Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
It was a warm summer afternoon, and Alice was beginning to get bored. She had been sitting in the garden weaving flower garlands for far too long! All of a sudden a white rabbit with pink eyes ran by her. Alice’s eyes followed him: the rabbit hid himself behind a hedge and pulled a large pocket watch from his jacket! Dumbfounded, Alice tried to remember if she had ever seen a rabbit with a pocket watch before. No, certainly not! And none wearing jackets, either! After the animal hurried away, Alice followed him, entering the little rabbit hole into which she saw him disappear.
Suddenly the ground gave way, and she fell down a deep, dark tunnel.
Down, down, down she fell!
She continued falling, but there didn’t seem to be a bottom to this strange tunnel.
Once her eyes became accustomed to the dark, Alice realized that the walls of the tunnel were lined with shelves. Stacked on these shelves were frames, books, and teacups. The frames contained pictures and maps.
She fell deeper and deeper!
Finally she landed safely in a round room with many doors along its walls. Some doors were large, others
were small, but all of them were locked. On a little table in the center of the room, Alice found a small key made of gold. She tried it in every lock. The key worked on only one tiny door, but it was too small for her to fit through! All she could do was lie down on the ground and try to peek inside. She saw a blooming garden with colorful flowerbeds and bubbling fountains. What she would have given to go exploring in there! Returning to the little table, she noticed another object: a small glass bottle. The words “DRINK ME” were written on its label in beautiful handwriting.
“I’ll just take a little sip,” Alice thought to herself. But the liquid was delicious! Very quickly she drank the whole bottle, and a few moments later she began to feel something strange happening to her body.
“I seem to have gotten smaller,” she thought. The potion had caused her to shrink! She was now only four inches tall, the perfect height to pass through the tiny door and enter the beautiful garden. If only she hadn’t left the golden key on the table! How would she get it now? Her eyes fell on a small box lying on the ground. Inside was a tiny cake with a card next to it that read: “EAT ME.”
Alice picked up the tiny cake and took a bite. Her body began to grow until she felt her head touch the ceiling! Kneeling inside the cramped room, she realized she would never fit through the tiny door now. Grief-stricken, she burst into tears, her teardrops forming a large puddle on the floor. When her fingertips touched the puddle, she began to shrink again. There must have been some shrinking potion left in her tears! Alice fell into the puddle. Eventually she was able to swim to shore. There she met a number of animals that had also fallen into the puddle. “A confusion race will help us dry off!” one of them declared, tracing a circle in the sand. Alice and all the animals entered the circle, arranging themselves at various points. Then, without any signal, they all began to run in whatever direction they liked. Whenever they felt like it, they stopped running and took a rest.
Alice noticed that she was more or less dry now, but she was still the size of a mouse. With a sigh, she walked away from the shore and came across three paths leading into a forest.
She chose one that led past a large oak tree. Soon she found herself surrounded in gigantic plants and flowers! She decided to stop and rest near a mushroom taller than she was!
Suddenly a sleepy voice asked her, “Who are you?” Peeking around the mushroom, Alice spotted a large blue caterpillar smoking a pipe. His eyes were half-closed. “I can tell you who I was this morning, but today I’ve changed so many times that I’m rather muddled,” the caterpillar said.
He sighed, then continued: “One side will make you taller, the other shorter.”
“One side of what? asked Alice, confused. “And the other side of what?”
“Of my mushroom!” the caterpillar explained with a yawn.
Alice took two small pieces from the mushroom, one from the right side, one from the left, and bit into the first. Ouch, her chin hurt! She had become so small so quickly that her chin had slammed into her feet! There was no time to lose—she was becoming even smaller!
Alice quickly ate the other piece of the mushroom, which caused her to grow. She began nibbling piece after piece of mushroom, making herself shorter and taller until she managed to reach her usual height. Continuing down the forest path, she came across a fork in the road. Unsure which path to take, she stopped and looked around. She noticed a large cat sitting on a tree branch. The cat was staring at her and smiling.
“What are you grinning at?” asked Alice.
“I am a Cheshire cat, so I grin,” the cat replied. “Would you like to know which path to take? It all depends on where you want to go.”
“Oh, it’s not very important where I go,” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which path you take!” the cat concluded.
“What’s over there?” asked Alice, pointing to one of the paths.
“The path on the right leads to the home of the March Hare. The one on the left will take you to the Mad Hatter, though if you think about it, they are really both mad,” the cat said. He began to slowly disappear, starting with his
tail and ending with his grin, which remained floating in the air for some time.
