Alice in Wonderland – Level 3

Alice in Wonderland – Level 3

Chapter One
Down the Rabbit Hole

Alice was sitting on the grass, bored and doing nothing. Her sister was reading a book with no pictures.

Suddenly, a white rabbit ran past her. He was wearing a jacket and holding a pocket watch.

“Oh dear, oh dear! I’m going to be late!” he said, and disappeared into a hole under a tree.

A rabbit with a watch? Alice followed him without thinking.

The hole went straight down, and she fell slowly past shelves of jam jars and old books, landing softly on a pile of dry leaves at the bottom.

At the end of a long hall, she found a tiny golden key and a bottle marked DRINK ME. She drank it, shrank to the size of a mouse, and saw a small door opening onto the most beautiful garden she had ever seen. But she had left the key on the table above her — too far to reach now. She sat down and cried.

Chapter Two
The Pool of Tears

She cried so much that a small lake formed around her. A cake on the floor said EAT ME. She ate it, shot up to the ceiling, and her tears — now enormous — filled the hall like a pool.

She shrank again and swam out, finding a mouse, a duck, a bird called a Dodo, and a few other wet animals on the shore. The Dodo had everyone run in a circle to get dry. There was no real winner, but he gave everyone a sweet at the end, which felt right.

Every animal left at once. She was alone again — smaller than she wanted, and no closer to that garden.

Chapter Three
Advice from a Caterpillar

On top of a large mushroom in the forest sat a blue caterpillar, smoking slowly.

He looked at Alice and said just three words: “Who are you?”

“I hardly know, sir! I’ve changed so many times since this morning.”

The caterpillar didn’t seem very interested.

Before he disappeared into the leaves, he told her that one side of the mushroom would make her grow, and the other side would make her shrink. She tried both carefully until she was back to her normal size — which felt, for the first time in a while, like a small victory.

Chapter Four
The Cheshire Cat

The Cheshire Cat, smiling wider than seemed possible, sat in a tree. Alice asked which way she should go. He asked where she wanted to get to. She said she didn’t much care.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

He told her both paths led to mad people — the Hatter one way, the March Hare the other. Alice said she would prefer not to meet mad people.

“Oh, you can’t help that,” he said. “We’re all mad here. You are mad.”

“I’m not mad!” replied Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

Then he disappeared — slowly, his body first, his head last — until only his smile was left, floating in the air between the branches. Alice chose a path and walked on.

Chapter Five
The Mad Tea Party

Outside a small house stood a long table set for twenty, with only three guests: the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and a tiny dormouse asleep between them. They shouted “No room!” when they saw Alice, though there was clearly plenty.

She sat down anyway. They laughed out loud.

The conversation went nowhere on purpose. The Hatter asked questions with no answers and explained that time had stopped at six o’clock — so it was always tea time, and they just moved around the table to a clean cup. The dormouse fell asleep mid-story.

“This is the most stupid tea party I’ve ever been to,” Alice said, and walked back into the forest. She could still hear them laughing behind her.

Chapter Six
The Queen’s Garden

At last, Alice reached the garden she saw at the beginning of the story. Card soldiers were painting white roses red in a panic — they’d planted the wrong color, and if the Queen found out, she’d have their heads.

Then a trumpet sounded, and the Queen of Hearts arrived. She was loud, fast, and certain of everything. She ordered Alice to play croquet, where the mallets were flamingos and the balls were hedgehogs — none of whom cooperated — and spent most of the game shouting “Off with their heads!” at anyone nearby.

Alice played badly and tried very hard to look calm.

Chapter Seven
The Trial

 

There was a trial — the Knave of Hearts accused of stealing tarts — with the King as judge and animals as jury. Alice was called as a witness. She had been eating mushroom without thinking, and she was growing again, taller and taller, until she was bigger than almost everyone in the room.

“Off with her head!” screamed the Queen.

The whole pack of cards flew into the air and came straight at Alice’s face — and she woke up.

She was on the grass. Her sister was still reading. It was still a warm afternoon.

She ran inside and told the whole story over tea. And though the details began to blur, one feeling stayed with her: that the world was stranger and more wonderful than it looked, if you only knew where to fall.