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THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS.
AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE.
DRAMATIS PERSONS.
(As arranged before commencement of game.)
White.
pieces. tawns.
Tweedledee : Daisy.
Unicorn ...... Haigha.
Sheep Oyster.
W. Queen "Lily."
AVT. King Fawn.
Aged man Oyster.
W. Knight Hatta.
Tweedledum Daisy.
Red.
PAWNS.
PIECES.
Daisy . .
. Humpty Dumpty
Messenger
. Carpenter.
Oyster . .
. Walrus.
Tiger-lily .
. R. Queen.
Rose . .
. R. King.
Oyster .
. Crow.
Frog . .
. R. Knight.
Daisy .
. Lion.
RED.
//Aw/A'9mW'/AW
W H I T E.
White Paivn {Alice) to play, and win in eleven moves.
vxc.v
1. Alice meets E. Q. . . 35
2. Alice through Q.'s 3d (by
railway) .... 48
to Q.'s 4th (Tweedledum
and Tweedledee) . . 54
3. Alice meets W. Q. (with
shawl) 91
4. Alice to Q.'s 5th (slwp,
river, shop) . . . .101
5. Alice to Q.'s 6th (Humpty
Dumpty) 112
6. Alice to Q.'s 7th (forest) 155
7. W. Kt. takes R. Kt, . . 161
8. Alice to Q.'s 8th (coro-
nation) 183
9. Alice becomes Queen . 196
10. Alice castles (feast) . . 204
11. Alice takes R.Q. & wins 215 i
1. R.Q. toK.R.'s4th
PAOR
45
2. W. Q. to Q. B.'s 4th (after
shawl) 91
'3. W. Q. to Q. B.'s 5th (6c-
comes sheej)) ....
4. W. Q. to K. B.'s 8th
(leaves egg on shelf) .
5. W. Q. to Q. B.'s 8th (fly-
ing from R. Kt.)
6. R. Kt. to K.'s 2nd (ok)
7. W. Kt, to K. B.'s 5 th .
8. R. Q. to K.'s sq. (exami-
nation) 186
9. Queens castle . . . .199
10. W.Q. to Q.R.'s 6th (soup) 211
100
111
149
158
182
THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS,
AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE.
BY
LEWIS CARROLL,
AUTHOR OF "ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND."
WITH FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS
BY JOHN TENNIEL.
JToninw :
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1872.
[The Rigid of Translation and Meproduction is reserved.]
Child of the pure unclouded brow
And dreaming eyes of wonder !
Though time he fleet, and I and thou
Are half a life asunder,
Thy loving smile will surely hail
The love-gift of a fairy-tale.
I have not seen thy sunny face,
Nor heard thy silver laughter;
No thought of me shall find a place
In thy young life's hereafter
Enough that now thou wilt not fail
To listen to my fairy-tale.
A tale begun in other days,
When summer suns were glowing
A simple chime, that served to time
The rhythm of our rowing
Whose echoes live in memory yet,
Though envious years would say ' forget.
Come, hearken then, ere voice of dread,
With hitter tidings laden,
Shall summon to unwelcome bed
A melancholy maiden !
We are but older children, dear,
Who fret to find our bedtime near.
Without, the frost, the blinding snow.
The storm-wind's moody madness
Within, the firelight's ruddy glow,
And childhood's nest of gladness.
The magic words shall hold thee fast :
Thou shalt not heed the raving blast.
And though the shadow of a sigh
May treinble through the story,
For ' happy summer days ' gone by,
And vanish'd summer glory
It shall not touch with breath of bale
The pleasance of our fairy-tale.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE 1
11. THE GARDEN OF LIVE FLOWERS . 26
III. LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS 46
IV. TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE . . ' 66
V. WOOL AND WATER 91
VI. HUMPTY DUMPTY 113
VII. THE LION AND THE UNICORN 137
VIII. "IT'S MY OWN INVENTION 157
IX. QUEEN ALICE 185
X. SHAKING 215
XI. WAKING . 216
XII. WHICH DREAMED IT? 218
/P/1A^/^^V\\'VX^C^
CHAPTER 1.
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE.
ONE thing was certain, that the white kitten
had had nothing to do with it : it was the
black kitten's fault entirely. For the white kitten
had been having its face washed by the old
cat for the last quarter of an hour (and bearing
it pretty well, considering) ; so you see that it
couldn't have had any hand in the mischief.
/ B
2 LOOKINU-GLASS HOUSE.
The way Dinah washed her children's faces
was this : first she held the poor thing down
by its ear with one paw, and then with the
other paw she rubbed its face all over, the
wrong way, beginning at the nose : and just
now, as I said, she was hard at work on the
white kitten, which was lying quite still and
trying to purr no doubt feeling that it was
all meant for its good.
But the black kitten had been finished with
earlier in the afternoon, and so, while Alice was
sitting curled up in a corner of the great arm-
chair, half talking to herself and half asleep,
the kitten had been having a grand game of
romps with the ball of worsted Alice had been
trying to wind up, and had been rolling it
up and down till it had all come undone again;
and there it was, spread over the hearth-rug,
all knots and tangles, with the kitten running
after its own tail in the middle.
"Oh, you wicked wicked little thing!" cried
Alice, catching up the kitten, and giving it a
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE. 3
little kiss to make it understand that it was in
disgrace. " Really, Dinah ought to have taught
you better manners ! You ought, Dinah, you
know you ought ! " she added, looking reproach-
fully at the old cat, and speaking in as cross
a voice as she could manage— and then she
scrambled back into the arm-chair, taking the
kitten and the worsted with her, and began
winding up the ball again. But she didn't get
on very fast, as she was talking all the time,
sometimes to the kitten, and sometimes to herself.
Kitty sat very demurely on her knee, pretending
to watch the progress of the winding, and now
and then putting out one paw and gently touching
the ball, as if it would be glad to help if it might.
" Do you know what to-morrow is, Kitty ? "
Alice began. " You'd have guessed if you'd
been up in the window with me -only Dinah
was making you tidy, so you couldn't. I was
watching the boys getting in sticks for the bon-
fire and it wants plenty of sticks, Kitty !
Only it got so cold, and it snowed so, they
B 2
4 LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE.
had to leave off. Never mind, Kitty, we'll go
and see the bonfire to-morrow." Here Alice
wound two or three turns of the worsted
round the kitten's neck, just to see how it
would look : this led to a scramble, in which
the ball rolled down upon the floor, and yards
and yards of it got unwound again.
" Do you know, I was so angry, Kitty," Alice
went on, as soon as they were comfortably
settled again, "when I saw all the mischief you
had been doing, I was very nearly opening the
window, and putting you out into the snow!
And you'd have deserved it, you little mis-
chievous darling ! What have you got to say
for yourself I Now don't interrupt me ! " she
went on, holding up one finger. "I'm going
to tell you all your faults. Number one : you
squeaked twice while Dinah was washing your
face this morning. Now you can't deny it,
Kitty : I heard you ! What's that you say ? "
(pretending that the kitten was speaking.) "Her
paw went into your eye ? Well, that's your
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE.
fault, for keeping your eyes open — if you'd shut
them, tight up, it wouldn't have happened. Now
don't make any more excuses, but listen ! Num-
6 LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE.
ber two : you pulled Snowdrop away by the
tail just as I had put down the saucer of milk
before her ! What, you were thirsty, were you ?
How do you know she wasn't thirsty too %
Now for number three : you unwound every
bit of the worsted while I wasn't looking !
"That's three faults, Kitty, and you've not
been punished for any of them yet. You know
I'm saving up all your punishments for Wednes-
day week Suppose they had saved up all
my punishments ! " she went on, talking more
to herself than the kitten. "What would they
do at the end of a year? I should be sent
to prison, I suppose, when the day came.
Or let me see suppose each punishment
was to be going without a dinner : then, when
the miserable day came, I should have to go
without fifty dinners at once ! Well, I shouldn't
mind that much ! I'd far rather go without
them than eat them !
" Do you hear the snow against the window-
panes, Kitty 1 How nice and soft it sounds !
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE. 7
Just as if some one was kissing the window all
over outside. I wonder if the snow loves the
trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently 1
And then it covers them up snug, you know,
with a white quilt ; and perhaps it says, ' Go to
sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.'
And when they wake up in the summer, Kitty,
they dress themselves all in green, and dance
about whenever the wind blows oh,
that's very pretty ! " cried Alice, dropping the
ball of worsted to clap her hands. "And I
do so wish it was true ! I 'm sure the woods
look sleepy in the autumn, when the leaves
are getting brown.
" Kitty, can you play chess 1 Now, don't smile,
my dear, I'm asking it seriously. Because, when
we were playing just now, you watched just as
if you understood it: and- when I said ''Check!'
you purred ! Well, it was a nice check, Kitty,
and really I might have won, if it hadn't been
for that nasty Knight, that came wriggling down
among my pieces. Kitty, dear, let's pretend "
8 LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE.
And here I wish I could tell you half the
things Alice used to say, beginning with her
favourite phrase " Let's pretend.'"' She had had
quite a long argument with her sister only the
day before — all because Alice had begun with
"Let's pretend we're kings and queens:" and her
sister, who liked being very exact, had argued
that they couldn't, because there were only two
of them, and Alice had been reduced at last to
say, "Well, you can be one of them then, and
I'll be all the rest." And once she had really
frightened her old nurse by shouting suddenly
in her ear, "Nurse! Do let's pretend that I'm
a hungry hyaena, and you're a bone ! "
But this is taking us away from Alice's
speech to the kitten. "Let's pretend that you're
the Red Queen, Kitty! Do you know, I think if
you sat up and folded your arms, you'd look
exactly like her. Now do try, there's a dear!"
And Alice got the Red Queen off the table, and
set it up before the kitten as a model for it to
imitate : however, the thing didn't succeed, prin-
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE. 9
cipally, Alice said, because the kitten wouldn't
fold its arms properly. So, to punish it, she held
it up to the Looking-glass, that it might see how
sulky it was " and if you're not good directly,"
she added, "I'll put you through into Looking-
glass House. How would you like that ?
"Now, if you'll only attend, Kitty, and not
talk so much,. I'll tell you all my ideas about
Looking-glass House. First, there's the room you
can see through the glass that's just the same
as our drawing-room, only the things go the
other way. I can see all of it when I get upon
a chair— — all but the bit just behind the fire-
place. Oh ! I do so wish I could see that bit !
I want so much to know whether they've a
fire in the winter : you never can tell, you
know, unless our fire smokes, and then smoke
comes up in that room too but that may be
only pretence, just to make it look as if they
had a fire. Well then, the books are something
like our books, only the words go the wrong
way ; I know that, because I've held up one of
10 LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE.
our books to the glass, and then they hold tip
one in the other room.
" How would you like to live in Looking-
glass House, Kitty ? I wonder if they'd give
you milk in there % Perhaps Looking-glass milk
isn't good to drink But oh, Kitty ! now we
come to the passage. You can just see a little
peep of the passage in Looking-glass House, if
vou leave the door of our drawing-room wide
open : and it 's very like our passage as far as
you can see, only you know it may be quite
different on beyond. Oh, Kitty ! how nice it
would be if we could only get through into
Looking-glass House ! I 'm sure it 's got, oh !
such beautiful things in it ! Let 's pretend there 's
a way of getting through into it, somehow,
Kitty . Let 's pretend the glass has got all soft
like gauze, so that we can get through. Why,
it 's turning into a sort of mist now, I declare !
It'll be easy enough to get through " She
was up on the chimney-piece while she said
this, though she hardly knew how she had got
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE.
11
MlJ]l!j|ilfllOJ!,ii!!i
there. And certainly the glass was beginning
to melt away, just like a bright silvery mist.
In another moment Alice was through the
12
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE.
glass, and had jumped lightly down into the
Looking-glass room. The very first thing she did
was to look whether there was a fire in the
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE. 13
fireplace, and she was quite pleased to find that
there was a real one, blazing away as brightly
as the one she had left behind. "So I shall be
as warm here as I was in the old room/' thought
Alice: "warmer, in fact, because there '11 be no
one here to scold me away from the fire. Oh,
what fun it'll be, when they see me through
the glass in here, and can't get at me ! "
Then she began looking about, and noticed
that what could be seen from the old room
was quite common and uninteresting, but that
all the rest was as different as possible. For
instance, the pictures on the wall next the fire
seemed to be all alive, and the very clock on
the chimney-piece (you know you can only see
the back of it in the Looking-glass) had got
the face of a little old man, and grinned at her.
" They don't keep this room so tidy as the
other," Alice thought to herself, as she noticed
several of the chessmen down in the hearth
among the cinders : but in another moment, with
a little " Oh ! " of surprise, she was down on her
14
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE.
hands and knees watching them. The chessmen
were walking about, two and two !
" Here are the Red King and the Red
Queen," Alice said (in a whisper, for fear of
frightening them), "and there are the White
King and the White Queen sitting on the edge
of the shovel and here are two Castles walk-
ing arm in arm 1 don't think they can
hear me," she went on, as she put her head
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE. 15
closer down, "and I'm nearly sure they can't
see me. I feel somehow as if I were in-
visible "
Here something began squeaking on the table
behind Alice, and made her turn her head just
in time to see one of the White Pawns roll
over and begin kicking : she watched it with
great curiosity to see what would happen next.
" [t is the voice of my child ! " the White
Queen cried out, as she rushed past the King,
so violently that she knocked him over among
the cinders. " My precious Lily ! My imperial
kitten ! " and she began scrambling wildly up
the side of the fender.
" Imperial fiddlestick ! " said the King, rub-
bing his nose, which had been hurt by the fall.
He had a right to be a little annoyed with
the Queen, for he was covered with ashes from
head to foot.
