Part 4: Good-bye, Feet!
As she was now a few inches high, Nyssa cheered up at the thought that she could now go through the little door. She waited a while in case she were to shrink any more, feeling a little nervous lest she were to reduce to nothing at all. But after discovering that nothing more nor less occurred, she happily ran to the small door. But, alas! She had forgotten the little golden key and had left it on the console table. She could see it quite plainly through the glass, and the table was too slippery to climb. Eventually, she sat down, feeling very sorry for herself.
“Come, there’s no use in moping!” she said to herself sternly after a while. She looked round the room, and quickly noticed a little rectangular tin lying under the console table. She opened it to find inside a very small cake, upon which the words “Eat Me” were beautifully marked in currants.
“Well, I’ll eat it” said Nyssa, “and if it makes me grow, I can reach the key, and if I shrink any more, I’ll be able to crawl under the door, so there’s no use caring what happens!” She nibbled the cake, and waited a while.
Nothing happened. Nyssa reasoned that this generally happened whenever one ate cake, and it was very nice anyway, so she set to work and very soon finished it off.
“Curiouser and curiouser!” exclaimed Nyssa, very much surprised. “Now I’m opening out like a telescope! Good-bye, feet!” For indeed, her feet were very rapidly getting rather far away. She wondered briefly how she would put on her shoes and stockings, and whether this could be done by semaphore, but such thoughts were driven out of her head when it struck the ceiling. She could by then easily pick up the key, but of course, the door was now far too small. Nyssa was so angry and frustrated that she burst into tears.
“Stop crying!” she told herself sternly, but was unable to do so, and being so very much larger, there was soon a large puddle of tears about her. In between the pattering noise of teardrops landing in the pool, she heard footsteps, and hastily dried her eyes. It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in one hand, and a harlequin’s mask in the other.
