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Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland
Kapitel 4:
The rabbit sends in a little bill, Lewis Carroll, Seite 2 ( von 4 )
Luckily for Alice, the little magic bottle had now had its full effect, and she
grew no larger: still it was very uncomfortable, and as there seemed to be no
sort of chance of her ever getting out of the room again, no wonder she felt
unhappy.
"It was much pleasanter at home," thought poor Alice, "when one
wasn't always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and
rabbits. I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole - and yet - and yet
- it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what
can have
happened to me! When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that kind of thing
never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one! There ought to be a
book written about me, that there ought! And when I grow up, I'll write one -
but I'm grown up now," she added in a sorrowful tone; "at least
there's no room to grow up any more
here."
"But then," thought Alice, "shall I never get any older
than I am now? That'll be a comfort, one way - never to be an old woman - but
then - always to have lessons to learn! Oh, I shouldn't like
that!"
"Oh, you foolish Alice!" she answered herself. "How can you
learn lessons in here? Why, there's hardly room for you, and no room at all for
any lesson-books!"
And so she went on, taking first one side and then the other, and making quite
a conversation of it altogether; but after a few minutes she heard a voice
outside, and stopped to listen.
"Mary Ann! Mary Ann!" said the voice. "Fetch me my gloves this
moment!" Then came a little pattering of feet on the stairs. Alice knew it
was the Rabbit coming to look for her, and she trembled till she shook the
house, quite forgetting that she was now about a thousand times as large as the
Rabbit, and had no reason to be afraid of it.
Presently the Rabbit came up to the door, and tried to open it; but as the door
opened inwards, and Alice's elbow was pressed hard against it, that attempt
proved a failure. Alice heard it say to itself "Then I'll go round and get
in at the window."
"That you
won't!" thought Alice, and, after waiting till she fancied she heard the
Rabbit just under the window, she suddenly spread out her hand, and made a
snatch in the air. She did not get hold of anything, but she heard a little
shriek and a fall, and a crash of broken glass, from which she concluded that
it was just possible it had fallen into a cucumber-frame, or something of the
sort.
Next came an angry voice - the Rabbit's - "Pat! Pat! Where are you?"
And then a voice she had never heard before, "Sure then I'm here! Digging
for apples, yer honour!"
"Digging for apples, indeed!" said the Rabbit angrily. "Here!
Come and help me out of
this!"
(Sounds of more broken glass.)
"Now tell me, Pat, what's that in the window?"
"Sure, it's an arm, yer honour!" (He pronounced it
"arrum.")
"An arm, you goose! Who ever saw one that size? Why, it fills the whole
window!"
"Sure, it does, yer honour: but it's an arm for all that."
"Well, it's got no business there, at any rate: go and take it away!"
There was a long silence after this, and Alice could only hear whispers now and
then; such as , "Sure, I don't like it, yer honour, at all, at all!"
"Do as I tell you, you coward!" and at last she spread out her hand
again, and made another snatch in the air. This time there were two
little shrieks, and more sounds of broken glass. "What a number of
cucumber-frames there must be!" thought Alice. "I wonder what they'll
do next! As for pulling me out of the window, I only wish they
could! I'm sure
I don't want to stay in here any longer!"
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