. Alice was very anxious to be of use, and,
as the poor little Lily was nearly screaming her-
self into a fit, she hastily picked up the Queen
16 LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE.
and set her on the table by the side of her
noisy little daughter.
The Queen gasped, and sat down : the rapid
journey through the air had quite taken away
her breath, and for a minute or two she could
do nothing but hug the little Lily in silence.
As soon as she had recovered her breath a little,
she called out to the White King, who was sitting
sulkily among the ashes, " Mind the volcano ! "
" What volcano ? " said the King, looking up
anxiously into the fire, as if he thought that
was the most likely place to find one.
" Blew me up," panted the Queen, who
was still a little out of breath. "Mind you come
up the regular way don't get blown up !"
Alice watched the White King as he slowly
struggled up from bar to bar, till at last she
said, "Why, you'll be hours and hours getting
to the table, at that rate. I'd far better help
you, hadn't I \ " But the King took no notice
of the question : it was quite clear that he could
neither hear her nor see her.
LOOKING GLASS HOUSE.
17
So Alice picked him up very gently, and
lifted him across more slowly than she had lifted
the Queen, that she mightn't take his breath
away : but, before she put him on the table, she
thought she might as well dust him a little,
he was so covered with ashes.
She said afterwards that she had never seen
in all her life such a face as the King made,
when he found himself held in the air by an
c
18 LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE.
invisible hand, and being dusted : lie was far too
much astonished to cry out, but his eyes and
his mouth went on getting larger and larger,
and rounder and rounder, till her hand shook
so with laughing that she nearly let him drop
upon the floor.
" Oh ! please don't make such faces, my dear ! "
she cried out, quite forgetting that the King
couldn't hear her. " You make me laugh so
that I can hardly hold you ! And don't keep
your mouth so wide open ! All the ashes will
get into it there, now I think you're tidy
enough ! " she added, as she smoothed his hair,
and set him upon the table near the Queen.
The King immediately fell flat on his back,
and lay perfectly still: and Alice was a little
alarmed at what she had done, and went round
the room to see if she could find any water to
throw over him. However, she could find
nothing but a bottle of ink, and when she got
back with it she found he had recovered, and.
he and the Queen were talking together in a
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE. 19
frightened whisper — —so low, that Alice could
hardly hear what they said.
The King was saying, " I assure you, my
dear, I turned cold to the very ends of my
whiskers ! "
To which the Queen replied, " You haven't
got any whiskers."
"The horror of that moment," the King went
on, "I shall never, never forget ! "
"You will, though," the Queen said, "if you
don't make a memorandum of it."
Alice looked on with great interest as the
King took an enormous memorandum-book out
of his pocket, and began writing. A sudden
thought struck her, and she took hold of the
end of the pencil, which came some way over
his shoulder, and began writing for him.
The poor King looked puzzled and unhappy,
and struggled with the pencil for some time
without saying anything; but Alice was too
strong for him, and at last he panted out, " My
dear ! I really must get a thinner pencil. I can't
C 2
20
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE.
manage this one a bit ; it writes all manner
of things that I don't intend "
" What manner of things ? " said the Queen,
looking over the book (in which Alice had put
' The White Knight
is sliding doum the
poker. He balances
very badly'). "That's
not a memorandum
of your feelings ! "
There was a book
lying near Alice on
the table, and. while
she sat watching
the White King (for
she was still a little
anxious about him,
and had the ink all ready to throw over
him, in case he fainted again), she turned over
the leaves, to find some part that she could
read, " — for it's all in some language I don't
know," she said to herself.
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE. 21
It was like this,
\&<S»w &fa wV aW«vV^ bwo yr^\> SwCL
She puzzled over this for some time, but
at last a bright thought struck her. " Why,
it's a Looking-glass book, of course ! And if
I hold it up to a glass, the words will all go
the right way again."
This was the poem that Alice read.
JABBERWOCKY.
*Twas Irillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimhle in the wade;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe
22 LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE.
" Beware the Jabberwock, my son !
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch !
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch /"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought —
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And as in ufflsh thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it tame !
One, two ! One, two ! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack !
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE.
24 LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE.
" And hast thou slain the JabbervjocJc ?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy !
0 frabjous day! Gallooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"It seems very pretty/' she said when she
had finished it, " but it's rather hard to under-
stand ! " (You see she didn't like to confess, even
to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.)
"Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas
only I don't exactly know what they are !
However, somebody killed something: that's clear,
at any rate "
" But oh ! " thought Alice, suddenly jumping
up, "if I don't make hastj I shall have to
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE. 25
go back through the Looking-glass, before I've
seen what the rest of the house is like ! Let's
have a look at the garden first ! " She was out
of the room in a moment, and ran down stairs
or, at least, it wasn't exactly running, but
a new invention for getting down stairs quickly
and easily, as Alice said to herself. She just
kept the tips of her fingers on the hand-rail,
and floated gently down without even touching
the stairs with her feet ; then she floated on
through the hall, and would have gone straight
out at the door in the same way, if she hadn't
caught hold of the door-post. She was getting
a little giddy with so much floating in the air,
and was rather glad to find herself walking
again in the natural way.
CHAPTER II.
THE GARDEN OF LIVE FLOWERS.
" I should see the garden far better," said
Alice to herself, "if I could get to the top of
that hill : and here's a path that leads straight
to it at least, no, it doesn't do that "
(after going a few yards along the path, and
turning several sharp corners), "but I suppose
it will at last. But how curiously it twists !
It 's more like a corkscrew than a path ! "Well,
this turn goes to the hill, I suppose no, it
doesn't ! This goes straight back to the house !
Well then, I'll try it the other way."
And so she did : wandering up and down,
GARDEN OF LIVE FLOWERS. 27
and trying turn after turn, but always coming
back to the house, do what she would. Indeed,
once, when she turned a corner rather more
quickly than usual, she ran against it before
she could stop herself.
"It's no use talking about it," Alice said,
looking up at the house and pretending it was
arguing with her. "I'm not going in again
yet. I know I should have to get through the
Looking-glass again — back into the old room —
and there 'd be an end of all my adventures ! "
So, resolutely turning her back upon the
house, she set out once more down the path,
determined to keep straight on till she got to
the hill. For a few minutes all went on well,
and she was just saying, " I really shall do it
this time " when the path gave a sudden
twist and shook itself (as she described it after-
wards), and the next moment she found herself
actually walking in at the door.
" Oh, it 's too bad ! " she cried. " I never saw
such a house for getting in the way ! Never!"
28 THE GARDEN OP
However, there was the hill full in sight,
so there was nothing to be done but start
again. This time she came upon a large flower-
bed, with a border of daisies, and a willow-tree
growing in the middle.
" 0 Tiger-lily," said Alice, addressing her-
self to one that was waving gracefully about
in the wind, " I wish you could talk ! "
" We can talk," said the Tiger-lily : " when
there's anybody worth talking to."
Alice was so astonished that she couldn't
speak for a minute : it quite seemed to take
her breath away. At length, as the Tiger-lily
only went on waving about, she spoke again,
in a timid voice — almost in a whisper. "And
can all the flowers talk ? "
" As well as you can," said the Tiger-lily.
" And a great deal louder."
"It isn't manners for us to begin, you
know," said the Eose, "and I really was won-
dering when you'd speak ! Said I to myself,
'Her face has got some sense in it, though
LIVE FLOWERS. 29
it's not a clever one!'
Still, you're the right
colour, and that goes
a long way."
'I don't care about the colour," the Tiger-
lily remarked. "If only her petals curled up a
little more, she'd be all right
30 THE GARDEN OF
Alice didn't like being criticised, so she
began asking questions. " Aren't you sometimes
frightened at being planted out here, with no-
body to take care of you 1 "
" There's the tree in the middle," said the
Eose : " what else is it good for ? "
" But what could it do, if any danger
came ? " Alice asked.
"It could bark," said the Rose.
" It says ' Bough-wough ! ' " cried a Daisy :
" that 's why its branches are called boughs ! "
" Didn't you know that ? " cried another
Daisy, and here they all began shouting together,
till the air seemed quite full of little shrill
voices. " Silence, every one of you ! " cried
the Tiger-lily, waving itself passionately from
side to side, and trembling with excitement.
"They know I can't get at them ! " it panted,
bending its quivering head towards Alice, "or
they wouldn't dare to do it ! "
"Never mind!" Alice said in a soothing
tone, and stooping down to the daisies, who
LIVE FLOWERS. 31
were just beginning again, she whispered, "If
you don't hold your tongues, I'll pick you ! "
There was silence in a moment, and several
of the pink daisies turned white.
"That's right!" said the Tiger-lily. "The
daisies are worst of all. When one speaks, they
all begin together, and it's enough to make
one wither to hear the way they go on ! "
" How is it you can all talk so nicely ? "
Alice said, hoping to get it into a better temper
by a compliment. " I've been in many gardens
before, but none of the flowers could talk."
"Put your hand down, and feel the ground,"
said the Tiger-lily. " Then you '11 know why."
Alice did so. "It's very hard," she said,
"but I don't see what that has to do with it."
"In most gardens," the Tiger-lily said, "they
make the beds too soft — so that the flowers
are always asleep."
This sounded a very good reason, and Alice
was quite pleased to know it. " I never thought
of that before ! " she said.
32 THE GARDEN OF
" It's my opinion that you never think at
all" the Eose said in a rather severe tone.
. "I never saw anybody that looked stupider,"
a Violet said, so suddenly, that Alice quite
jumped ; for it hadn't spoken before.
" Hold your tongue ! " cried the Tiger-lily.
"As if you ever saw anybody ! You keep your
head under the leaves, and snore away there,
till you know no more what's going on in the
world, than if you were a bud 1 "
" Are there any more people in the garden
besides me ? " Alice said, not choosing to notice
the Eose's last remark.
"There's one other flower in the garden
that can move about like you," said the Eose.
" I wonder how you do it " (" You're
always wondering," said the Tiger-lily), "but
she's more bushy than you are."
" Is she like me ? " Alice asked eagerly, for
the thought crossed her mind, "There's another
little girl in the garden, somewhere ! "
" Well, she has the same awkward shape as
LIVE FLOWERS. 33
you," the Eose said, "but she's redder and
her petals are shorter, I think."
" Her petals are done up close, almost like
a dahlia," the Tiger-lily interrupted : " not tum-
bled about anyhow, like yours."
" But that's not your fault," the Eose added
kindly : " you're beginning to fade, you know
and then one can't help one's petals getting
a little untidy."
Alice didn't like this idea at all : so, to
change the subject, she asked " Does she ever
come out here ? "
" I daresay you'll see her soon," said the
Eose. " She's one of the thorny kind."
" Where does she wear the thorns ? " Alice
asked with some curiosity.
" Why, all round her head, of course," the
Eose replied. "I was wondering you hadn't got
some too. I thought it was the regular rule."
" She's coming ! " cried the Larkspur. " I
hear her footstep, thump, thump, along the
gravel-walk ! "
D
3* THE GARDEN OF
Alice looked round eagerly, and found that
it was the Ked Queen. "She's grown a good
deal ! " was her first remark. She had indeed :
when Alice first found her in the ashes, she
had been only three inches high and here
she was, half a head taller than Alice herself !
" It 's the fresh air that does it," said the
Rose : " wonderfully fine air it - is, out here."
"I think I'll go and meet her," said Alice,
for, though the flowers were interesting enough,
she felt that it would be far grander to have a
talk with a real Queen.
" You can't possibly do that," said the Rose :
"i" should advise you to walk the other way."
This sounded nonsense to Alice, so she said
nothing, but set off at once towards the Red
Queen. To her surprise, she lost sight of her
in a moment, and found herself walking in at
the front-door again.
A little provoked, she drew back, and after
looking everywhere for the Queen (whom she
spied out at last, a long way off), she thought
LIVE FLOWERS.
35
she would try the plan, this time, of walking
in the opposite direction.
It succeeded beautifully. She had not been
walking- a minute before she found herself face
to face with the Eed Queen, and full in sight of
the hill she had been so long aiming at.
D 2
36 THE GARDEN OF
" Where do you come from ? " said the Red
Queen. " And where are you going 1 Look up,
speak nicely, and don't twiddle your fingers all
the time."
Alice attended to all these directions, and
explained, as well as she could, that she had
lost her way.
"I don't know what you mean by your
way," said the Queen : " all the ways about here
belong to me -but why did you come out
here at all % " she added in a kinder tone.
"Curtsey while you're thinking what to say.
It saves time."
Alice wondered a little at this, but she was
too much in . awe of the Queen to disbelieve it.
"I'll try it when I go home," she thought to
herself, "the next time I'm a little late for
dinner."
" It's time for you to answer now," the Queen
said, looking at her watch : " open your mouth
a little wider when you speak, and always
say 'your Majesty.'"
LIVE FLOWERS. 37
"I only wanted to see what the garden was
like, your Majesty "
"That's right," said the Queen, patting her
on the head, which Alice didn't like at all .
"though, when you say 'garden.' — I've seen
gardens, compared with which this would he a
wilderness."
Alice didn't dare to argue the point, but
went on : " and I thought I'd try and find
my way to the top of that hill "
" When you say ' hill,' " the Queen inter-
rupted, " / could show you hills, in comparison
with which you'd call that a valley."
" No, I shouldn't," said Alice, surprised into
contradicting; her at last : " a hill cant be a
valley, you know. That would be nonsense "
The Eed Queen shook her head. "You may
call it 'nonsense' if you like," she said, "but
I've heard nonsense, compared with which that
would be as sensible as a dictionary ! "
Alice curtseyed again, as she was afraid from
the Queen's tone that she was a little offended :
38
THE GARDEN OP
and they walked on in silence till they got to
the top of the little hill.
For some minutes Alice stood without speak-
ing, looking out in all directions over the country
— and a most curious country it was. There
were a number of tiny little brooks running
straight across it from side to side, and the
ground between was divided up into squares by
a number of little green hedges, that reached
from brook to brook.
