she soon found

out that the cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped

it hastily, just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether. 🔊

‘That was a narrow escape!’ said Alice, a good deal frightened at the

sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence; 🔊 ‘and

now for the garden!’ and she ran with all speed 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, 🔊 ‘and things are worse than ever,’

thought the poor child, ‘for I never was so small as this before, never! 🔊

And I declare it’s too bad, that it is!’ 🔊

As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash!

she was up to her chin in salt water. 🔊 Her first idea was that she

had somehow fallen into the sea, ‘and in that case I can go back by

railway,’ she said to herself. 🔊 (Alice had been to the seaside once in

her life, and had come to the general conclusion, that wherever you go

to on the English coast you find a number of bathing machines in the

sea, some children digging in the sand with wooden spades, then a row

of lodging houses, and behind them a railway station.) 🔊