Alice in Wonderland 
(meets the white rabbit)
Do you know where wonderland is? It is the place you visit in 
your dreams, the strange and woudrous place where nothing is as 
it seems.  It was in Wonderland that Alice met the White Rabbit.  
He was hurrying across the meadow, looking at his pocket watch 
and saying to himself: "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important 
date." "I'm in a rabbit stew, oh oh! Can't even say 
good-by-hello!
I'm late." He hopped across the brook and disappeared into a 
hollow tree.  "That's curious," said Alice.  "A rabbit who wears a 
waistcoat, and carries a watch, and can talk!" "He's in such a 
hurry, he must be going to a party.  I surely would like to go 
talk, too." So Alice followed him.  "What a peculiar place to give 
a party," she thought as she pushed her way into the hollow tree.
But before she could think any more, she began to slide on some 
slippery white pebbles inside.  And then she began to fall! 
"Curious and curiouser!" said Alice as she floated slowly down, 
past cupboards and lamps, a rocking chair, past clocks and 
mirrors she met in mid-air.  By the time she reached the
bottom the White Rabbit was disappearing through a little door, 
too small for Alice to follow him.  Poor Alice! She was all alone 
in Wonderland, where nothing was just what it seemed.(Yon know 
how things are in dreams!) Whenever she ate a bite of cake or 
took a sip to drink, she would shoot up tall or grow
so tiny she was sometimes afraid she would vanish quite away.  She 
met other animals, yes, indeed, strange talking animals, too.  
They tried to be as helpful as they could.  But they couldn't help 
her find the White Rabbit.  "And I really must find him, "Alice 
thought, though she wasn't sure just why.  So on
she wandered through Wonderland, all by her lonely self.  At last 
she reached a neat little house in the woods, with pink shutters 
and a little front door that opened and-out came the White 
Rabbit! "Oh, my twitching whiskers!" he was saying to himself.  He 
seemed very much upset.  Then he looked up and saw Alice standing 
there.  "Mary Ann!" he said sharply.  "Why, Mary Ann, what are you
doing here? Well, don't just do something, stand there! No, go 
get my gloves.  I'm very late!" "But late for what? Alice began to 
ask.  "My gloves!" said the White Rabbit firmly.  And Alice 
dutifully went to look for them, though she knew she wasn't Mary 
Ann! When she came back, the White Rabbit was just disappearing 
through the woods again.  So off went Alice, trying to follow him
through that strange, mixed-up Wonderland.  She met Tweedledee and 
Tweedledum, a funny little pair.  She joined a mad tea party with 
the Mad Hatter and the March Here.  She met a Cheshire cat who 
faded in and out of sight.  And one strange 
creature-Jabberwock-whose eyes flamed in the night.  They all were 
very kind, but they could not show Alice the way, until: "There 
is a short cut," she heard the Cheshire cat say.  So Alice took 
it.  The short cut led into a garden where gardeners were busy 
painting roses red.  "I must hurry," he said, "for the Queen is 
coming." And sure enough, a trumpet blew, and a voice called:
"Make way for the Queen of Hearts!" Then out came a grand 
procession.  And who should be the royal trumpeter for the 
cross-looking Queen but the White Rabbit.  "Well!" said Alice.  "So 
this is why he was hurrying so!" "Who are you? " snapped the 
Queen.  "Do you play croquet?" "I'm Alice.  And I'm just on my way
home.  Thank you for the invitation, but I really mustn't stay." 
"So!" cried the Queen.  "So she won't play! Off with her head 
then!" But Alice was tired of Wonderland now, and all its 
nonsensical ways.  "Pooh!" she said.  "I'm not frightened of you.  
You're nothing but a pack of cards." And with that she ran
back through that land of dreams, back to the river bank where 
she had fallen asleep.  "Hm," she said, as she rubbed her eyes.  
"I'm glad to be back where things are what they seem.  I've had 
quite enough for now of Wonderland!"