"I declare it's marked out just like a large
chess-board ! " Alice said at last. " There ought
LIVE FLOWERS. 39
to be some men moving about somewhere
and so there are ! " she added in a tone of
delight, and her heart began to beat quick
with excitement as she went on. " It's a great
huge game of chess that 's being played— —
all over the world if this is the world at
all, you know. Oh, what fun it is ! How I
wish I was one of them ! 1 wouldn't mind
being a Pawn, if onlv I might join — — though
of course I should like to be a Queen, best."
She glanced rather shyly at the real Queen
as she said this, but her companion only smiled
pleasantly, and said, "That's easily managed.
You can be the White Queen's Pawn, if you
like, as Lily's too young to play; and you're in
the Second Square to begin with : when you
get to the Eighth Square you'll be a Queen "
Just at this moment, somehow or other, they
began to run. .
Alice never could quite make out, in think-
ing it over afterwards, how it was that they
began : all she remembers is, that they were run-
40 THE GARDEN OF
ning hand in hand, and the Queen went so fast
that it was all she could do to keep up with
her : and still the Queen kept crying " Faster !
Faster ! " but Alice felt she could not go faster,
though she had no breath left to say so.
The most curious part of the thing was, that
the trees and the other things round them never
changed their places at all : however fast they
went, they never seemed to pass anything. " I
wonder if all the things move along with us ? "
thought poor puzzled Alice. And the Queen
seemed to guess her thoughts, for she cried,
" Faster ! Don't try to talk ! "
Not that Alice had any idea of doing that.
She felt as if she would never be able to talk
again, she was getting so much out of breath :
and still the Queen cried " Faster ! Faster ! "
and dragged her along. " Are we nearly there % "
Alice managed to pant out at last.
"Nearly there!" the Queen repeated. "Why,
we passed it ten minutes ago ! Faster ! " And
they ran on for a time in silence, with the
LIVE FLOWERS.
41
wind whistling in Alice's ears, and almost blow-
ing her hair off her head, she fancied.
wsmmm?-^'^^
" Now ! Now ! " cried the Queen. " Faster !
Faster ! " And they went so fast that at last
they seemed to skim through the air, hardly
touching the ground with their feet, till sud-
denly, just as Alice was getting quite exhausted,
they stopped, and she found herself sitting on
the ground, breathless and giddy.
The Queen propped her up against a tree,
and said kindly, "You may rest a little now,"
42 THE GARDEN OF
Alice looked round her in great surprise.
" Why, I do believe we 've been under this tree
the whole time ! Everything's just as it was ! "
" Of course it is," said the Queen : " what
would you have it 1 "
" Well, in our country," said Alice, still
panting a little, " you'd generally get to some-
where else if you ran very fast for a long
time, as we've been doing."
" A slow sort of country ! " said the Queen.
"Now, here, you see, it takes all the running
you can do, to keep in the same place. If
you want to get somewhere else, you must run
at least twice as fast as that ! "
"I'd rather not try, please!" said Alice.'
"I'm quite content to stay here only I am
so hot and thirsty ! "
"I know what you'd like!" the Queen said
good-naturedly, taking a little box out of her
pocket. " Have a biscuit ? "
Alice thought it would not be civil to say
" No," though it wasn't at all what she wanted.
LIVE FLOWEKS. 43
So she took it, and ate it as well as she could :
and it was very dry ■ and she thought she had
never been so nearly choked in ah her life.
"While you're refreshing yourself," said the
Queen, *" I'll just take the measurements." And
she took a ribbon out of her pocket, marked
in inches, and began measuring the ground, and
sticking little pegs in here and there.
" At the end of two yards," she said, putting
in a peg to mark the distance, " I shall give
you your directions have another biscuit % "
"No, thank you," said Alice: "one's quite
enough ! "
" Thirst quenched, 1 hope ? " said the Queen.
Alice did not know what to say to this,
but luckily the Queen did not wait for an
answer, but went on. " At the end of three
yards I shall repeat them for fear of your
forgetting them. At the end of four, I shall say
good-bye. And at the end of five, I shall go!"
She had got all the pegs put in by this
time, and Alice looked on with great interest
44 THE GARDEN OP
as she returned to the tree, and then began
slowly walking down the row.
At the two-yard peg she faced round, and
said, " A pawn goes two squares in its first
move, you know. So you'll go very .quickly
through the Third Square by railway, I should
think and you'll find yourself in the Fourth
Square in no time. Well, that square belongs
to Tweedledum and Tweedledee the Fifth is
mostly water the Sixth belongs to Humpty
Dumpty But you make no remark 1 "
"I 1 didn't know I had to make one
just then," Alice faltered out.
" You should have said," the Queen went on
in a tone of grave reproof, " * It 's extremely kind
of you to tell me all this' however, we'll
suppose it said the Seventh Square is all
forest however, one of the Knights will show
you the way and in the Eighth Square we
shall be Queens together, and it's all feasting
and fun ! " Alice got up and curtseyed, and
sat down a^ain.
LIVE FLOWERS. . 45
At the next peg the Queen turned again,
and this time she said, "Speak in French when
you can't think of the English for a thing
turn out your toes as you walk and re-
member who you are ! " She did not wait
for Alice to curtsey this time, but walked on
quickly to the next peg, where she turned for
a moment to say " good-bye/' and then hurried
on to the last.
How it happened, Alice never knew, but
exactly as she came to the last peg, she was
gone. Whether she vanished into the air, or
whether she ran quickly into the wood ("and
she can run very fast ! " thought Alice), there
was no way of guessing, but she was gone,
and Alice began to remember that she was
a Pawn, and that it would soon be time for
her to move.
CHAPTER III.
LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS.
Of course the first thing to do was to make
a grand survey of the country she was going
to travel through. "It's something very like
learning geography," thought Alice, as she stood
on tiptoe in hopes of being able to see a little
further. " Principal rivers there are none.
Principal mountains I'm on the only one, but
I don't think it's got any name. Principal
towns why, what are those creatures, making
honey down there ? They can't be bees nobody
ever saw bees a mile off, you know " and
for some time she stood silent, watching one of
LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS. 47
them that was bustling about among the flowers,
poking its proboscis into them, "just as if it was
a regular bee," thought Alice.
However, this was anything but a regular
bee : in fact, it was an elephant as Alice soon
found out, though the idea quite took her breath
away at first. " And what enormous flowers
they must be ! " was her next idea. " Something
like cottages with the roofs taken off, and stalks
put to them and what quantities of honey
they must make! I think I'll go down and-
no, I won't go just yet," she went on, checking
herself just as she was beginning to run down
the hill, and trying to find some excuse for turning
shy so suddenly. " It'll never do to go down
among them without a good long branch to
brush them away and what fun it'll be when
they ask me how I liked my walk. I shall
say ' Oh, I liked it well enough ' (here
came the favourite little toss of the head), 'only
it was so dusty and hot, and the elephants
did tease so ! ' "
48 LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS.
"I think I'll go down the other way," she
said after a pause : " and perhaps I may visit
the elephants later on. Besides, I do so want
to get into the Third Square ! "
So with this excuse she ran down the hill
and jumped over the first of the six little
brooks.
" Tickets, please ! " said the Guard, putting
his head in at the window. In a moment every-
body was holding out a ticket : they were
about the same size as the people, and quite
seemed to fill the carriage.
" Now then ! Show your ticket, child ! " the
Guard went on, looking angrily at Alice. And
a great many voices all said together ("like the
chorus of a song," thought Alice), " Don't keep
him waiting, child! Why, his time is worth a
thousand pounds a minute ! "
LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS. 40
" I 'm afraid I haven't got one," Alice said
in a frightened tone : " there wasn't a ticket-office
where I came from." And again the chorus of
voices went on. " There wasn't room for one
where she came from. The land there is worth
a thousand, pounds an inch !"
" Don't make excuses," said the Guard : " you
should have bought one from the engine-drrver."
And once more the chorus of voices went on
with "The man that drives the engine. Why,
the smoke alone is worth a thousand pounds
a puff!"
Alice thought to herself, " Then there s no
use in speaking." The voices didn't join in this
time,, as she hadn't spoken, but, to her great
surprise, they all thought in chorus (I hope you
understand what thinking in chorus means
for I must confess that / don't), " Better say
nothing at all. Language is worth a thousand
pounds a word ! "
" I shall dream about a thousand pounds
to-night, I know I shall ! " thought Alice.
E
50
LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS.
All this time the Guard was looking at her,
first through a telescope, then through a micro-
scope, and then through an opera-glass. At last
he said, " You 're travelling the wrong way," and
shut up the window and went away.
" So young a child," said the gentleman sitting
opposite to her, (he was dressed in white paper,)
"ought to know which way she's going, even if
she doesn't know her own name ! "
LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS. 51
A Goat, that was sitting next to the gentleman
in white, shut his eyes and said in a loud voice,
" She ought to know her way to the ticket-office,
even if she doesn't know her alphabet ! "
There was a Beetle sitting next the Goat (it
was a very queer carriage-full of passengers
altogether), and, as the rule seemed to be that
they should all speak in turn, he went on with
" She'll have to go back from here as luggage ! "
Alice couldn't see who was sitting beyond
the Beetle, but a hoarse voice spoke next. " Change
engines " it said, and there it choked and
was obliged to leave off.
" It sounds like a horse," Alice thought to
herself. And an extremely small voice, close to
llGr Gcl/T^ SttlClj "You might make a joke on that something about 'horse' and
'hoarse,' you know."
Then a very gentle voice in the distance said,
" She must be labelled ' Lass, with care/ you
know "
And after that other voices went on (" What
a number of people there are in the carriage ! "
E 2
52 LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS.
thought Alice), saying, " She must go by post,
as she 's got a head on her " " She must
be sent as a message by the telegraph "
"She must draw the train herself the rest of
the way- ," and so- on.
Bat the gentleman dressed in white paper
leaned forwards and whispered in her ear,
"Never mind what they all say, my dear, but
take a return-ticket every time the train stops."
"Indeed I shan't!" Alice said rather impa-
tiently. " I don't belong to this railway journey
at all 1 was in a wood just now and I
wish I could get back there ! "
o
"You might make a joke on thai," said the little voice close to
iier ear . "something about 'you would if you could,' you know."
" Don't tease so," said Alice, looking about in
vain to see where the voice came from ; "if you're
so anxious to have a joke made, why don't you
make one yourself?"
The little voice sighed deeply : it was very
unhappy, evidently, and Alice would have said
something pitying to comfort it, "if it would
LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS. 53
only sigh like other people ! " she thought. But
this was such a wonderfully small sigh, that she
wouldn't have heard it at all, if it hadn't come
quite close to her ear. The consequence of this
was that it tickled her ear very much, and quite
took oif her thoughts from the unhappiness of
the poor little creature.
"I know you are a friend," the little VOiCC Wdlt On; "a, dear
friend, and an old friend. And you won't hurt me, though I am an iuseet."
" What kind of insect ? " Alice inquired a
little anxiously. What she really wanted to
know was, whether it could sting or not, but she
thought this wouldn't be quite a civil question
to ask.
••mat, then you don't— - the little voice began, when it
was drowned by a shrill scream from the engine,
and everybody jumped up in alarm, Alice among
the rest.
The Horse, who had put his head out of
the window, quietly drew it in and said, " It 's
onl}7 a brook we have to jump over." Every-
body seemed satisfied with this, though -Alice
54 LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS.
felt a little nervous at the idea of trains jumping
at all. "However, it'll take us into the Fourth
Square, that's some comfort!" she said to her-
self. In another moment she felt the carriage
rise straight up into the air, and in her fright
she caught at the thing nearest to her hand,
which happened to be the Goat's beard.
But the beard seemed to melt away as she
touched it, and she found herself sitting quietly
under a tree — —while the Gnat (for that was
the insect she had been talking to) was
balancing itself on a twig just over her head,
and fanning her with its wings.
It certainly was a very large Gnat : " about
the size of a chicken," Alice thought. Still, she
couldn't feel nervous with it, after they had been
talking together so long.
" then you don't like all insects ? " the
LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS. 55
Gnat went on, as quietly as if nothing had
happened.
" I like them when they can talk," Alice said.
" None of them ever talk, where / come from."
"What sort of insects do you rejoice in,
where you come from ? " the Gnat inquired.
" I don't rejoice in insects at all," Alice ex-
plained, "because I'm rather afraid of them
at least the large kinds. But I can tell you the
names of some of them."
"Of course they answer to their names?-"
the Gnat remarked carelessly.
" I never knew them do it."
" What 's the use of their having names," the
Gnat said, "if they won't answer to them?"
"No use to them," said Alice ; "but it's useful
to the people that name them, I suppose. If not,
why do things have names at all ? "
" I can't say," the Gnat replied. " Further on,
in the wood down there, they've got no names
however, go on with your list of insects :
you 're wasting time."
m
LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS.
"Well, there's the Horse-fly," Alice began,
.counting off the names on her fingers.
" All right," said the Gnat : " half way up,
that bush, you'll see a Rocking-horse-fly, if you
look. It's made entirely of wood, and gets about
by swinonno; itself from branch to branch."
" What does it live on ? " Alice asked, with
great curiosity.
"Sap and sawdust," said the Gnat. "Go on
with the list."
Alice looked at the Eocking-horse-fly with great
interest, and made up her mind that it must have
LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS.
57
been just repainted, it looked so bright and
sticky ; and then she went on.
"And there's the Dragon-fly."
" Look on the branch above your head/' said
the Gnat, " and there you '11 find a Snap-dragon-
fly. Its body is made of plum-pudding, its wings
of holly-leaves, and its head is a raisin burning
in brandy."
" And what does it live on ? " Alice asked, as
before.
