Alice In Wonderland Ch II - The Pool of Tears Traditional Cache

This cache is one of many chapters in the story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Each cache will reveal a password which will be required to obtain the coordinates for the final cache in the series. Always carry the typical geocaching tools, i.e., hiking stick, flashlight, notebook, a #2 pencil and keep an open mind. Always print and carry a hard copy of this page with you. There may be necessary clues hidden in the text. Good luck!

`Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); `now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was.' In fact she was now more than nine feet high! She sat down and began to cry. `You ought to be ashamed of yourself,' said Alice, `a great girl like you, to go on crying in this way! Stop this moment, I tell you!' But she went on all the same, shedding gallons and gallons of tears, until there was a large pool all round her, what seemed to be four inches deep and reaching all the way down the hall.

'Good-bye feet!' (for when Alice stood and looked down at her feet they seemed to be going under water; they were getting so far under water). `Oh, my poor little feet. I wonder who will put on your dry shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I'm sure I shan't be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you. You must manage the best way you can.' But I must be kind to them, thought Alice, or perhaps they won't walk the way I want to go! 'Stay to the left, little feet, stay far to the left!!!' I do so hope they listen to me, Alice thought, for it would be a dreadful fall if they don't. Let me see; I'll give them a new pair of dry boots every Christmas. Then perhaps they'll pay better mind.

After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the distance, and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming. It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other. He came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to himself as he came, `Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting!' Alice felt so desperate that she was ready to ask help of any one; so when the Rabbit came near her she began, in a low, timid voice, `If you please, sir---' The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid gloves and the fan and scurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go.

Alice took up the fan and gloves and went on talking, `Dear, dear! How queer everything is today! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night?'
As she said this she looked down at her hands and was surprised to see that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little white kid gloves while she was talking. `How can I have done THAT?', she said, `I must be growing small again.' As nearly as she could guess she was now about two feet high and was going on shrinking rapidly. She soon found out that the cause of this was the fan she was holding, so 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. As she said these words her foot slipped and in another moment splash!, she was up to her chin in salt water. She soon made out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine feet high.

Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little way off, so she swam nearer to make out what it was. At first she thought it must be a walrus or hippopotamus but then she remembered how small she was now and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped in like herself.

It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with the birds and animals that had fallen into it. There was a Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures. Alice led the way and the whole party swam to the shore.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chapter I - “Down the Rabbit Hole”
Chapter III - “The Caucus Race”
Chapter IV - “Send in a Little Bill”
Chapter V - “Advice from a Caterpillar”

Disclaimer: Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. Illustrations by John Tenniel. Original story by Lewis Carroll. Links are provided for information purposes only and intended so that the original story and the edited version could be compared. Text and pictures shamelessly borrowed from www.sabian.org and do not have any assoiciation with the Brothers Grimm or www.geocaching.com or groundspeak inc. nor do the above mentioned entities intend to profit from this Adventure in Wonderland.