Chapter 2
The Pool of Tears
2-4 The Little Crocodile
Alice:
How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
Alice:
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spread his claws,
And welcome little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!
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Alice:
I’m sure those are not the right words,
said poor Alice, and her eyes filled with tears again as she went on,
I must be Mabel after all, and I shall have to go and live in that poky little house, and have next to no toys to play with, and oh! ever so many lessons to learn!
Alice:
No, I’ve made up my mind about it; if I’m Mabel, I’ll stay down here! It’ll be no use their putting their heads down and saying ‘Come up again, dear!’
Alice:
I shall only look up and say ‘Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I’ll come up: if not, I’ll stay down here till I’m somebody else’—
Alice:
but, oh dear!
cried Alice, with a sudden burst of tears,
I do wish they would put their heads down! I am so very tired of being all alone here!