" Frumenty and mince-pie," the Gnat replied ;
"and it makes its nest in a Christmas-box."
58
LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS.
" And then there 's the Butterfly," Alice went
on, after she had taken a good look at the in-
sect with its head on fire, and had thought to
herself, " I wonder if that's the reason insects are
so fond of flying into candles because they
want to turn into Snap-dragon-flies ! "
" Crawling at your feet," said the Gnat (Alice
drew her feet back in some alarm), "you may
observe a Bread-and-butter-fly. Its wings are
thin slices of bread-and-butter, its body is a
crust, and its head is a lump of sugar."
" And what does it live on ? "
LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS. 59
"Weak tea with cream in it."
A new difficulty came into Alice's head. "Sup-
posing it couldn't find, any ? " she suggested.
" Then it would die, of course."
" But that must happen very often," Alice
remarked thoughtfully.
" It always happens," said the Gnat.
After this, Alice was silent for a minute
or two, pondering. The Gnat amused itself
meanwhile by humming round and round her
head : at last it settled again and remarked, " I
suppose you don't want to lose your name 1 "
"No, indeed," Alice said, a little anxiously.
"And yet I don't know," the Gnat went on
in a careless tone : " only think how convenient
it would be if you could manage to go home
without it ! For instance, if the governess wanted
to call you to your lessons, she would call out
'Come here / and there she would have to
leave off, because there wouldn't be any name for
her to call, and of course you wouldn't have to
go, you know."
60 LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS.
" That would never do, I 'm sure/' said Alice :
" the governess would never think of excusing me
lessons for that. If she couldn't remember my
name, she 'd call me ' Miss ! ' as the servants do."
" Well, if she said ' Miss/ and didn't say
anything more," the Gnat remarked, " of course
you 'd miss your lessons. That 's a joke. I wish
you had made it."
" Why do you wish / had made it ? " Alice
asked. "It's a very bad one."
But the Gnat only sighed deeply, while two
large tears came rolling down its cheeks.
"You shouldn't make jokes," Alice said, "if
it makes you so unhappy."
Then came another of those melancholy little
sighs, and this time the poor Gnat really seemed
to have sighed itself away, for, when Alice looked
up, there was nothing whatever to be seen on the
twig, and, as she was getting quite chilly with
sitting still so long, she got up and walked on.
She very soon came to an open field, with a
wood on the other side of it : it looked much
LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS. 61
darker than the last wood, and Alice felt a little
timid about going into it. However, on second
thoughts, she made up her mind to go on : "for
I certainly won't go hack" she thought to herself,
and this was the only way to the Eighth Square.
"This must be the wood," she said thoughtfully
to herself, " where things have no names. I wonder
what '11 become of my name when I go in ? I
/shouldn't like to lose it at all because they'd
'have to give me another, and it would be almost
certain to be an ugly one. But then the fun
would be, trying to find the creature that had got
my old name ! That's just like the advertise-
ments, you know, when people lose dogs
' answers to the name of " Dash : " had on a brass
collar' just fancy calling everything you met
'Alice/ till one of them answered! Only they
wouldn't answer at all, if they were wise."
She was rambling on in this way when she
reached the wood : it looked very cool and shady.
"Well, at any rate it's a great comfort," she said
as she stepped under the trees, " after being so
62 LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS.
hot, to get into the into the into what f "
she went on, rather surprised at not being able
to think of the word. " I mean to get under the
-under the- under this, you know ! " putting
her hand on the trunk of the tree. "What does
it call itself, I wonder ? I do believe it's got no
name why, to be sure it hasn't ! "
She stood silent for a minute, thinking : then
she suddenly began again. "Then it really has
happened, after all ! And now, who am I % I
will remember, if I can! I'm determined to
do it ! " But being determined didn't help her
much, and all she could say, after a great deal of
puzzling, wras, " L, I know it begins with L ! "
Just then a Fawn came wandering by : it
looked at Alice with its large gentle eyes, but
didn't seem at all frightened. " Here then ! Here
then!" Alice said, as she held out her hand and
tried to stroke it ; but it only started back a
little, and then stood looking at her asjain.
"What do you call yourself?" the Fawn said
at last. Such a soft sweet voice it had !
LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS.
53
" I wish I knew ! " thought poor Alice. She
answered, rather sadly, "Nothing, just now."
"Think again," it said: "that won't do."
Alice thought, but nothing came of it. " Please,
would you tell me what you call yourself?" she
said timidly. " I think that might help a little."
" I '11 tell you, if you '11 come a little further
on," the Fawn said. " I can't remember here."
64 LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS.
So they walked on together through the wood,
Alice with her arms clasped lovingly round the
soft neck of the Fawn, till they came out into
another open field, and here the Fawn gave a
sudden bound into the air, and shook itself free
from Alice's arms. " I'm a Fawn ! " it cried out
in a voice of delight, " and, dear me ! you 're a
human child ! " A sudden look of alarm came
into its beautiful brown eyes, and in another
moment it had darted away at full speed.
Alice stood looking after it, almost ready to
cry with vexation at having lost her dear little
fellow-traveller so suddenly. " However, I know
my name now," she said, "that's some comfort.
Alice Alice 1 won't forget it again. And
now, which of these finger-posts ought I to
follow, I wonder ? "
It was not a very difficult question to answer,
as there was only one road through the wood,
and the two finger-posts both pointed along it.
"I'll settle it," Alice said to herself, "when the
road divides and they point different ways."
LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS. 65
But this did not seem likely to happen! She
went on and on, a long way, but wherever the
road divided there were sure to be two finger-
posts pointing the same way, one marked 'TO
TWEEDLEDUM'S HOUSE/ and the other 'TO
THE HOUSE OF TWEEDLEDEE.'
"I do believe," said Alice at last, "that they
live in the same house ! I wonder I never thought
of that before But I can't stay there long.
I'll just call and say 'How d'ye do?' and ask
them the way out of the wood. If I could
only get to the Eighth Square before it gets
dark ! " So she wandered on, talking to herself
as she went, till, on turning a sharp corner, she
came upon two fat little men, so suddenly that
she could not help starting back, but in another
moment she recovered herself, feeling sure that
they must be
CHAPTER IV.
TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE.
They were standing under a tree, each with
an arm round the other's neck, and Alice knew
which was which in a moment, because one of
them had 'DUM; embroidered on his collar, and
the other ' DEE/ " I suppose they Ve each got
'TWEEDLE' round at the back of the collar,"
she said to herself.
They stood so still that she quite forgot they
were alive, and she was just looking round to see
if the word ' TWEEDLE ' was written at the back
of each collar, when she was startled by a voice
coming from the one marked 'DUM.'
TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE.
67
" If you think we're wax-works," he said, "yon
ought to pay, you know. Wax-works weren't
made to be looked at for nothing. Nohow ! "
" Contrariwise," added the one marked ' DEE/
"if you think we're alive, you ought to speak."
"I'm sure I'm very sorry," was all Alice could
say; for the words of the old song kept ringing
through her head like the ticking of a clock, and
she could hardly help saying them out loud : —
F 2
TWEEDLEDUM
'■' Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Agreed to have a battle;
For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
Had spoiled Ms nice new rattle.
Just then flevj down a monstrous crow,
As Mack as a tar-barrel;
Which frightened both the heroes so,
They quite forgot their quarrel."
" I know what you 're thinking about," said
Tweedledum : " but it isn't so, nohow."
"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it
was so, it might be ; and if it were so, it would
be ; but as it isn't, it ain't. That 's logic."
" I was thinking," Alice said very politely,
" which is the best way out of this wood : it's
getting so dark. Would you tell me, please ? "
But the fat little men only looked at each
other and grinned.
They looked so exactly like a couple of great
AND TWEEDLEDEE. 63
schoolboys, that Alice couldn't help pointing her
finger at Tweedledum, and saying " First Boy 1 "
"Nohow!" Tweedledum cried out briskly,
and shut his mouth up again with a snap.
" Next Boy ! " said Alice, passing on to
Tweedledee, though she felt quite certain he
would only shout out " Contrariwise ! " and so
he did.
" You 've begun wrong ! " cried Tweedledum.
"The first thing in a visit is to say 'How d'ye
do?' and shake hands!" And here the two
brothers gave each other a hug, and then they
held out the two hands that were free, to shake
hands with her.
Alice did not like shaking hands with either
of them first, for fear of hurting the other one's
feelings ; so, as the best way out of the difficulty,
she took hold of both hands at once : the next
moment they were dancing round in a ring.
This seemed quite natural (she remembered after-
wards), and she was not even surprised to hear
music playing : it seemed to come from the tree
70 TWEEDLEDUM
under which they were dancing, and it was done
(as well as she could make it out) by the branches
nibbing one across the other, like fiddles and
fiddle-sticks.
"But it certainly was funny," (Alice said
afterwards, when she was telling her sister the
history of all this,) "to find myself singing 'Here
we go round the mulberry bush.' I don't know
when I began it, but somehow I felt as if I'd
been singing it a long long time I "
The other two dancers were fat, and very
soon out of breath. " Four times round is enough
for one dance," Tweedledum panted out, and they
left off dancing as suddenly as they had begun :
the music stopped at the same moment.
Then they let go of Alice's hands, and stood
looking at her for a minute : there was a rather
awkward pause, as Alice didn't know how to
begin a conversation with people she had just
been dancing with. " It would never do to say
'How d'ye do?' now," she said to herself: "we
seem to have got beyond that, somehow ! "
AND TWEEDLEDEE. 71
" I hope you 're not much tired ? " she said
at last.
" Nohow. And thank you very much for
asking," said Tweedledum.
" So much obliged ! " added Tweedledee. " You
like poetry
" Ye-es, pretty well some poetry," Alice
said doubtfully. " Would you tell me which road
leads out of the wood ? "
" What shall I repeat to her ? " said Tweedle-
dee, looking round at Tweedledum with great
solemn eyes, and not noticing Alice's question.
" '' The Walrus and the Carpenter is the
longest," Tweedledum replied, giving his brother
an affectionate hug.
Tweedledee began instantly :
" The sun was shining "
Here Alice ventured to interrupt him. " If
it's very long," she said, as politely as she could,
"would you please tell me first which road "
Tweedledee smiled gently, and began again :
72 TWEEDLEDUM
" The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright —
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.
The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done —
' It 's very rude of him' she said,
' To come and spoil the fun ! '
The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
J\ro cloud was in the sky:
Xo birds were flying overhead —
There were no birds to fly.
AND TWEEDLEDEE.
73
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand ;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand :
1 If this were only cleared a;way'
Tliey said, ' it would be grand !
' If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose' the Walrus said,,
' That they could get it clear 1 '
74 TWEEDLEDUM
' I doubt it,' said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
' 0 Oysters, come and walk with us ! '
The Walrus did beseech.
' A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
A long the briny beach :
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each.
The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said :
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head —
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.
But four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes ivere clean and neat —
AND TWEEDLEDEE. 75
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.
Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four ;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more —
All hopping through the frothy 'leaves,
And scrambling to the shore.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low :
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.
' The time has come', the Walrus said,
' To talk of many things :
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —
Of cabbages — and kings —
76
TWEEDLEDUM
And why the sea is boiling hot—
And whether pigs have wings'
'But wait a bit,' the Oysters cried,
' Before we have our chat ;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat !'
' JSro hurry ! ' said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.
' A loaf of bread' the Walrus said,
' Is what we chiefly need :
AND TWEEDLEDEE. 77
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed —
Now if you We ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed!
' But not on us ! ' the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
After mck kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do ! '
' The night is fine,' the Walrus said.
' Do you admire the view I
* It was so hind of you to come !
And you are very nice ! '
The Carpenter said nothing but
' C%d us another slice :
I wish you vjere not quite so deaf —
Tve had to ask you twice!''
'It seems a shame,' the Walrus said,
' To play them such a trick,
TWEEDLEDUM
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!'
The Carpenter said nothing hit
' The butter's spread too thick I '
' I weep for you' the Walrus said .
' I deeply sympathize!
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.
AND TWEEDLEDEE. 79
' 0 Oysters] said the Carpenter,
' You 've had a pleasant run !
Shall we he trotting home again V
But answer came there none —
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one"
" I like the Walrus best/' said Alice : " because
you see lie was a little sorry for the poor oysters."
" He ate more thau the Carpenter, though,"
said Tweedledee. "You see he held his hand-
kerchief in front, so that the Carpenter couldn't
count how many he took : contrariwise."
" That was mean ! " Alice said indignantly.
" Then I like the Carpenter best if he didn't
eat so many as the Walrus."
" But he ate as many as he could get," said
Tweedledum.
This was a puzzler. After a pause, Alice
began, " Well ! They were both very unpleasant
characters " Here she checked herself in some
alarm, at hearing something that sounded to
80
TWEEDLEDUM
her like the puffing of a large steam-engine in
the wood near them, though she feared it was
more likely to be a wild beast. " Are there any
lions or tigers about here ? " she asked timidly.
"It's only the Eed King snoring," said
Tweedledee.
" Come and look at him ! " the brothers cried,
and they each took one of Alice's hands, and led
her up to where the King was sleeping.
^&%%^™'wi&,
:'%*%f^$M'
" Isn't he a lovely sight \ " said Tweedledum.
Alice couldn't say honestly that he was. He
had a tall red night-cap on, with a tassel, and
AND TWEEDLEDEE. 81
he was lying crumpled up into a sort of untidy
heap, and snoring loud " fit to snore his head
off ! " as Tweedledum remarked.
"I'm afraid he'll catch cold with lying on
the damp grass," said Alice, who was a very .
thoughtful little girl.
" He 's dreaming now, " said Tweedledee :
" and what do you think he 's dreaming
about ? "
Alice said " Nobody can guess that."
