‘Oh, why did I cry so much?’ said Alice. She swam around and looked for a way out, but the pool was very big. Just then she saw an animal in the water near her. It looked like a large animal to Alice, but it was only a mouse.
‘Shall I speak to it?’ thought Alice. ‘Everything’s very strange down here, so perhaps a mouse can talk.’
So she began: ‘Oh Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming, oh Mouse! (Alice did not know if this was the right way to speak to a mouse. But she wanted to be polite.)
The mouse looked at her with its little eyes, but it said nothing.
‘Perhaps it doesn’t understand English,’ thought Alice. Perhaps it’s a French mouse.’ So she began again, and said in French: ‘Where is my cat?’ (This as the first sentence in her French lesson-book.)
The mouse jumped half out of the water and looked at her angrily.
‘Oh, I’m sorry!’ cried Alice quickly. ‘Of course, you don’t like cats, do you?’
‘Like cats?’ cried the mouse in a high, angry voice. ‘Does any mouse like cats?’
‘Well, perhaps not,’ Alice began kindly.
