Calico Illustrated Classics: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
among the beds of bright flowers The cool fountains would feel lovely How she wished she could reach it But it would be impossible She couldn’t even fit her head through the doorway Even if I could get my head through what good would it be without my shoulders Alice asked the door There seemed to be no use waiting by the little door So she went back to the table She half hoped she might find another key on it This time she found a little bottle on the table Alice knew it was certainly not there before Tied around the neck of the bottle was a paper label that said DRINK ME The words were beautifully printed in large letters Alice was not going to rush into drinking anything without examining the label a little better I’ll look first to see if it says poison on the bottle She had read far too many stories 10
where children were eaten by beasts or had other bad things happen to them Why All because they didn’t remember the rules of safety they’d been taught After examining the label and seeing no such word Alice drank it What an odd feeling said Alice I must be shutting up like a telescope She was indeed Alice was now only ten inches high She ran toward the garden at once But when she got to the door she realized she had forgotten the key When she went back to get it she couldn’t reach it She was too small now When she looked up she could see it through the glass She tried her best to climb up one of the legs No luck She was too small and it was too slippery Alice sat down and cried Soon her eyes fell on a little glass box under the table She hadn’t noticed it before She 11
opened it to find a very small cake The words EAT ME were beautifully written with berries Well I’ll eat it If it makes me grow taller I’ll reach the key If it makes me grow smaller then I’ll creep under the door Either way I’ll get into the garden I don’t care which happens Alice nibbled on the cake and anxiously said Which way Which way She held her hand to her head to see which way it was growing There was no change She remained the same size Disappointed she decided to finish the entire cake 12
2 The Pool of Tears Curiouser and curiouser cried Alice Now I’m opening out like the largest telescope that ever was Good-bye feet When she looked down her feet looked so far off It was impossible for her to reach them Oh my poor feet I wonder who will put on your stockings and shoes now I won’t be able to anymore But I must be kind to them said Alice or they won’t walk the way I want them to go That would be dreadful She decided that she would give them a new pair of boots every Christmas As Alice thought about her far-off feet her head struck against the roof of the hall She was 13