"Why, about you!" Tweedledee exclaimed,
clapping his hands triumphantly. " And if he
left off dreaming about you, where do you sup-
pose you 'd be ? "
" Where I am now, of course," said Alice.
" Not you ! " Tweedledee retorted contemptu-
ously. "You'd be nowhere. Why, you're only a
sort of thing in his dream ! "
" If that there King was to wake," added
Tweedledum, " you 'd go out bang ! just
like a candle ! "
" I shouldn't ! " Alice exclaimed indignantly,
a
82 TWEEDLEDUM
" Besides, if I'm only a sort of thing in bis
dream, what are you, I should like to know ? "
"Ditto," said Tweedledum.
"Ditto, ditto!" cried Tweedledee.
He shouted this so loud that Alice couldn't
help saying, " Hush ! You 11 be waking him,
I 'm afraid, if you make so much noise."
" Well, it 's no use your talking about waking
him," said Tweedledum, " when you 're only one
of the things in his dream. You know very well
you 're not real."
" I am real ! " said Alice, and began to cry.
" You won't make yourself a bit realler by
crying," Tweedledee remarked : " there 's nothing
to cry about."
" If I wasn't real," Alice said — half-laughing
through her tears, it all seemed so ridiculous —
" I shouldn't be able to cry."
" I hope you don't suppose those are real
tears ? " Tweedledum interrupted in a tone of
great contempt.
" I know they 're talking nonsense," Alice
AND TWEEDLEDEE. 83
thought to herself: "and it's foolish to cry
about it." So she brushed away her tears, and
went on as cheerfully as she could, " At any rate
I'd better be getting out of the wood, for
really it's coming on very dark. Do you think
it 's going to rain ? "
Tweedledum spread a large umbrella over
himself and his brother, arid looked up into it.
" No, I don't think it is," he said : "at least ■
not under here. Nohow."
" But it may rain outside f "
" It may if it chooses," said Tweedledee :
" we 've no objection. Contrariwise."
" Selfish things ! " thought Alice, and she was
just going to say "Good-night" and leave them,
when Tweedledum sprang out from under the
umbrella, and seized her by the wrist.
"Do you see that?" he said, in a voice
choking with passion, and his eyes grew large
and yellow all in a moment, as he pointed with
a trembling finger at a small white thing lying
under the tree.
G2
84
TWEEDLEDUM
" It 's only a rattle," Alice said, after a careful
examinatic-D of the little white thing. " Not a
xa,ttle-snake, you know/' she added hastily, think-
ing that he was frightened : " only an old rattle
quite old and broken."
" I knew it was ! " cried Tweedledum, begin-
ning to stamp about wildly and tear his hair.
" It 's spoilt, of course ! " Here he looked at
Tweedledee, who immediately sat down on the
ground, and tried to hide himself under the
umbrella.
AND TWEEDLEDEE. 85
Alice laid her hand upon his arm, and said
in a soothing tone, " You needn't be so angry
about an old rattle."
" But it isn't old ! " Tweedledum cried, in a
greater fury than ever. " It's new, I tell you
I bought it yesterday my nice new BATTLE ! "
and his voice rose to a perfect scream.
All this time Tweedledee was trying his best
to fold up the umbrella, with himself in it : which
was such an extraordinary thing to do, that it
quite took off Alice's attention from the angry
brother. But he couldn't quite succeed, and it
ended in his rolling over, bundled up in the
umbrella, with only his head out : and there he
lay, opening and shutting his mouth and his large
eyes "looking more like a fish than any-
thing else," Alice thought.
" Of course you agree to have a battle ? M
Tweedledum said in a calmer tone.
" I suppose so," the other sulkily replied, as
he crawled out of the umbrella : " only she must
help us to dress up, you know."
86 TWEEDLEDUM
So the two brothers went off liancl-in-hand
into the wood, and returned in a minute with
their arms full of things such as bolsters,
blankets, hearth-rugs, table-cloths, dish-covers, and
coal-scuttles. " I hope you're a good hand at pin-
ning and tying strings \ " Tweedledum remarked.
" Every one of these things has got to go on,
somehow or other."
Alice said afterwards she had never seen such
a fuss made about anything in all her life
the way those two bustled about and the quan-
tity of things they put on and the trouble
they gave her in tying strings and fastening
buttons "Really they'll be more like bundles
of old clothes than anything else, by the time
they're ready ! " she said to herself, as she arranged
a bolster round the neck of Tweedledee, " to keep
his head from being cut off," as he said.
" You know," he added very gravely, " it 's
one of the most serious things that can possibly
happen to one in a battle to get one's head
cut off."
AND TWEEDLEDEE.
87
Alice laughed loud : but she managed to turn
it into a cough, for fear of hurting his feelings.
" Do I look very pale % " said Tweedledum,
coming up to have his helmet tied on. (He
called it a helmet, though it certainly looked
much more like a saucepan.)
" Well yes a little," Alice replied gently.
" I 'm very brave generally," he went on in
a low voice : " only to-day I happen to have
a headache."
88 TWEEDLEDUM
" And i" 've got a toothache ! " said Tweedle-
dee, who had overheard the remark. " I 'm far
worse than you ! "
" Then you'd better not fight to-day/' said
Alice, thinking it a good opportunity to make
peace.
" We must have a bit of a fight, but I don't
care about going on long," said Tweedledum.
" What's the time now ? "
Tweedledee looked at his watch, and said
" Half-past four."
" Let 's fight till six, and then have dinner,"
said Tweedledum.
" Very well," the other said, rather sadly :
" and she can watch us only you 'd better
not come very close," he added : " I generally
hit everything I can see when I get really
axcited."
" And i" hit every thing within reach/' cried
Tweedledum, " whether I can see it or not ! "
Alice laughed. "You must hit the trees
pretty often, I should think," she said.
AND TWEEDLEDEE. 89
Tweedledum looked round him with a satisfied
smile. " I don't suppose," he said, " there 11 be
a tree left standing, for ever so far round, by
the time we 'ye finished ! "
" And all about a rattle ! " said Alice, still
hoping to make them a little ashamed of fighting
for such a trifle.
" I shouldn't have minded it so much," said
Tweedledum, " if it hadn't been a new one."
" I wish the monstrous crow would come ! "
thought Alice.
" There's only one sword, you know,"
Tweedledum said to his brother : " but you can
have the umbrella it's quite as sharp. Only
we must begin quick. It's getting as dark as
it can."
" And darker," said Tweedledee.
It was getting dark so suddenly that Alice
thought there must be a thunderstorm coming
on. " What a thick black cloud that is ! " she
said. " And how fast it comes ! Why, I do
believe it 's got wings ! "
90 TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE.
" It « the crow ! " Tweedledum cried out in
a shrill voice of alarm : and the two brothers
took to their heels and were out of sight in a
moment.
Alice ran a little way into the wood, and
stopped under a large tree. " It can never get
at me here," she thought : " it 's far too large to
squeeze itself in among the trees. But I wish
it wouldn't flap its wings so it makes quite
a hurricane in the wood — —here's somebody's
shawl being blown away ! "
CHAPTER V.
WOOL AND WATER.
She caught the shawl as she sjDoke, and looked
about for the owner : in another moment the
White Queen came running wildly through the
wood, with both arms stretched out wide, as if
she were flying, and Alice very civilly went to
meet her with the shawl.
" I 'm very glad I happened to be in the
way," Alice said, as she helped her to put on
her shawl again.
The White Queen only looked at her in a
helpless frightened sort of way, and kept repeat-
ing something in a whisper to herself that
92 WOOL AND WATER.
sounded like " Bread-and-butter, bread-and-butter,"
and Alice felt that if there was to be any con-
versation at all, she must manage it herself.
So she began rather timidly : " Am I addressing
the White Queen ? "
" Well, yes, if you call that a-dressing," the
Queen said. " It isn't my notion of the thing,
at all."
Alice thought it would never do to have an
argument at the very beginning of their con-
versation, so she smiled and said, "If your
Majesty will only tell me the right way to begin,
111 do it as well as I can."
" But I don't want it done at all ! " groaned
the poor Queen. " I Ve been a-dressing myself
for the last two hours."
It would have been all the better, as it
seemed to Alice, if she had got some one else to
dress her, she was so dreadfully untidy. "Every
single thing's crooked," Alice thought to herself,
"and she's all over pins! May I put your
shawl straight for you?" she added aloud.
WOOL AND WATER.
93
" I don't know what 's the matter with it ! "
the Queen said, in a melancholy voice. " It 's
out of temper,
I think. I 've
pinned it here,
and I Ve pin-
ned it there,
but there 's no.
pleasing it ! "
" It cant go
straight, you
know, if you
pin it all on
one side," Alice
said, as she
gently put it
right for her ;
your hair is in \"
" The brush has got entangled in it ! "
the Queen said with a sigh. "And I lost the
comb yesterday."
Alice carefully released the brush, and did
^$&&~%%&.
" and, dear me, what a state
94 WOOL AND WATER.
her best to get the hair into order. " Come,
you look rather better now ! " she said, after
altering most of the pins. " But really you
should have a lady's-maid ! "
" I 'm sure I '11 take you with pleasure ! " the
Queen said. " Twopence a week, and jam every
other day."
Alice couldn't help laughing, as she said, " I
don't want you to hire me and I don't care
for jam."
"It's very good jam," said the Queen.
" Well, I don't want any to-day, at any rate."
" You couldn't have it if you did want it,"
the Queen said. "The rule is, jam to-morrow
and jam yesterday but never jam to-day."
"It must come sometimes to 'jam to-day,";
Alice objected.
"No, it can't," said the Queen. "It's jam
every other day : to-day isn't any other day,
you know."
" I don't understand you," said Alice. " It 's
dreadfully confusing ! "
WOOL AND WATER. 95
" That 's the effect of living backwards," the
Queen said kindly : "it always makes one a
little giddy at first
" Living backwards ! " Alice repeated in great
astonishment. " I never heard of such a thing; ! "
" but there's one great advantage in it,
that one's memory works both ways."
"I'm sure .mine only works one way," Alice
remarked. " I can't remember things before
they happen,"
"It's a poor sort of memory that only works
backwards," the Queen remarked.
u What sort of things do you remember best ? "
Alice ventured to ask.
" Oh, things that happened the week after
next," the Queen replied in a careless tone.
" For instance, now," she went on, sticking a
large piece of plaster on her finger as she
spoke, "there's, the King's Messenger. He's in
prison now, being punished : and the trial
doesn't even begin till next Wednesday : and of
course the crime comes last of all."
96
WOOL AND WATER.
" Suppose he never
commits the crime ? "
said Alice.
" That would be all
the better, wouldn't
it ? " the Queen said,
as she bound the plas-
ter round her finger
with a bit of ribbon.
Alice felt there
was no denying that.
" Of course it would ^^t&rs&smp
be all the better," she said: "but it wouldn't
be all the better his being punished."
" You 're wrong there, at any rate," said the
Queen : " were you ever punished ? "
" Only for faults," said Alice.
" And you were all the better for it, I know ! "
the Queen said triumphantly.
" Yes, but then I had done the things I was
punished for," said Alice : " that makes all the
difference."
WOOL AND WATER. 97
" But if you hadn't done them," the Queen
said, " that would have been better still ; better,
and better, and better ! " Her voice went higher
with each " better," till it got quite to a squeak
at last.
Alice was just beginning to say " There 's a
mistake somewhere ," wdien the Queen began
screaming, so loud that she had to leave the
sentence unfinished. " Oh, oh, oh ! " shouted the
Queen, shaking her hand about as if she wanted
to shake it off. . " My finger 's bleeding ! Oh,
oh, oh, oh ! "
Her screams were so exactly like the whistle
of a steam-engine, that Alice had to hold both
her hands over her ears.
" What is the matter ? " she said, as soon as
there was a chance of making herself heard.
" Have you pricked your finger ? "
" I haven't pricked it yet" the Queen said,
" but I soon shall oh, oh, oh 1 "
" When do you expect to do it ? " Alice asked,
feeling very much inclined to laugh.
H
S8 WOOL AND WATER.
" When I fasten my shawl again," the poor
Queen groaned out : " the brooch will come un-
done directly. Oh, oh ! " As she said the words
the brooch flew open, and the Queen clutched
wildly at it, and tried to clasp it again.
" Take care ! " cried Alice. " You 're holding
it all crooked ! " And she caught at the brooch ;
but it was too late : the pin had slipped, and the
Queen had pricked her finger.
" That accounts for the bleeding, you see,"
she said to Alice with a smile. "Now you under-
stand the way things happen here."
" But why don't you scream now ? " Alice
asked, holding her hands ready to put over her
ears again.
"Why, I've done all the screaming already,"
said the Queen. " What would be the good of
having it all over again?"
By this time it was getting light. " The crow
must have flown away, I think," said Alice :
"I'm so glad it's gone. I thought it was the
night coming on."
WOOL AND WATER. 99
" I wish / could manage to be glad ! " the
Queen said. " Only I never can remember the
rule. You must be very happy, living in this
wood, and being glad whenever you like ! "
" Only it is so very lonely here ! "■ Alice said
in a melancholy voice ; and at the thought of
her loneliness two large tears came rolling down
her cheeks.
" Oh, don't go on like that ! " cried the
poor Queen, wringing her hands in despair.
" Consider what a great girl you are. Consider
what a long way you've come to-day. Con-
sider what o'clock it is. Consider anything,
only don't cry ! "
Alice could not help laughing at this, even
in the midst of her tears. " Can you keep from
crying by considering things ? " she asked.
"That's the way it's done," the Queen
said with great decision : " nobody can do two
things at once, you know. Let's consider your
age to begin with how old are you ? "
" I 'm seven and a half exactly."
H 2
100 WOOL AND WATER.
" You needn't say ' exactually,' " the Queen
remarked : "I can believe it without that. Now
111 give you something to believe. I'm just
one hundred and one, five months and a day."
