愛麗絲夢遊仙境章章讀
As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. Her first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea, “and in that case I can go back by railway,” she said to herself. However, she soon made out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine feet high.
“I wish I hadn’t cried so much!” said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. “I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That will be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer today.”
Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little way off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was: at first she thought it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she was now, and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped in like herself.
“Would it be of any use, now,” thought Alice, “to speak to this mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think very likely it can talk: at any rate, there’s no harm in trying.” So she began: “O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!” (Alice thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse: she had never done such a thing before, but she remembered having seen in her brother’s Latin Grammar, “A mouse—of a mouse—to a mouse—a mouse—O mouse!”) The Mouse looked at her rather inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but it said nothing.
“Perhaps it doesn’t understand English,” thought Alice; “I daresay it’s a French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror.” (For, with all her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion how long ago anything had happened.) So she began again: “Où est ma chatte?” which was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. “Oh, I beg your pardon!” cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor animal’s feelings. “I quite forgot you didn’t like cats.”
“Not like cats!” cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice. “Would you like cats if you were me?”
“Well, perhaps not,” said Alice in a soothing tone: “don’t be angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah: I think you’d take a fancy to cats if you could only see her. She is such a dear quiet thing,” Alice went on, half to herself, as she swam lazily about in the pool, “and she sits purring so nicely by the fire, licking her paws and washing her face—and she is such a nice soft thing to nurse—and she’s such a capital one for catching mice—oh, I beg your pardon!” cried Alice again, for this time the Mouse was bristling all over, and she felt certain it must be really offended. “We won’t talk about her any more if you’d rather not.”
“We indeed!” cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end of his tail. “As if I would talk on such a subject! Our family always hated cats: nasty, low, vulgar things! Don’t let me hear the name again!”
“I won’t indeed!” said Alice, in a great hurry to change the subject of conversation. “Are you—are you fond—of—of dogs?” The Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly: “There is such a nice little dog near our house I should like to show you! A little bright-eyed terrier, you know, with oh, such long curly brown hair! And it’ll fetch things when you throw them, and it’ll sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts of things—I can’t remember half of them—and it belongs to a farmer, you know, and he says it’s so useful, it’s worth a hundred pounds! He says it kills all the rats and—oh dear!” cried Alice in a sorrowful tone, “I’m afraid I’ve offended it again!” For the Mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it could go, and making quite a commotion in the pool as it went.
So she called softly after it, “Mouse dear! Do come back again, and we won’t talk about cats or dogs either, if you don’t like them!” When the Mouse heard this, it turned round and swam slowly back to her: its face was quite pale (with passion, Alice thought), and it said in a low trembling voice, “Let us get to the shore, and then I’ll tell you my history, and you’ll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.”
It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with the birds and animals that had fallen into it: there were a Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures. Alice led the way, and the whole party swam to the shore.
說著她腳下一滑，下一瞬，嘩啦啦！鹽水浸沒了她的下巴。她的第一個想法是她不知何故掉進了海裡。她很快就發現自己在她九英尺高時哭過的淚水中。
「我希望我沒有哭那麼多！」愛麗絲邊說邊游來游去，試圖找到出路。 「我想，我現在應該為此受到懲罰，被自己的眼淚淹死！可以肯定的是，那將是一件奇怪的事情！然而，今天一切都很奇怪。」
就在這時，她聽到不遠處的水池裡有什麼東西在濺水，她游近了看那是什麼：起初她以為那一定是海象或河馬，但後來她想起自己現在有多小，她很快就發現那是一隻和她一樣溜進去淚水池的老鼠。
「現在，」愛麗絲想，「跟這隻老鼠說話有用嗎？這裡的一切都那麼怪異，我認為它很可能會說話：無論如何，嘗試一下沒有壞處。」於是她開始說：「哦，老鼠，你知道離開這個水池的路嗎？老鼠啊，我在這兒游來游去很累！」（愛麗絲認為這一定是對老鼠說話的正確方式：她以前從未做過這樣的事情，但她記得在她哥哥的拉丁文語法中看到過，「A mouse-of a mouse-to a mouse-a mouse-老鼠啊！」）老鼠相當好奇地看著她，在她看來，它的一隻小眼睛似乎在眨眼，但什麼也沒說。
「也許它聽不懂英語，」愛麗絲想。 「我敢說這是一隻法國老鼠。」所以她又開始了：“*Où est ma chatte?” 這是她法語課本的第一句話。老鼠突然跳出水面，似乎嚇得渾身發抖。 「哦，對不起！」愛麗絲急忙喊道，生怕傷害了這只可憐的動物的感情。 「我忘了你不喜歡貓。」
老鼠用尖銳而充滿激情的聲音喊道。 「如果你是我，你會喜歡貓嗎？」
「嗯，也許不會，」愛麗絲用安慰的語氣說，「別為此生氣。但我希望我能給你看我們的貓黛娜：我想你只要能看到她就會喜歡上貓。她是一個非常安靜的可愛的東西，」愛麗絲半自言自語地繼續說道，她懶洋洋地在游泳池裡游來游去，「她坐在火爐旁發出美妙的呼嚕聲，舔著爪子，洗著臉——她是這樣一個好柔軟的東西——而且她是捉老鼠的好手——哦，對不起！」愛麗絲又叫了起來，因為這一次老鼠全身都豎起來了，她確信它一定是真的被冒犯了。 「如果你不願意，我們不會再談論她了。」
「確實！」老鼠叫道，它的尾巴都在發抖。 「我們家一直討厭貓：討厭的、卑鄙的、粗俗的東西！別讓我再聽到這個名字！」
「我不會的！」愛麗絲說，急忙改變話題。 「你——你喜歡——狗嗎？」老鼠沒有回答，愛麗絲急切地繼續說道：「我們家附近有一隻這麼可愛的小狗，我想帶你去看看！一隻眼睛明亮的小獵犬，你知道，哦，棕色的長捲髮！當你扔東西的時候它會撿起來，它會坐起來乞討它的晚餐，還有各種各樣的東西——我記不起來了——它屬於一個農民，他說它會殺死所有的老鼠，而且——哦，天哪！」愛麗絲悲傷地叫道，「我恐怕又得罪它了！」因為老鼠正竭盡全力游離她，一邊游一邊在水池裡嘩啦嘩啦的鬧。
於是她跟著它輕聲叫道：「親愛的老鼠！一定要再來，我不說貓狗了，你要是不喜歡！」老鼠聽到這話，轉身慢慢遊回她身邊：它的臉色相當蒼白（愛麗絲心想，是因為激動），用顫抖的聲音低聲說：「我們到岸邊吧，然後我告訴你我的歷史，你就會明白為什麼我討厭貓狗。」
是離開的時候了，因為池子裡已經擠滿了掉進水里的鳥類和動物：有一隻鴨子和一隻渡渡鳥，一隻鸚鵡和一隻小鷹，以及其他幾種奇怪的生物。愛麗絲帶路，一行人游到岸邊。
*我的貓在哪裏？Where is my cat?
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