And here Alice began to get rather sleepy , and kept on saying to herself , in a dreamy sort of way `` do cats eat bats ? do cats eat bats ? '' and sometimes , `` do bats eat cats ? '' for , as she could n't answer either question , it did n't much matter which way she put it . She felt that she was dozing off , and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah , and was saying to her very earnestly , `` Now , Dinah , my dear , tell me the truth . Did you ever eat a bat ? '' when suddenly , bump ! bump ! down she came upon a heap of sticks and shavings , and the fall was over . Alice was not a bit hurt , and jumped on to her feet directly : she looked up , but it was all dark overhead ; before her was another long passage , and the white rabbit was still in sight , hurrying down it . There was not a moment to be lost : away went Alice like the wind , and just heard it say , as it turned a corner , `` my ears and whiskers , how late it 's getting ! '' She turned the corner after it , and instantly found herself in a long , low hall , lit up by a row of lamps which hung from the roof . -LSB- Illustration -RSB- There were doors all round the hall , but they were all locked , and when Alice had been all round it , and tried them all , she walked sadly down the middle , wondering how she was ever to get out again : suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table , all made of solid glass ; there was nothing lying upon it , but a tiny golden key , and Alice 's first idea was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall , but alas ! either the locks were too large , or the key too small , but at any rate it would open none of them . However , on the second time round , she came to a low curtain , behind which was a door about eighteen inches high : she tried the little key in the keyhole , and it fitted ! Alice opened the door , and looked down a small passage , not larger than a rat-hole , into the loveliest garden you ever saw . How she longed to get out of that dark hall , and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains , but she could not even get her head through the doorway , `` and even if my head would go through , '' thought poor Alice , `` it would be very little use without my shoulders . Oh , how I wish I could shut up like a telescope ! I think I could , if I only knew how to begin . '' For , you see , so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately , that Alice began to think very few things indeed were really impossible .
There was nothing else to do , so she went back to the table , half hoping she might find another XXXXX on it , or at any rate a book of rules for shutting up people like telescopes : this time there was a little bottle on it -- `` which certainly was not there before '' said Alice -- and tied round the neck of the bottle was a paper label with the words DRINK ME beautifully printed on it in large letters .
bat beds corner ears flowers fountains idea key matter question