Alice decided to visit the Mad Hatter, but when she got to his house, she noticed that both the Mad Hatter and the March Hare were there. They were seated at a long table covered in teacups and saucers. When they saw Alice, they shouted, “Go away! There’s no room!”
“But there’s plenty of room!” said Alice, seating herself in a large chair at the far end of the table. The Hatter stared at her. He pulled out a watch and asked, “What day is it?”
“Does your watch keep the day instead of the time?” asked Alice.
“No, of course not,” he said. “It’s always five o’clock in the afternoon here. That means it’s always teatime. We never have time to replace our teacups and saucers!”
“Is that why the table is set for so many people?” asked Alice.
“Exactly,” said the March Hare. “All we have to do is change seats. In fact, I need a clean cup right now! Switch!” Both moved one seat over. All the commotion caused Alice’s teacup to fall to the ground. This irritated her, so she left.
After walking for a long time in the forest, Alice noticed a small door in the trunk of a tree. Curious, she squeezed through it and found herself in the beautiful garden with the colorful flowerbeds she had seen earlier. Strolling along the garden’s main footpath, she noticed four bizarre-looking gardeners busily painting all the white roses red. The gardners were rectangular and flat, just like playing cards! Their hands and feet stuck out from their four corners. Approaching them, Alice asked: “Why are you painting the white roses red?”
Card Number Five whispered, “Because this should have been a red rose garden. We accidentally planted white roses here instead. If the Queen of Hearts finds out what we did, she’ll have our heads cut off!”
“She’s here! Her majesty is coming!” Card Number Two shouted. The gardeners threw themselves down on the ground and buried their faces in the grass. The royal court was led by ten soldiers. Just like the gardeners, they looked exactly like playing cards. The cards with royal titles followed the soldiers, and behind those cards strode the Queen of Hearts.
When she saw Alice, the Queen screamed, “Who are you, young lady?”
“My name is Alice, and–”
“It doesn’t matter!” cried the Queen. “Do you know how to play croquet?”
Without waiting for a response, the Queen ordered her cards to set up a game of croquet on the lawn. “To your posts!” she thundered at them. All the cards began running this way and that, bumping into each other as they scurried to reach their positions.
Alice had never in her life seen such a bizarre croquet field. The balls were live porcupines, the mallets were live flamingoes, and the hoops were playing cards that had to bend over in the grass. It was difficult for Alice to use the flamingoes as mallets, as they kept pecking at her hands. And every time she finally lined up her shot, her porcupine ball would amble away, causing her to miss!
On top of all that, the bending cards kept shifting themselves away from Alice’s shots. At first she thought they were scared of the porcupines, but later she realized they were trying to give their Queen an advantage!
“What a difficult game!” Alice thought to herself. Nevertheless she still managed to score a number of points, which angered the Queen. After Alice took the lead, the Queen shouted: “That does it! Off with her head!”
The White Rabbit, who had been following Alice during every step of her journey, suddenly burst onto the field and said, “Forgive me, your Majesty, but shouldn’t we have a trial?”
“Ugh, fine!” the Queen said.
The White Rabbit organized a large crowd around the field. “All right, everyone, we’re going to begin our trial now,” he said. “Let’s call the first witness!”
Alice was fascinated to know who the first witness would be. Imagine her surprise when she realized it was her!
“Alice!” the White Rabbit said. “What do you know about this incident?”
“Nothing!” she replied.
“That is very important!” said the King of Hearts, turning to the jury. “You may now deliver your verdict!”
The White Rabbit
unrolled the piece of parchment paper that the jury had given him and read its words aloud: “Here is the sentence: all people more than a mile high must leave the court at once!”
Everyone looked at Alice. “I’m not a mile high!” she exclaimed. “It was only a little while ago that I returned to my original height!”
“Hold your tongue!” the Queen screamed.
“No!” Alice shouted. “I’m not afraid of any of you! I don’t care what you say, you’re nothing but playing cards!”
The pack of cards flew up into the air and pounced on Alice. She closed her eyes and began waving her arms. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in her garden at home, with her head in her sister’s lap.
“You’ve woken up, sleepyhead!” her sister said, smiling. “All afternoon you’ve been napping under this lovely tree!”
“What a dream I’ve had!” Alice said. She told her sister all about her strange adventures. Then she got up, smoothed out her dress, and went into the house, where her delicious afternoon tea was waiting for her.
