the Lory with a shiver.

The Mouse continued, "And even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found it advisable."

"Found what?" interrupted the Duck.

"Found it," the Mouse replied crossly. "Of course you know what 'it' means."

"I know what 'it' means when I find a thing," said the Duck. "In my case, it's generally a frog or a worm. The question is, what did the archbishop find?"

The Mouse ignored the Duck and continued, "The Archbishop found it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet William and offer him the crown." The Mouse looked at Alice and said, "How are you now, my dear?"

"As wet as ever," said Alice in a sad voice. "Your story doesn't seem to dry me at all."

"In that case," interrupted the Dodo solemnly as he stood up, "I move that the meeting adjourn for the immediate adoption of more energetic remedies."

"Speak English!" protested the Eaglet. "I don't know the meaning of half those long words and, what's more, I don't believe you do either!"

"What I was going to say," continued the Dodo in an offended tone, "is that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus race."

"What is a Caucus race?" asked Alice.

"Well," replied the Dodo, "the best way to explain it, is to do it." First, the Dodo marked out a race course, in a sort of circle, and then everyone got into position along the course, here, there and everywhere. There was no "Ready! Steady! Go!" so they started running whenever they wanted to and stopped whenever they wanted to. Consequently, it was not easy to know when the race was finished. However, when everyone had been running for half an hour or so and were dry again, the Dodo suddenly shouted, "Stop! The race has finished." Everyone crowded around the Dodo, panting and asking, "But who has won the race?"

This question about who had won the race confused the Dodo and he had to think about it for a long time. At last the Dodo said, "Everybody has won the race and everyone must have prizes."

Then everyone asked, "But who is giving the prizes?"

"She is!" declared the Dodo, pointing to Alice with one finger and so everyone crowded around Alice shouting, "Prizes! Prizes! We want our prizes!"

This was a very stressful moment for Alice. She had no idea what to do and in despair she put her hand into her pocket and pulled out a box of candies. Luckily, the salty water from the pool of tears had not spoiled them. Alice handed out the candies to the animals and there was exactly one sweet for everyone.

The animals found it difficult to eat the candies. The large birds said they couldn't taste anything and the small ones choked and had to be patted on the back. When at last they finished eating their sweets, everyone sat down in a circle again and asked the Mouse to tell them another story.

"You promised to tell me your story, you know," said Alice to the Mouse and then she whispered, "Especially about why you hate Cs and Ds." She whispered this last bit because she was worried about offending the Mouse again.

"Mine is a long and a sad tale." said the Mouse, turning to Alice and sighing.

Alice understood 'tail' instead of 'tale' and said, "It is a long tail, certainly." She was amazed by the Mouse's very long tail. "Why do you say your tail is sad?" But the Mouse was too busy telling a story about a dog called Fury and didn't hear her question. Apparently, Fury the dog wanted to take the Mouse to court and condemn the Mouse to death, which wasn't very nice at all. Unfortunately, Alice didn't hear any of this because she was still thinking about the Mouse's tail.

"You are not listening!" said the Mouse to Alice, angrily. "What are you thinking about?"

"Sorry," said Alice in an embarrassed way, "I was thinking about your long tail."

"You insult me by talking such nonsense!" said the Mouse, standing up and walking away.

"Please come back and finish your story!" cried Alice. Everyone agreed. "Yes, please do!" But the Mouse only shook its head impatiently and walked a little quicker.

"I wish I had Dinah, our cat, here!" said Alice. This shocked everyone. Some of the birds flew away immediately and a Canary said to its children in a frightened voice, "Let's go, my dears. It's bedtime." With different excuses, everybody left and Alice was all alone again.

"I wish I hadn't mentioned Dinah! Nobody seems to like her down here and I'm sure she's the best cat in the world!" Poor Alice felt lonely and sad and started crying again. In a little while, however, she heard a little pattering of footsteps in the distance and she looked up.