She generally gave herself very good
advice, (though she very seldom followed
it), and sometimes she scolded herself so
severely as to bring tears into her eyes;
and once she remembered trying to box
her own ears for having cheated herself in
a game of croquet she was playing
against herself, for this curious child was
very fond of pretending to be two people.
'But it's no use now,' thought poor Alice,
'to pretend to be two people! Why, there's
hardly enough of me left to make ONE
respectable person!'
Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that
was lying under the table: she opened it,
and found in it a very small cake, on which
the words 'EAT ME' were beautifully
marked in currants. 'Well, I'll eat it,' said
Alice, 'and if it makes me grow larger, I
can reach the key; and if it
makes me grow smaller, I can creep
under the door; so either way I'll get into
the garden, and I don't care which
happens!'
She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to
herself, 'Which way? Which way?',
holding her hand on the top of her head
to feel which way it was growing, and she
was quite surprised to find that she
remained the same size: to be sure, this
generally happens when one eats cake,
but Alic e had got so much into the way of
expecting nothing but out-of-the-way
things to happen, that it seemed quite
dull and stupid for life to go on in the
common way.
So she set to work, and very soon
finished off the cake.