" I can't believe that ! " said Alice.
" Can't you ? " the Queen said in a pitying
tone. " Try again : draw a long breath, and
shut your eyes."
Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she
said : " one cant believe impossible things."
" I daresay you haven't had much practice,"
said the Queen. " When I was your age, I
always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why,
sometimes I've believed as many as six im-
possible things before breakfast. There goes
the shawl again ! "
The brooch had come undone as she spoke,
and a sudden gust of wind blew the Queen's
shawl across a little brook. The Queen spread
out her arms again, and went flying after it, and
this time she succeeded in catching it for herself.
"I've got it!" she cried in a triumphant tone.
WOOL AND WATER. 101
" Now you shall see me pin it on again, all
by myself ! "
" Then I hope your finger is better now ? "
Alice said very politely, as she crossed the little
brook after the Queen.
" Oh, much better ! " cried the Queen, her voice
rising into a squeak as she went on. "Much
be-etter! Be-etter ! Be-e-e-etter ! Be-e-ehh ! " The
last word ended in a long bleat, so like a sheep
that Alice quite started.
She looked at the Queen, who seemed to
have suddenly wrapped herself up in wool. Alice
rubbed her eyes, and looked again. She couldn't
make out what had happened at all. Was she
in a shop ? And was that really was it really
a sheep that was sitting on the other side of the
counter ? Rub as she would, she could make
nothing more of it : she was in a little dark
102
WOOL AND WAT EH.
shop, leaning with her elbows on the counter,
and opposite to her was an old Sheep, sitting in
an arm-chair knitting, and every now and then
leaving off to look at her through a great pair
of spectacles.
" What is it you want to buy V* the Sheep
WOOL AND WATER. 103
said at last, looking up for a moment from her
knitting.
" I don't quite know yet," Alice said very
gently. "I should like to look all round me
first, if I might."
" You may look in front of you, and on both
sides, if you like," said the Sheep ; " but you
can't look all round you unless you've got
eyes at the back of your head."
But these, as it happened, Alice had not got :
so she contented herself with turning round,
looking at the shelves as she came to them.
The shop seemed to be full of all manner
of curious things but the oddest part of it
all was, that whenever she looked hard at any
shelf, to make out exactly what it had on it,
that particular shelf was always quite empty :
though the others round it were crowded as full
as they could hold.
" Things flow about so here ! " she said at
last in a plaintive tone, after she had spent a
minute or so in vainly pursuing a large bright
04 WOOL AND WATEK.
thing, that looked sometimes like a doll and
sometimes like a work-box, and was always in
the shelf next above the one she was looking at.
" And this one is the most provoking of all
but I'll tell you what " she added, as a
sudden thought struck her, " 1 11 follow it up
to the very top shelf of all. It'll puzzle it to
go through the ceiling, I expect ! "
But even this plan failed : the ' thing ' went
through the ceiling as quietly as possible, as if
it were quite used to it.
"Are you a child or a teetotum?" the Sheep
said, as she took up another pair of needles.
" You 11 make me giddy soon, if you go on
turning round like that." She was now working
with fourteen pairs at once, and Alice couldn't
help looking at her in great astonishment.
" How can she knit with so many ? " the
puzzled child thought to herself. " She gets
more and more like a porcupine every minute ! "
" Can you row % " the Sheep asked, handing
her a pair of knitting-needles as she spoke.
WOOL AND WATER. 105
" Yes, a little but not on land and
not with needles " Alice was beginning to
say, when suddenly the needles turned into oars
in her hands, and she found they were in a
little boat, gliding along between banks : so
there was nothing for it but to do her best.
" Feather ! " cried the Sheep, as she took up
another pair of needles.
This didn't sound like a remark that needed
any answer, so Alice said nothing, but pulled
away. There was something very queer about
the water, she thought, as every now and then
the oars got fast in it, and would hardly come
out again.
" Feather ! Feather ! " the Sheep cried again,
taking more needles. "You'll be catching a
crab directly."
" A dear little crab ! " thought Alice. " I
should like that."
"Didn't you hear me say 'Feather'?" the
Sheep cried angrily, taking up quite a bunch
of needles.
106 WOOL AND WATER.
" Indeed I did," said Alice : " you Ve said
it very often and very loud. Please, where
are the crabs ? "
" In the water, of course ! " said the Sheep,
sticking some of the needles into her hair, as
her hands were full. " Feather, I say ! "■
" Why do you say ' Feather ' so often ? " Alice
asked at last, rather vexed. "I'm not a bird!"
" You are," said the Sheep : " you 're a little
goose."
This offended Alice a little, so there was no
more conversation for a minute or two, while
the boat glided gently on, sometimes among
beds of weeds (which made the oars stick fast
in the water, worse than ever), and sometimes
under trees, but always with the same tall
river-banks frowning over their heads.
" Oh, please ! There are some scented rushes ! "
Alice cried in a sudden transport of delight.
" There really are and such beauties ! "
" You needn't say ' please ' to me about 'em,"
the Sheep said, without looking up from her
WOOL AND WATER. 107
knitting : " I didn't put 'em there, and I 'm not
going to take 'em away."
"No, but I meant- please, may we wait
and pick some ? " Alice pleaded. " If you don't
mind stopping the boat for a minute."
" How am / to stop it ? " said the Sheep.
" If you leave off rowing, it '11 stop of itself."
So the boat was left to drift down the stream
as it would, till it glided gently in among the
waving rushes. And then the little sleeves were
carefully rolled up, and the little arms were
plunged in elbow-deep, to get hold of the rushes
a good long way down before breaking them
off and for a while Alice forgot all about
the Sheep and the knitting, as she beut over the
side of the boat, with just the ends of her
tangled hair dipping into the water while
with bright eager eyes she caught at one bunch
after another of the darling scented rushes.
" I only hope the boat won't tipple over ! "
she said to herself. " Oh, what a lovely one !
Only I couldn't quite reach it." And it cer-
108 WOOL AND WATER.
tainly did seem a little provoking (" almost as
if it happened on purpose," slie thought) that,
though she managed to pick plenty of beautiful
rushes as the boat glided by, there was always
a more lovely one that she couldn't reach.
" The prettiest are always further ! " she
said at last, with a sigh at the obstinacy
of the rushes in growing so far off, as, with
flushed cheeks and dripping hair and hands,
she scrambled back into her place, and began
to arrange her new-found treasures.
What mattered it to her just then that
the rushes had begun to fade, and to lose all
their scent and beauty, from the very moment
that she picked them ? Even real scented rushes,
you know, last only a very little while and
these, being dream-rushes, melted away almost
like snow, as they lay in heaps at her feet ■
but Alice hardly noticed this, there were so many
other curious things to think about.
They hadn't gone much farther before the
blade of one of the oars got fast in the water
WOOL AND WATER. 109
and wouldn't come out again (so Alice explained
it afterwards), and the consequence was that
the handle of it caught her under the chin, and,
in spite of a series of little shrieks of ' Oh, oh,
oh ! ' from poor Alice, it swept her straight off
the seat, and down among the heap of rushes.
However, she wasn't a bit hurt, and was soon
up again : the Sheep went on with her knitting
all the while, just as if nothing had happened!
" That was a nice crab you caught ! " she re-
marked, as Alice got back into her place, very much
relieved to find herself still in the boat.
" Was it ? I didn't see it," said Alice, peeping
cautiously over the side of the boat into the
dark water. " I wish it hadn't let go 1
should so like a little crab to take home with
me ! " But the Sheep only laughed scornfully,
and went on with her knitting.
" Are there many crabs here ? " said Alice.
" Crabs, and all sorts of things," said the
Sheep : " plenty of choice, only make up your
mind. Now, what do you want to buy ? "
110
WOOL AND WATER.
" To buy ! " Alice echoed in a tone that was
half astonished and half frightened for the
oars, and the boat, and the river, had vanished
WOOL AND WATER. Ill
all in a moment, and she was back again in
the little dark shop.
" I should like to buy an egg, please," she
said timidly. " How do you sell them ? "
" Fivepence farthing for one- twopence for
two," the Sheep replied.
" Then two are cheaper than one \ " Alice
said in a surprised tone, taking out her purse.
" Only you must eat them both, if you buy
two," said the Sheep.
" Then I '11 have one, please," said Alice, as
she put the money down on the counter. For
she thought to herself, " They mightn't be at
all nice, you know."
The Sheep took the money, and put it away
in a box : then she said " I never put things
into people's hands that would never do
you must get it for }^ourself." And so saying,
she went off to the other end of the shop, and
set the egg upright on a shelf.
" I wonder why it wouldn't do ? " thought
Alice, as she groped her way among the tables
112 WOOL AND WATER.
and chairs, for the shop was very dark towards
the end. " The egg seems to get further away
the more I walk towards it. Let me see, is this
a chair ? Why, it 's got branches, I declare !
How very odd to find trees growing here !
And actually here 's a little brook ! Well, this
is the very queerest shop I ever saw ! "
So she went on, wondering more and more
at every step, as everything turned into a tree
the moment she came up to it, and she quite
expected the egg to do the same.
CHAPTER VI.
HUMPTY DUMPTY.
However, the egg only got larger and larger,
and more and more human : when she had come
within a few yards of it, she saw that it had
eyes and a nose and mouth ; and when she
had come close to it, she saw clearly that it
was HUMPTY DUMPTY himself. " It can't be
anybody else ! " she said to herself. " J 'm as
certain of it, as if his name were written all
over his face "
It might have been written a hundred times,
easily, on that enormous face. Humpty Dumpty
was sitting with his legs crossed, like a Turk,
i
114 HUMPTY DUMPTY.
on the top of a high, wall — —such a narrow one
that Alice quite wondered how he could keep
his balance and, as his eyes were steadily-
fixed in the opposite direction, and he didn't
take the least notice of her, she thought he
must be a stuffed figure after all.
" And how exactly like an egg he is ! " she
said aloud, standing with her hands ready to
catch him, for she was every moment expecting
him to fall.
"It's very provoking," Humpty Dumpty said
after a long silence, looking away from Alice as
he spoke, "to be called an egg very ! "
" I said you looked like an egg, Sir," Alice
gently explained. "And some eggs are very
pretty, you know," she added, hoping to turn
her remark into a sort; of compliment.
" Some people," said Humpty Dumpty, look-
ing away from her as usual, " have no more
sense than a baby ! "
Alice didn't know what to say to this : it
wasn't at all like conversation, she thought, as
HUMPTY DUMPTY. 115
he never said anything to her; in fact, his last
remark was evidently addressed to a tree so
she stood and softly repeated to herself: —
" Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall:
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the Kings horses and all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty in his place again."
"That last line is much too long for the
poetry," she added, almost out loud, forgetting
that Humpty Dumpty would hear her.
" Don't stand chattering to yourself like that,"
Humpty Dumpty said, looking at her for the
first time, " but tell me your name and your
business."
" My name is Alice, but "
" It 's a stupid name enough ! " Humpty
Dumpty interrupted impatiently. " What does
it mean?"
"Must a name mean something?" Alice
asked doubtfully.
i 2
116 HUMPTY DUMPTY.
" Of course it must," Humpty Dumpty said
with a short laugh: "my name means the shape
I am and a good handsome shape it is, too.
With a name like yours, you might be any
shape, almost."
" Why do you sit out here all alone ? " said
Alice, not wishing to begin an argument.
" Why, because there 's nobody with me ! "
cried Humpty Dumpty. " Did you think I didn't
know the answer to that ? Ask another/'
"Don't you think you'd be safer down on
the ground ? " Alice went on, not with any
idea of making another riddle, but simply in
her good-natured anxiety for the queer creature.
" That wall is so very narrow ! "
" What tremendously easy riddles you ask ! "
Humpty Dumpty growled out. " Of course I
don't think so ! Why, if ever I did fall off
which there 's no chance of but if I did '
Here he pursed up his lips, and looked so solemn
and grand that Alice could hardly help laughing.
" If I did fall," he went on, " the King has
HUMPTY DUMPTY. 117
promised me ah, you may turn pale, if you
like! You didn't think I was going to say
that, did you? The King has promised me
with his very own mouth to to "
"To send all his horses and all his men,"
Alice interrupted, rather unwisely.
"Now I declare that's too bad!" Hompty
Dumpty cried, breaking into a sudden passion.
"You've been listening at doors and behind
trees and down chimneys or you couldn't
have known it ! "
"I haven't, indeed!" Alice said very gently.
"It's in a book."
" Ah, well ! They may write such things in
a hook" Humpty Dumpty said in a calmer tone.
"That's what you call a History of England,
that is. Now, take a good look at me ! I 'ra
one that has spoken to a King, I am : mayhap
you'll never see such another: and to show
you I 'm not proud, you may shake hands with
me ! " And he grinned almost from ear to ear,
as he leant forwards (and as nearly as possible
118
HUMPTY DUMPTY.
fell off the wall in doing
so) and offered Alice his
hand. She watched him
a little anxiously as she
f he smiled
much more, the ends of
~f. his mouth mio;ht meet
behind," she thought :
" and then I don't know what would happen
to his head ! I 'm afraid it would come off ! "
" Yes, all his horses and all his men," Humpty
HUMPTY DUMPTY. 119
Dumpty went on. "They'd pick me up again
in a minute, they would ! However, this con-
versation is going on a little too fast : let 's go
back to the last remark but one."
" I 'm afraid I can't quite remember it," Alice
said very politely.
" In that case we start fresh," said Humpty
Dumpty, "and it's my turn to choose a sub-
ject " (-" He talks about it just as if it was
a game ! " thought Alice.) " So here 's a question
for you. How old did you say you were ? "
Alice made a short calculation, and said
" Seven years and six months."
" Wrong ! " Humpty Dumpty exclaimed tri-
umphantly. " You never said a word like it ! "
" I thought you meant ' How old are you V
Alice explained.
