Alice in Wonderland Ch IV - Send in a Little Bill Mystery 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!

It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again, and looking anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something. Alice guessed in a moment that it was looking for the fan and the pair of white kid gloves, and she very good-naturedly began hunting about for them also, but they were nowhere to be seen.

Very soon the Rabbit noticed Alice, as she went hunting about, and called out to her in an angry tone, `Why, Mary Ann, what are you doing out here? Run home this moment, and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan! Quick, now!' And Alice was so much frightened that she ran off at once in the direction it pointed to, without trying to explain the mistake it had made.

`He took me for his housemaid,' she said to herself as she ran. As she said this, she came upon a neat little house, on the door of which was a bright brass plate with the name `W. RABBIT' engraved upon it. She went in without knocking.

She found her way into a tidy little room with a table in the window, and on it a fan, a pair of tiny white kid gloves and a little bottle with the words `DRINK ME. `I know something interesting is sure to happen,' she said to herself, `whenever I eat or drink anything; so I'll just see what this bottle does.'

It did so indeed, and much sooner than she had expected she found her head pressing against the ceiling, and had to stoop to save her neck from being broken. She hastily put down the bottle, saying to herself `That's quite enough--I hope I shan't grow any more--As it is, I can't get out at the door--I do wish I hadn't drunk quite so much!'

`Mary Ann! Mary Ann! Fetch me my gloves this moment!' Then came a little pattering of feet on the stairs. Alice knew it was the Rabbit coming to look for her, and she trembled till she shook the house, quite forgetting that she was now about a thousand times as large as the Rabbit, and had no reason to be afraid of it.

`Pat! Pat! Where are you?' called the Rabbit

`Sure then I'm here! Digging for apples, yer honour!' replied Pat.

`Now tell me, Pat, what's that in the window?'

`Sure, it's an arm, yer honour!'

`An arm, you goose! Who ever saw one that size? Why, it fills the whole window!'

`Sure, it does, yer honour: but it's an arm for all that.'

`Well, it's got no business there, at any rate. Go take it away!'

Alice waited for some time without hearing anything more. At last came a rumbling of little cart wheels and the sound of a good many voices all talking together. She made out the words: `Where's the other ladder?--Why, I hadn't to bring but one; Bill's got the other--Bill! fetch it here, lad!--Here, put 'em up at this corner--No, tie 'em together first--they don't reach half high enough yet--Oh! they'll do well enough; don't be particular- -Here, Bill! catch hold of this rope----Who's to go down the chimney?--Nay, I shan't! You do it!--That I won't, then!--Bill's to go down--Here, Bill! the master says you're to go down the chimney!'

Alice drew her foot as far down the chimney as she could and waited till she heard a little animal scratching and scrambling about in the chimney close above her: then, saying to herself `This is Bill,' she gave one sharp kick, and waited to see what would happen next.

The first thing she heard was a general chorus of `There goes Bill!' Then the Rabbit's voice alone--`Catch him, you by the hedge!' Then silence and then another confusion of voices--`Hold up his head--Brandy now--Don't choke him--How was it, old fellow? What happened to you? Tell us all about it!'

Last came a little feeble, squeaking voice, (`That's Bill,' thought Alice,) `Well, I hardly know--No more Brandy, thank ye; I'm better now--but I'm a deal too flustered to tell you--all I know is, something comes at me like a Jack-in-the-box, and up I goes like a sky-rocket!'

`So you did, old fellow!' said the others.

”Soon as I gathers my wits about me”, said Bill, “lash me back to the end of that rope and it’s up the ladder and back down the chimney I goes! Just gets me back to the coordinates listed above. I’ll sees the chimney from there.”

There was a dead silence instantly, and Alice thought to herself, `I wonder what they will do next! If they had any sense, they'd take the roof off.' After a minute or two, they began moving about again, and Alice heard the Rabbit say, `A barrowful will do, to begin with.'

`A barrowful of what?' thought Alice; but she had not long to doubt, for the next moment a shower of little pebbles came rattling in at the window, and some of them hit her in the face.

Alice noticed with some surprise that the pebbles were all turning into little cakes as they lay on the floor, and a bright idea came into her head. `If I eat one of these cakes,' she thought, `it's sure to make some change in my size; and as it can't possibly make me larger, it must make me smaller, I suppose.'

So she swallowed one of the cakes, and was delighted to find that she began shrinking directly. As soon as she was small enough to get through the door, she ran out of the house, and found quite a crowd of little animals and birds waiting outside. They all made a rush at Alice the moment she appeared; but she ran off as hard as she could, and soon found herself safe in a thick wood.

`The first thing I've got to do,' said Alice to herself, as she wandered about in the wood, `is to grow to my right size again; and the second thing is to find my way into that lovely garden. She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of a mushroom, and her eyes immediately met those of a large caterpillar, that was sitting on the top with its arms folded, quietly smoking a long hookah, and taking not the smallest notice of her or of anything else.

CAUTION!!!

Disclaimer: Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. Illustrations by John Tenniel. Original story by Lewis Carroll. 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. Links are provided for information purposes only and included so that the original story and the edited version can be compared.