Chapter III
Rabbit in a Stew
In which Alice meets the Welsh Rabbit
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When she awoke, Alice found herself lying on a bed of leaves, underneath a tall tree.
It was now fully daylight, and Alice had to blink several times before her eyes focused properly.
‘How strange!’ she thought. ‘For I can’t remember bumping into any trees last night, and there are certainly a lot of them around me, now.
‘Maybe they grew around me while I slept?’ she ventured. ‘But in that case, I would have been sleeping for such a long time! And, you know, some of these trees are very big, indeed. Why, that one is an oak tree, and I would not be at all surprised if it is hundreds of years old! So, maybe I have been sleeping all that time, without knowing it?
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‘But if I have really slept all that time, then that would mean that all of my friends are long gone,’ she added, sadly, ‘and, if that was the case, then that would mean that I will never see Dinah and Kitty and Snowdrop again. How strange that would be, because it only seems like a few hours ago that I was talking with Kitty. Why, she might well be a great grandmother several times over, by now!’ and Alice went on like this for some time, before she finally came to her senses.
‘Now Alice,’ she said to herself, ‘you must think this through carefully. Everyone says that you are far too quick at jumping to conclusions, and this is the perfect opportunity to prove them wrong,’ so she set herself to carefully examining the facts of the matter.
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‘You know,’ she said, after a few minutes consideration, ‘my hair and my nails are still the same length as before, so I don’t think that I have been sleeping all that long. So, maybe I just dreamed about my adventures with Kitty? I must say, that would make more sense, as it does seem rather strange that a cat could talk with me, now that I actually stop and think about it. But if I did dream it all, then it still doesn’t explain how I come to be here … wherever here may be.’
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She looked around again, hoping to see a familiar landmark to confirm her location.
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‘I have heard about people who walk in their sleep,’ she said, with just a tiny bit of unease creeping into her voice. ‘Maybe I am one of those people who sleepwalk, and maybe I walked here last night instead of lying quietly in my bed? That would explain why I am here,’ she added, ‘and when they go to look for me at breakfast time, they will surely realise that I am nowhere to be found. And then they will send out the search parties, and before long I will be rescued.’
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Alice was so pleased with this thought that she gave herself a big hug.
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‘But what should I do in the meantime?’ she continued. ‘I know, I will find the ...
