Knjigice
Fairy tale · Classic fairy tales
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The story of the girl who ran after the White Rabbit
Also in: Alica v čudežni deželi (Slovenian) · Alica v krajine zázrakov (Slovak)
It was a drowsy summer afternoon. Alice sat on the riverbank beside her big sister, who was reading a thick book — without a single picture in it. "What is the use of a book without pictures?" thought Alice, and yawned. The grass smelled sweet, the bees were humming, and her eyelids grew heavier and heavier. The river murmured sleepily by.
1
All at once a white rabbit with pink eyes ran right past her. That alone was not so strange — but this rabbit wore a waistcoat, and out of its pocket he pulled a real, actual watch! "I'm late, I'm late!" he cried, and hurried on. Alice jumped to her feet. She had never once seen a rabbit with a watch! And off she ran after him across the meadow.
2
The rabbit popped into a rabbit hole under a hedge, and Alice darted straight in after him. But the hole suddenly dipped down — and Alice fell, and fell, and fell. Shelves floated past her with jars, maps and an empty pot of marmalade. "How much deeper can it go?" she wondered. Then — thump! — she landed quite softly on a heap of dry leaves.
3
She found herself in a long hall full of doors. But every one was locked! On a little glass table lay a tiny golden key. It opened only one very small door behind a curtain — and through it Alice saw the loveliest garden in the world, full of roses and fountains. But the door was too small. Not even her head would fit through!
4
From somewhere a little bottle appeared on the table, with a label saying: DRINK ME. Alice took a careful sip — mmm, like cherry tart and pineapple! And behold: she grew smaller and smaller, until she was no bigger than a mouse. "Now I can go through the little door!" she cheered. But oh dear — the golden key was still high up on the glass table.
5
Under the table stood a little box with a cake inside, and on it, spelled out in raisins: EAT ME. Alice took a bite — and whoosh! She grew and grew until her head touched the ceiling. "Goodbye, my feet," she said to her faraway shoes down below. "Who will put your stockings on for you now?" It was all so funny, and so very strange.
6
Giant Alice burst into tears, and the great drops rained down until a real little lake had formed in the middle of the hall. When she shrank again — splash! — she fell right into it. Through the pool of her own tears a little mouse came swimming up, and together they paddled to the shore. "I do beg your pardon," said Alice. "I never knew anyone could cry a whole lake."
7
In a forest of giant mushrooms, on the tallest one, sat a blue caterpillar, puffing smoke rings from a long thin pipe. "Who are you?" he asked slowly. "Today I hardly know," Alice admitted. "I've been growing and shrinking all day!" The caterpillar blew one more ring and said wisely: "One side of the mushroom makes you taller, the other smaller." And it helped.
8
On a branch sat a plump striped cat, grinning from ear to ear. "Please, which way should I go?" Alice asked him. "Any way at all — as long as you walk far enough," the cat replied. Then he began to vanish, slowly: first his tail, then his paws, and at last all of him. Only his wide grin remained, floating among the leaves.
9
Under a tree stood a long table laid for tea. At it sat the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse, who was dozing right inside the teapot. "No room!" shouted the Hatter and the Hare, though there was plenty of room to spare. They served Alice riddles with no answers and tea with no cup. It was the maddest tea party in the world.
10
In the garden the Queen of Hearts was playing croquet. And what a game it was! For mallets they had flamingoes, and for balls curled-up hedgehogs, who rolled off wherever they pleased. Alice's flamingo twisted round to stare her in the face, and her hedgehog ran off under a bush. Nobody hit a thing — but the Queen still shouted that she was winning.
11
"Who has eaten the Queen's tarts?" thundered the court of cards. The Queen pointed straight at Alice and shrieked: "Off with her head!" But at that very moment Alice grew back to her true size. She stood up, drew herself tall, and said loudly, quite loudly: "I'm not afraid of you. You're nothing but a pack of cards!"
12
And so it was — at that instant the Queen's whole army rose into the air as a plain pack of playing cards. The cards fluttered and whirled around Alice like dry leaves in the wind. More and more of them came, light as feathers. She waved her arms to brush them away — and suddenly felt someone stroking her cheek, ever so gently.
13
"Wake up, Alice," said her sister, brushing a dry leaf from her cheek. Alice opened her eyes: she was back on the riverbank. "What a curious dream I've had!" she said, and told her sister everything — about the rabbit with the watch, the cat without a tail, and the queen made of cards. But quietly she still wondered: was it really only a dream?
14The End
