But do cats eat bats, I wonder?'  And here Alice began to get

rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of

way, `Do cats eat bats?  Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, `Do

bats eat cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either

question, it didn't much matter which way she put it.  She felt

that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she

was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very

earnestly, `Now, Dinah, tell me the truth:  did you ever eat a

bat?' when suddenly, thump! thump! down she 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 to her feet in a

moment:  she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her

was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in

sight, hurrying down it.  There was not a moment to be lost:

away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it

say, as it turned a corner, `Oh my ears and whiskers, how late

it's getting!'  She was close behind it when she turned the

corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen:  she found

herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps

hanging from the roof.

  There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked;

and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the

other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle,

wondering how she was ever to get out again.

  Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of

solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key,

and Alice's first thought was that it might belong to one of the

doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or

the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of

them.  However, on the second time round, she came upon a low

curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little

door about fifteen inches high:  she tried the little golden key

in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!

  Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small

passage, not much larger than a rat-hole:  she knelt down and

looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw.

How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about

among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but

she could not even get her head though the doorway; `and even if

my head would go through,' thought poor Alice, `it would be of

very little use without my shoulders.  Oh, how I wish

I could shut up like a telescope!  I think I could, if I only

know how to begin.'  For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things ()