minute down went Alice after him, never once thinking how in the world she was to get out again. Alice found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well. “After such a fall as this," she thought to herself, "I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll think me at home! Why, I shouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!" (Which was very likely true). Down, down, down. Would the fall never end? "I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth!" she thought. "How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards!" Down, down, down. "Dinah'll miss me very much to-night." (Dinah was the cat). "I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah, my dear! I wish you were down here with me!" II. Suddenly, thump! thump! down Alice came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over. Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on her feet in a moment; she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was a long passage and the White Rabbit was hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost; away went Alice like the wind and was just in time to hear the Rabbit say, as he turned a corner, “Oh, my ears and whiskers, how late it is getting!" Alice was close behind the Rabbit, but when she turned the corner he was no longer to be seen. She found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit by a row of lamps hanging from the roof. There were doors all around the hall, but they were all locked and Alice wondered how she was ever going to get out again. Suddenly she came upon a little threelegged table made of solid glass. On this table she found a little bottle, with the words "DRINK ME” in large letters on it. So Alice tasted of it and finding it nice, she very soon drank it all. She thought it tasted like cherry-tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey and hot buttered toast. "What a queer feeling!" said Alice. “I must be shutting up like a telescope!" And sure enough, she was only ten inches high. A little Mouse came to talk with her. Strange birds came too. She told them about her cat. She told them how Dinah liked to catch birds and mice; this frightened them and they ran away. "Shall I ever be big again?" she thought. “Shall I ever get home?” Many strange things happened to Alice. down in the Rabbit-Hole, but at last she heard some one say, "Wake up, Alice dear! Why, what a long sleep you have had!" It was her sister. Alice was lying on the green grass. She jumped up quickly and said, "Oh, I have had such a curious dream!" -Adapted from "Alice in Wonderland," Lewis Carroll OH, I AM SO HAPPY Oh, I am so happy, A little girl said, As she sprang like a lark From her low trundle bed. It is morning, bright morning, Oh, give me one kiss, For good morning, mama! -Mother Goose |