Alice paddled through her own tears and met a Mouse swimming nearby.
“Do you know the way out?” she asked. “Perhaps you understand French. Où est ma chatte?”
Unfortunately, that meant “Where is my cat?” The Mouse shot away in alarm. Alice apologised and promised not to mention Dinah—then immediately described what an excellent mouse-catcher Dinah was.
Soon the pool filled with birds and animals: a Duck, a Dodo, a Lory, an Eaglet, and several creatures whose feathers looked terrible when wet. They all scrambled onto the bank.
The Mouse tried to dry them with a very dull history lesson. Nobody became drier.
“A Caucus-race!” announced the Dodo.
It marked a crooked course without a starting line. Everyone ran whenever they liked and stopped whenever they liked. After half an hour, the Dodo shouted, “The race is over!”
“Who won?” they asked.
The Dodo thought for a long time. “Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.”
Alice handed out sweets from her pocket. There was exactly one for each creature. Her own prize was her thimble, which the Dodo solemnly presented back to her.
Then the Mouse began a tale about why he hated cats and dogs. Alice mistook “tale” for “tail” and watched his long tail curl into the shape of a poem. When she stopped listening, the offended Mouse marched away.
Alice mentioned Dinah again. Every bird suddenly remembered an urgent appointment and disappeared.
Alone, Alice heard footsteps. The White Rabbit hurried toward her, anxiously searching for his fan and gloves. He mistook Alice for his housemaid.
“Mary Ann! Run home and fetch them!”
Alice was so startled that she obeyed. She found the Rabbit’s neat little house, his gloves, his fan—and another bottle with no label.
“Something interesting always happens when I eat or drink here,” she said.
She took one sip. Her head struck the ceiling, one arm shot out of the window, and one foot became stuck in the chimney.
Outside, the White Rabbit began shouting for a lizard named Bill.