you ever saw. How she longed to get out
of that dark hall, and wander about
among those beds of bright flowers and
those cool fountains, but she could not
even get her head through the doorway;
'and even if my head would go through,'
thought poor Alice, 'it would be of very
little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I
wish I could shut up like a telescope! I
think I could, if I only know how to begin.'
For, you see, so many out-of-the-way
things had happened lately, that Alice
had begun to think that very few things
indeed were really impossible.
There seemed to be no use in waiting by
the little door, so she went back to the
table, half hoping she might find another
key on it, or at any rate a book of rules
for shutting people up like telescopes:
this time she found a little bottle on it,
('which certainly was not here before,'
said Alice,) and round the neck of the
bottle was a paper label, with the words
'DRINK ME' beautifully printed on it in
large letters. It was all very well to say
'Drink me,' but the wise little Alice was
not going to do THAT in a hurry.
'No, I'll look first,' she said, 'and see
whether it's marked "poison" or not'; for
she had read several nice little histories
about children who had got burnt, and
eaten up by wild beasts and other
unpleasant things, all because they
WOULD not remember the simple rules