Алиса в Стране чудес / Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

And she ran back to the little door: but, alas! the little door was shut again, and the little golden key was lying on the glass table as before. Her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash! she was in salt water. She was in the pool of her own tears!

'I am drowning in my own tears!' said Alice, 'everything is queer today.'

Just then she heard a splash: at first she thought it was a walrus or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she was now, and she soon understood that it was only a mouse.

'Shall I' thought Alice, 'speak to this mouse? I'll try.' So she began: 'O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired, O Mouse!'

The Mouse looked at her, but it said nothing.

'Perhaps it doesn't understand English,' thought Alice; 'Maybe it's a French mouse.' So she began again: 'Où est ma chatte?[3]' It was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse was in terror.

'Oh, I beg your pardon!' cried Alice hastily. 'I quite forgot you didn't like cats.'

'Didn't like cats!' cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice. 'I am a mouse, can't you see?'