Later on, in the broad daylight,
it was easy enough to understand what had happened. I had been
carefully feeling my way round and round a screen. I got so sick of
these bottles and so tired of rolling over these everlasting beer-
barrels, that I abandoned the wall and plunged boldly into space.
I had barely started, when, looking up, I saw the sky above me: a
star was twinkling just above my head. Had I been wide awake, and
had the cow stopped bellowing for just one minute, I should have
guessed that somehow or another I had got into a chimney. But as
things were, the wonder and the mystery of it all appalled me.
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" would have appeared to me, at that
moment, in the nature of a guide to travellers. Had a rocking-horse
or a lobster suddenly appeared to me I should have sat and talked to
it; and if it had not answered me I should have thought it sulky and
been hurt. I took a step forward and the star disappeared, just as
if somebody had blown it out. I was not surprised in the least. I
was expecting anything to happen.
I found a door and it opened quite easily. A wood was in front of
me. I couldn't see any cow anywhere, but I still heard her. It all
seemed quite natural. I would wander into the wood; most likely I
should meet her there, and she would be smoking a pipe. In all
probability she would know some poetry.
With the fresh air my senses gradually came back to me, and I began
to understand why it was I could not see the cow.
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