--- title: Alice in Wonderland, chapter II, part 2: The Pool of Tears and the Mouse — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Alice in Wonderland, chapter II, part 2: The Pool of Tears and the Mouse», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Alice notices she has slipped on one of the Rabbit's tiny gloves: she is shrinking again, and fast, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/) / Alice in Wonderland, chapter II, part… # Alice in Wonderland, chapter II, part 2: The Pool of Tears and the Mouse Lesson 4 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 22 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/0/) — Alice notices she has slipped on one of the Rabbit's tiny gloves: she is shrinking again, and fast, because of the fan in her hand, so she drops it just in time. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/1/) — She runs to the little door, but it is shut again and the key is back on the table, and then she slips and lands up to her chin in salt water: the pool of her own tears. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/2/) — A mouse is swimming there too, and Alice politely tries English, then her school French, but the first French sentence she knows is "Where is my cat?", which terrifies it. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/3/) — Every time she tries to make friends she makes it worse, chatting happily about her cat Dinah and a rat-killing dog, until the Mouse swims away offended. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/4/) — She calls it back kindly, it promises to tell her why it hates cats and dogs, and Alice leads a crowd of soggy birds and animals to the shore: a funny, slightly awkward scene about putting your foot in it. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/5/) — Alice finds she has put on one of the Rabbit's little white kid gloves, which tells her she is growing small again. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/6/) — Measuring herself by the table she is about two feet high and still shrinking; the fan is the cause, and she drops it "just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether". - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/7/) — She calls it "a narrow escape", meaning a near miss with danger. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/8/) — The little door is shut again and the golden key lies on the glass table as before, so "things are worse than ever". - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/9/) — Her foot slips and "splash! she was up to her chin in salt water"; she first thinks it is the sea and that she can "go back by railway". - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/10/) — From one trip to the seaside Alice believes every English beach has bathing machines (little huts on wheels that were rolled into the sea for people to change in), children digging with wooden spades, lodging houses and a railway station. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/11/) — It is really "the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine feet high", and she says "I wish I hadn't cried so much!", afraid she will be "drowned in my own tears". - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/12/) — At first she thinks the splashing creature is a walrus or hippopotamus, but, being so small, she sees it is only a mouse. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/13/) — Alice says "O Mouse!" because she once saw in her brother's Latin Grammar "A mouse—of a mouse—to a mouse—a mouse—O mouse!"; "O Mouse" is the old way of calling to someone. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/14/) — The Mouse says nothing to her English, so Alice thinks "Perhaps it doesn't understand English" and guesses it is a French mouse "come over with William the Conqueror", although she has no clear idea how long ago history happened (William came in 1066). - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/15/) — She says "Où est ma chatte?", the first sentence in her French book, which means "Where is my cat?"; the Mouse leaps out of the water in fright. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/16/) — The Mouse cries, "Would you like cats if you were me?" and calls cats "nasty, low, vulgar things"; "vulgar" here means common and rude. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/17/) — When Alice says "We won't talk about her any more", the Mouse cries "We indeed!", offended at being counted in, as if it would ever talk about cats. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/18/) — Alice then praises a farmer's terrier that "kills all the rats" (the farmer says it is "worth a hundred pounds"), and the Mouse swims away making "quite a commotion" (a lot of noisy fuss). - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/19/) — When Alice promises not to talk about cats or dogs, the Mouse comes back, its face "quite pale (with passion, Alice thought)", and says it will tell its "history" on the shore. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/20/) — The pool has become crowded with "a Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet": a Lory is a small bright parrot, an Eaglet is a young eagle, and the Dodo is a big bird that died out long ago. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/4-alice-ch2-part2-the-pool-of-tears/21/) — Old words in today's English: "I daresay" = I suppose, "take a fancy to" = start to like, "a capital one for" = really good at, "with passion" = with strong anger. - ← previous: [Alice in Wonderland, chapter II, part 1: Curiouser and curiouser (who am I?)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/3-alice-ch2-part1-curiouser-and-curiouser/) - next →: [Alice in Wonderland, chapter III, part 1: The driest thing and the Caucus-race](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/5-alice-ch3-part1-a-caucus-race/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)