"If I 'd meant that, I 'd have said it," said
Humpty Dumpty.
Alice didn't want to begin another argu-
ment, so she said nothing.
" Seven years and six months ! " Humpty
120 HUMPTY DUMPTY.
Dumpty repeated thoughtfully. "An uncom-
fortable sort of age. Now if you 'd asked my
advice, I'd have said 'Leave off at seven'
but it's too late now."
" I never ask advice about growing," Alice
said indignantly.
" Too proud ? " the other enquired.
Alice felt even more indignant at this sug-
gestion. " I mean," she said, " that one can't
help growing older."
" One can't, perhaps," said Humpty Dumpty,
" but two can. With proper assistance, you might
have left off at seven."
" What a beautiful belt you Ve got on ! "
Alice suddenly remarked. (They had had quite
enough of the subject of age, she thought : and
if they really were to take turns in choosing
subjects, it was her turn now.) " At least,"
she corrected herself on second thoughts, " a
beautiful cravat, I should have said no, a
belt, I mean 1 beg your pardon!" she added
in dismay, for Humpty Dumpty looked thoroughly
HUMPTY DUMPTY. 121
offended, and she began to wish she hadn't
chosen that subject. " If only I knew," she
thought to herself, " which was neck and which
was waist ! "
Evidently Humpty Dumpty was very angry,
though he said nothing for a minute or two.
When he did speak again, it was in a deep
growl.
" It is a most provoking — —thing,"
he said at last, " when a person doesn't know
a cravat from a belt ! "
" I know it 's very ignorant of me," Alice
said, in so humble a tone that Humpty Dumpty
relented.
" It 's a cravat, child, and a beautiful one, as
you say. It's a present from the White King
and Queen. There now ! "
" Is it really ? " said Alice, quite pleased to
find that she had chosen a good subject, after
all.
" They gave it me," Humpty Dumpty con-
tinued thoughtfully, as he crossed one knee over
122 HUMPTY DUMPTY.
the other and clasped his hands round it, "they
gave it me for an un-birthday present."
" I beg your pardon ? " Alice said with a
puzzled air.
" I 'ru not offended," said Humpty Dumpty.
" I mean, what is an un-birthday present ? "
" A present given when it isn't your birthday,
of course."
Alice considered a little. " I like birthday
presents best," she said at last.
" You don't know what you 're talking
about ! " cried Humpty Dumpty. " How many
days are there in a year ? "
" Three hundred and sixty-five," said Alice.
" And how many birthdays have you ? "
" One."
" And if you take one from three hundred
and sixty-five, what remains ? "
" Three hundred and sixty-four, of course."
Humpty Dumpty looked doubtful. " I 'd rather
see that done on paper," he said.
Alice couldn't help smiling as she took out
HUMPTY DUMPTY. 123
her memorandum-book, and worked the sum
for him :
365
1
364
Humpty Dumpty took the book, and looked at
it carefully. "That seems to be done right "
he began.
" You '"re holding it upside down ! " Alice
interrupted.
"To be sure I was ! " Humpty Dumpty
said gaily, as she turned it round for him. " I
thought it looked a little queer. As I was saying,
that seems to be done right though I haven't
time to look it over thoroughly just now
and that shows that there are three hundred
and sixty-four days when you might get un-
birthday presents "
" Certainly," said Alice.
" And only one for birthday presents, you
know. There's glory for you ! "
124 HUMPTY DUMPTY.
1 " I don't know what you mean by ' glory,' ';
Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. " Of
course you don't till I tell you. I meant
' there 's a nice knock-down argument for you ! '
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-
down argument/ " Alice objected.
" When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty
said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just
what I choose it to mean neither more
nor less."
" The question is," said Alice, " whether you
can make words mean so many different things."
" The question is," said Humpty Dumpty,
"which is to be master that's all."
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything,
so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began
again. "They've a temper, some of them
particularly verbs , they're the proudest adjec-
tives you can do anything with, but not verbs
however, I can manage the whole lot of
them ! Impenetrability ! That 's what / say ! "
HUMPTY DUMPTY. 125
" Would you tell me, please," said Alice,
" what that means ? "
" Now you talk like a reasonable child," said
Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased.
" I meant by ' impenetrability ' that we Ve had
enough of that subject, and it would be just as
well if you 'd mention what you mean to do
next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here
all the rest of your life."
" That 's a great deal to make one word
mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone.
" When I make a word do a lot of work
like that," said Humpty Dumpty, " I always pay
it extra."
" Oh ! " said Alice. She was too much
puzzled to make auy other remark.
" Ah, you should see 'em come round me of
a Saturday night," Humpty Dumpty went on,
wagging his head gravely from side to side :
"for to get their wages, you know."
(Alice didn't venture to ask what he paid
them with ; and so you see I can't tell you.)
126 HUMPTY DUMPTY.
"You seem very clever at explaining words,
Sir/' said Alice. " Would you kindly tell me the
meaning of the poem called ' Jabberwocky ' V
" Let 's hear it," said Humpty Dumpty. w I
can explain all the poems that ever were in-
vented and a good many that haven't been
invented just yet."
This sounded very hopeful, so Alice repeated
the first verse :
" ' Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe :
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe"
"That's enough to begin with," Humpty
Dumpty interrupted : " there are plenty of hard
words there. ' Brillig ' means four o'clock in the
afternoon the time when you begin broiling
things for dinner."
"That'll do very well," said Alice: "and
> slithy 'V
" Well, ' slithy ' means ' lithe and slimy/
HUMPTY DUMPTY. 127
* Lithe ' is the same as - active/ You see it 's
like a portmanteau there are two meanings
packed up into one word."
128 HUMPTY DUMPTY.
" I see it now," Alice remarked thoughtfully :
"and what are 'toves'l"
" Well, ' toves ' are something like badgers
they're something like lizards and they're
something like corkscrews."
" They must be very curious-looking creatures."
" They are that," said Humpty Dumpty :
" also they make their nests under sun-dials
also they live on cheese."
" And what 's to ' gyre ' and to ' gimble ' 1 "
"To ' gyre ' is to go round and round like
a gyroscope. To ' gimble' is to make holes like
a gimblet."
" And ' the ivabe ' is the grass-plot round a
sun-dial, I suppose 1 " said Alice, surprised at
her own ingenuity.
"Of course it is. It's called ' wabe,' you
know, because it goes a long way before it,
and a long way behind it "
" And a long way beyond it on each side,"
Alice added.
" Exactly so. Well then, ' mimsy ' is ' flimsy
HUMPTY DUMPTY. 129
and miserable ' (there 's another portmanteau for
you). And a ' borogove ' is a thin shabby-looking
bird with its feathers sticking out all round
something like a live mop."
" And then ' mome ratlis ' ? " said Alice.
" I 'm afraid I 'm giving you a great deal of
trouble."
" Well, a ' rath ' is a sort of green pig : but
'mome' I'm not certain about. I think it's
short for ' from home '- meaning that they 'd
lost their way, you know."
"And what does ' outgrabe' mean?"
" Well, ' outgribing ' is something between
bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze
in the middle : however, you '11 hear it done,
maybe down in the wood yonder and
when you Ve once heard it you '11 be quite
content. Who s been repeating all that hard
stuff to you ? " ■
" I read it in a book," said Alice. " But
I had some poetry repeated to me, much easier
than that, by Tweedledee, T think it was."
K
130 HUMPTY DUMPTY.
" As to poetry, you know/' said Humpty
Dumpty, stretching out one of his great hands,
"I can repeat poetry as well as other folk, if it
comes to that "
" Oh, it needn't come to that ! " Alice hastily
said, hoping to keep him from beginning.
" The piece I 'm going to repeat/' he went
on without noticing her remark, " was written
entirely for your amusement."
Alice felt that in that case she really ought
to listen to it, so she sat down, and said " Thank
you" rather sadly.
" In winter, when the fields are while,
I sing this song for your delight—
only I don't sing it," he added, as an ex-
planation.
" I see you don't," said Alice.
"If you can see whether I'm singing or not,
you've sharper eyes than most," Humpty
Dumpty remarked severely. Alice was silent.
HUMPTY DUMPTY. 131
" In spring, when ivoods are getting green,
I HI try and tell you what I mean."
"Thank you" very much/' said Alice.
" In swmrner, when the days are long,
Perhaps you'll understand the song:
In autumn, when the leaves are or own,
Take pen and ink, and write it down."
" I will, if I can remember it so long," said
Alice.
" You needn't &o on making remarks like
that," Humpty Dumpty said : " they 're not
sensible, and they put me out."
" I sent a message to the fish ;
I told them ' This is what I wish'
The Utile fishes of the sea,
They sent an answer hack to me.
K2
132 HUMPTY DUMPTY.
The little fishes' answer was
' We cannot do it, Sir, because-
" I 'm afraid I don't quite understand," said
Alice.
" It gets easier further on," Humpty Dumpty
replied.
"I sent to them again to say
'It will be better to obey!
The fishes answered with a grin,
' Why, what a temper you are in ! '
/ told them once, I told them twice:
They would not listen to advice.
I took a kettle large and new,
Fit for the deed I had to do.
My heart %vent hop, my heart went thump ;
I filled the kettle at the pump.
HUMPTY DUMPTY.
Then some, one came to me and said,
' The little fishes are in bed.'
133
/ said to him, I said it plain,
' Then you must wake them up again.'
I said it very loud and clear ;
I went and shouted in his earl
134 HUMPTY DUMPTY.
Humpty Dumpty raised his voice almost to
a scream as he repeated this verse, and Alice
thought with a shudder, " I wouldn't have been
the messenger for anything ! "
" But he 'was very stiff and proud ;
He said ' You needn't shout so loud ! '
And he was very proud and stiff;
He said ' I'd go and wake them, if —
i" took a corkscrew from the shelf:
I ■went to wake them up myself
And when I found the door was locked,
I pulled and pushed and kicked and knocked.
And when I found the door ivas shut,
I tried to turn the handle, but "
There was a long pause.
" Is that all ? " Alice timidly asked.
HUMPTY DUMPTY. 135
" That's all," said Humpty Dumpty. " Good-
bye."
This was rather sudden, Alice thought : but,
after such a very strong hint that she ought to
be going, she felt that it would hardly be civil
to stay. So she got up, and held out her hand.
" Good-bye, till we meet again ! " she said as
cheerfully as she could.
" I shouldn't know you again if we did
meet," Humpty Dumpty replied in a discontented
tone, giving her one of his fingers to shake ;
"you're so exactly like other people."
" The face is what one goes by, generally,"
Alice remarked in a thoughtful tone.
" That 's just what I complain of," said Humpty
Dumpty. " Your nice is the same as everybody
has the two eyes, so " (marking their
places in the air with his thumb) " nose in the
middle, mouth under. It's always the same
Now if you had the two eyes on the same side
of the nose, for instance or the mouth at
the top that would be some help."
136 HUMPTY DUMPTY. .
"It wouldn't look nice," Alice objected. But
Humpty Dumpty only shut his eyes and said
"Wait till you Ve tried."
Alice waited a minute to see if he would
speak again, but as he never opened his eyes
or took any further notice of her, she said
" Good-bye ! " once more, and, getting no answer
to this, she quietly walked away : but she
couldn't help saying to herself as she went,
"Of all the unsatisfactory " (she repeated
this aloud, as it was a great comfort to have
such a long word to say) " of all the unsatisfac-
toiy people I ever met " She never finished
the sentence, for at this moment a heavy crash
shook the forest from end to end.
CHAPTER VII.
THE LION AND THE UNICOJJN.
The next moment soldiers came running
through the wood, at first in twos and threes,
then ten or twenty together, and at last in such
crowds that they seemed to fill the whole forest.
Alice got behind a tree, for fear of being run
over, and watched them go by.
She thought that in all her life she had
never seen soldiers so uncertain on their feet :
they were always tripping over something or
other, and whenever one went down, several
more alwTays fell over him, so that the ground
was soon covered with little heaps of men.
138
THE LION AND
Then came the horses. Having four feet,
these managed rather better than the foot-sol-
diers : but even they stumbled now and then ;
THE UNICORN. 139
and it seemed to be a regular rule that, when-
ever a horse stumbled, the rider fell off instantly.
The confusion got worse every moment, and
Alice was very glad to get out of the wood
into an open place, where she found the White
King seated on the ground, busily writing in
his memorandum-book.
" I Ve sent them all ! " the King cried in
a tone of delight, on seeing Alice. "Did you
happen to meet any soldiers, my dear, as you
came through the wood ? "
" Yes, I did," said Alice : " several thousand,
I should think."
"Four thousand two hundred and seven,
that's the exact number," the King said, referring
to his book. " I couldn't send all the horses,
you know, because two of them are wanted in
the game. And I haven't sent the two Mes-
sengers, either. They're both gone to the town.
Just look along the road, and tell me if you
can see either of them."
" I see nobody on the road," said Alice.
140 THE LION AND
"I only wish I had such eyes," the King
remarked in a fretful tone. "To be able to
see Nobody ! And at that distance too ! Why,
it's as much as / can do to see real people,
by this light!"
All this was lost on Alice, who was still
looking intently along the road, shading her
eyes with one hand. u 1 see somebody now ! "
she exclaimed at last. "But he's coming very
slowly and what curious attitudes he goes
into ! " (For the Messenger kept skipping up
and down, and wriggling like an eel, as he
came along, with his great hands spread out
like fans on each side.)
"Not at all," said the King. "He's an
Anglo-Saxon Messenger and those are Anglo-
Saxon attitudes. He only does them when he 's
happy. His name is Haigha." (He pronounced
it so as to rhyme with ' mayor.')
