hedge!' then silence, and then another confusion of voices--`Hold

up his head--Brandy now--Don't choke him--How was it, old fellow?

What happened to you?  Tell us all about it!'

  Last came a little feeble, squeaking voice, (`That's Bill,'

thought Alice,) `Well, I hardly know--No more, thank ye; I'm

better now--but I'm a deal too flustered to tell you--all I know

is, something comes at me like a Jack-in-the-box, and up I goes

like a sky-rocket!'

  `So you did, old fellow!' said the others.

  `We must burn the house down!' said the Rabbit's voice; and

Alice called out as loud as she could, `If you do.  I'll set

Dinah at you!'

  There was a dead silence instantly, and Alice thought to

herself, `I wonder what they WILL do next!  If they had any

sense, they'd take the roof off.'  After a minute or two, they

began moving about again, and Alice heard the Rabbit say, `A

barrowful will do, to begin with.'

  `A barrowful of WHAT?' thought Alice; but she had not long to

doubt, for the next moment a shower of little pebbles came

rattling in at the window, and some of them hit her in the face.

`I'll put a stop to this,' she said to herself, and shouted out,

`You'd better not do that again!' which produced another dead

silence.

  Alice noticed with some surprise that the pebbles were all

turning into little cakes as they lay on the floor, and a bright

idea came into her head.  `If I eat one of these cakes,' she

thought, `it's sure to make SOME change in my size; and as it

can't possibly make me larger, it must make me smaller, I

suppose.'

  So she swallowed one of the cakes, and was delighted to find

that she began shrinking directly.  As soon as she was small

enough to get through the door, she ran out of the house, and

found quite a crowd of little animals and birds waiting outside.

The poor little Lizard, Bill, was in the middle, being held up by

two guinea-pigs, who were giving it something out of a bottle.

They all made a rush at Alice the moment she appeared; but she

ran off as hard as she could, and soon found herself safe in a

thick wood.

  `The first thing I've got to do,' said Alice to herself, as she

wandered about in the wood, `is to grow to my right size again;

and the second thing is to find my way into that lovely garden.

I think that will be the best plan.'

  It sounded an excellent plan, no doubt, and very neatly and

simply arranged; the only difficulty was, that she had not the

smallest idea how to set about it; and while she was peering

about anxiously among the trees, a little sharp bark just over ()