" I love my love with an H," Alice couldn't
help beginning, "because he is Happy. I hate
him with an H, because he is Hideous. I fed
THE UNICORN. 141
him with with with Ham-sandwiches and
Hay. His name is Haigha, and he lives "
" He lives on the Hill," the Kino- remarked
simply, without the least idea that he was joining
in the game, while Alice was still hesitating
for the name of a town be^innin^ with H. "The
other Messenger's called Hatta. I must have
two, you know to come and go. One to
come, and one to go."
" I beg your pardon \ " said Alice.
" It isn't respectable to beg," said the King.
" I only meant that I didn't understand," said
Alice. " Why one to come and one to go ? "
" Don't I tell you % " the King repeated
impatiently. " I must have two to fetch
and carry. One to fetch, and one to carry."
At this moment the Messenger arrived : he
was far too much out of breath to say a word,
and could only wave his hands about, and make
the most fearful faces at the poor King.
. " This young lady loves you with an H,"
the King said, introducing Alice in the hope of
142
THE LION AND
turning off the Messenger's attention from him-
self but it was no use the An.o;lo-Saxon
attitudes only got more extraordinary every
moment, while the great eyes rolled wildly from
side to side.
r ■ :*£:
" You alarm me ! " said the King. " I feel
faint Give me a ham sandwich ! "
On which the Messenger, to Alice's great
amusement, opened a bag that hung round his
THE UNICORN. 143
neck, and handed a sandwich to the King, who
devoured it greedily.
"Another sandwich!" said the King.
" There 's nothing but hay left now," the
Messenger said, peeping into the bag.
" Hay, then," the King murmured in a
faint whisper.
Alice was glad to see that it revived him a
good deal. " There 's nothing like eating hay
when you're faint," he remarked to her, as he
munched away.
" I should think throwing cold water over
you would be better/' Alice suggested : " or
some sal-volatile."
" I didn't say there was nothing better," the
King replied. " I said there was nothing like
it." Which Alice did not venture to deny.
"Who did you pass on the road?" the
King went on, holding out his hand to the
Messenger for some more hay.
" Nobody," said the Messenger.
" Quite right," said the King : " this young
144 THE LION" AND
lady saw him too. So of course Nobody walks
slower than you."
"I do my best," the Messenger said in a
sullen tone. " I 'm sure nobody walks much
faster than I do ! "
"He can't do that," said the King, "or else
he'd have been here first. However, now you've
got your breath, you may tell us what 's hap-
pened in the town."
" I '11 whisper it," said the Messenger, putting
his hands to his mouth in the shape of a trumpet,
and stooping so as to get close to the King's
ear. Alice was sorry for this, as she wanted to
hear the news too. However, instead of whisper-
ing, he simply shouted at the top of his voice
" They 're at it again 1 "
" Do you call that a whisper ? " cried the
poor King, jumping up and shaking himself.
" If you do such a thing again, I '11 have you
buttered ! It went through and through my
head like an earthquake ! "
" It would have to be a very tiny earth-
THE UNICORN1. 145
quake ! " thought Alice. " Who are at it again ? "
she ventured to ask.
" Why, the Lion and the Unicorn, of course,"
said the King.
" Fighting for the crown ? "
" Yes, to be sure," said the King : " and
the best of the joke is, that it's my crown all
the while ! Let 's run and see them." And
they trotted off, Alice repeating to herself, as
she ran, the words of the old song : —
" The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the crown :
The Lion beat the Unicorn all round the town.
Some gave them white bread, some gave them brown;
Some gave them plum-cake and drummed them out of
town."
" Does the one that wins get the
crown ? " she asked, as well as she could, for
the run was putting her quite out of breath.
"Dear me, no!" said the King. "What
an idea ! "
L
146 THE LION AND
" Would you be good enough," Alice
panted out, after running a little further, "to
stop a minute just to get — —one's breath
again t
" I 'm good enough," the King said, " only
I 'in not strong enough. You see, a minute
goes by so fearfully quick. You might as well
try to stop a Bandersnatch ! "
Alice had no more breath for talking, so
they trotted on in silence, till- they came in
sight of a great crowd, in the middle of which
the Lion and Unicorn were fighting. They
were in such a cloud of dust, that at first Alice
could not make out which was which : but she
soon managed to distinguish the Unicorn by
his horn.
They placed themselves close to where Hatta,
the other Messenger, was standing watching the
fight, with a cup of tea in one hand and a
piece of bread-and-butter in the other.
" He 's only just out of prison, and he hadn't
finished his tea when he was sent in," Haigha
THE UNICORN". 147
whispered to Alice: "and they only give them
oyster- shells in there so you see he ;s very
hungry and thirsty. How are you, dear child?"
he went on, putting his arm affectionately round
Hatta's neck.
Hatta looked round and nodded, and went
on with his bread-and-butter.
" Were you happy in prison, dear child ? "
said Haigha.
Hatta looked round once more, and this time
a tear or two trickled down his cheek : but not
a word would he say.
" Speak, can't you ! " Haigha cried impa-
tiently. But Hatta only munched away, and
drank some more tea.
" Speak, won't you ! " cried the King. '■ How
are they getting on with the fight \ "
Hatta made a desperate effort, and swallowed
a large piece of bread-and-butter. " They 're
getting on very well," he said in a choking voice :
" each of them has been down about eighty-seven
times."
l2
148
THE LION AND
=&===--—
" Then I suppose they '11 soon bring the
white bread and the brown ? " Alice ventured
to remark.
"It's waiting for 'em now," said Hatta:
" this is a bit of it as I'm eating."
There was a pause in the fight just then,
and the Lion and the Unicorn sat down, pant-
ing, while the King called out " Ten minutes
allowed for refreshments ! " Haigha and Hatta
THE UNICORN. 149
set to work at once, carrying round trays of
white and brown bread. Alice took a piece to
taste, but it was very dry.
" I don't think they 11 fight any more to-
day," the King said to Hatta : " go and order
the drums to begin." And Hatta went bound-
ing away like a grasshopper.
For a minute or two Alice stood silent,
watching him. Suddenly she brightened up.
" Look, look ! " she cried, pointing eagerly.
"There's the White Queen running across the
country ! She came flying out of the wood over
yonder How fast those Queens can run ! "
" There 's some enemy after her, no doubt,"
the King said, without even looking round.
"That wood's full of them."
"But aren't you going to run and help
her 1 " Alice asked, very much surprised at his
taking it so quietly.
" No use, no use ! " said the King. " She runs
so fearfully quick. You might as well try to
catch a Bandersnatch ! But I '11 make a memo-
150 THE LION AND
rand urn about her, if you like She's a clear
good creature/' he repeated softly to himself, as
he opened his memorandum-book. "Do you
spell ' creature ' with a double ' e ' ? "
At this moment the Unicorn sauntered by
them, with his hands in his pockets. " I had
the best of it this time ? " he said to the King,
just glancing at him as he passed.
" A little a little," the King replied,
rather nervously. "You shouldn't have run
him through with your horn, you know."
" It didn't hurt him," the Unicorn said care-
lessly, and he was going on, when his eye
happened to fall upon Alice : he turned round
instantly, and stood for some time looking at
her with an air of the deepest disgust.
" What is this ? " he said at last.
"This is a child!" Haigha replied eagerly,
coming in front of Alice to introduce her, and
spreading out both his hands towards her in an
Anglo-Saxon attitude. " We only found it to-day.
It's as large as life, and twice as natural!"
THE UNICORN. 151
"I always thought they were fabulous mon-
sters ! " said the Unicorn. "Is it alive ? "
"It can talk," said Haigha, solemnly.
The Unicorn looked dreamily at Alice, and
said "Talk, child. "
Alice could not help her lips curling up into
a smile as she began : "Do you know, I always
thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters, too !
I never saw one alive before ! "
" Well, now that we have seen each other,"
said the Unicorn, "if you'll believe in me, I'll
believe in you. Is that a bargain ? "
" Yes, if you like," said Alice.
" Come, fetch out the plum-cake, old man ! "
the Unicorn went on, turning from her to the
King. " None of vour brown bread for me ! "
" Certainly — — certainly ! " the King muttered,
and beckoned to Haigha. " Open the bag ! " he
whispered. "Quick! Not that one that's full
of hay!"
Haigha took a large cake out of the bag,
and gave it to Alice to hold, while he got
152
THE LION AND
out a dish and carving-knife. How they all
came out of it Alice couldn't guess. It was
just like a conjuring- trick, she thought.
The Lion had joined them while this was
going on : he looked very tired and sleepy, and
his eyes were half shut. " What 's this ! " he
said, blinking lazily at Alice, and speaking in
a deep hollow tone that sounded like the tolling
of a great bell.
THE UNICORN. 153
"Ah, what is it, now?" the Unicorn cried
eagerly. "You'll never guess! / couldn't."
The Lion looked at Alice wearily. "Are you
animal or vegetable or mineral ? " he said,
yawning at every other word.
" It's a fabulous monster ! " the Unicorn cried
out, before Alice could reply.
" Then hand round the plum- cake, Monster,"
the Lion said, lying down and putting his chin
on his paws. "And sit down, both of you,"
(to the King and the Unicorn) : " fair play
with the cake, you know ! "
The King was evidently very uncomfortable
at having to sit down between the two great
creatures ; but there was no other place for him.
"What a fight we might have for the crown,
now!" the Unicorn said, looking slyly up at
the crown, which the poor King was nearly
shaking off his head, he trembled so much.
"I should win easy," said the Lion.
"I'm not so sure of that," said the Unicorn.
" Why, I beat you all round the town, you
154 THE LION AND
chicken !" the Lion replied angrily, half getting
up as he spoke.
Here the King interrupted, to prevent the
quarrel going on : he was very nervous,, and
his voice quite quivered. "All round the town?"
he said. " That's a good loDg way. Did
you go by the old bridge, or the market-place ?
You get the best view by the old bridge."
"I'm sure I don't know," the Lion growled
out as he lay down again. "There was too
much dust to see anything. What a time the
Monster is, cutting up that cake ! "
Alice had seated herself on the bank of a
little brook, with the great dish on her knees,
and was sawing away diligently with the knife,
"It's very provoking!" she said, in reply to
the Lion (she was getting quite used to being
called 'the Monster'). "I've cut several slices
already, but they always join on again!"
"You don't know how to manage Looking-
glass cakes," the Unicorn remarked. " Hand it
round first, and cut it afterwards."
THE UNICORN. 155
This sounded nonsense, but Alice very obedi-
ently got up, and carried the dish round, and
the cake divided itself into three pieces as she
did so. "Now. cut it up," said the Lion, as
she returned to her place with the empty dish.
"I say, this isn't fair!" cried the Unicorn,
as Alice sat with the knife in her hand, very
much puzzled how to begin. "The Monster has
given the Lion twice as much as me!"
" She -s kept none for herself, anyhow," said
the Lion. " Do you like plum-cake, Monster % "
But before Alice could answer him, the
drums began.
Where the noise came from, she couldn't
make out : the air seemed full of it, and it
rang through and through her head till she felt
quite deafened. She started to her feet and
sprang across the little brook in her terror,
156
THE LION AND THE UNICORN.
ssfc^telgfe
and had just time
to see the Lion
and the Unicorn
Bit rise to their feet,
I; with angry looks
at being inter-
rupted in their
feast, before she
dropped to her
knees, and put
her hands over
her ears, vainly
trying to shut
out the dreadful
uproar.
" If that doesn't ' drum them out of town/ yj
she thought to herself, " nothing ever will ! "
CHAPTER VIII.
" it 'a
IT S MY OWN INVENTION.
After a while the noise seemed gradually to
die away, till all was dead silence, and Alice
lifted up her head in some alarm. There was
no one to be seen, and her first thought was
that she must have been dreaming about the
Lion and the Unicorn and those queer Anglo-
Saxon Messengers. However, there was the great
dish still lying at her feet, on which she had
tried to cut the plum-cake, "So I wasn't dream-
ing, after all," she said to herself, "unless
unless we're all part of the same dream. Only I
do hojje it's my dream, and not the Red King's !
158 " IT S MY OWN INVENTION.
I don't like belonging to another person's
dream," she went on in a rather complaining
tone : " I ;ve a great mind to go and wake him,
and see what happens ! "
At this moment her thoughts were interrupted
by a loud shouting of "Ahoy! Ahoy! Cheek!"
and a Knight, dressed in crimson armour, came
galloping down upon her, brandishing a great
club. Just as he reached her, the horse stopped
suddenly : " You re my prisoner ! " the Knight
cried, as he tumbled off his horse.
Startled as she was, Alice was more frightened
.for him than for herself at the moment, and
watched him with some anxiety as he mounted
again. As soon as he was comfortably in the
saddle, he began once more "You're my "
but here another voice broke in " Ahoy ! Ahoy !
Check ! " and Alice looked round in some surprise
for the new enemy.
This time it was a White Knight. He drew
up at Alice's side, and tumbled off Ins horse just
as the Red Knight had done : then he got on
IT S MY OWN INVENTION. 159
again, and the two Knights sat and looked at
each other for some time without speaking.
Alice looked from one to the other in some
bewilderment.
"She's my prisoner, you know!" the Red
Knight said at last.
" Yes, but then / came and rescued her ! "
the White Knight replied.
"Well, we must fight for her, then," said the
Red Knight, as he took up his helmet (which
hung from the saddle, and was something the
shape of a horse's head), and put it on.
" You will observe the Rules of Battle, of
course ? " the White Knight remarked, putting
on his helmet too.
"I always do," said the Red Knight, and
they began banging away at each other with
such fury that Alice got behind a tree to be out
of the way of the blows.
" I wonder, now, what the Rules of Battle are,"
she said to herself, as she watched the fight, timidly
peeping out from her hiding-place : " one Rule
160 ". IT 'S MY OWN INVENTION.'
seems to be, that if one Knight hits the other,
he knocks him off his horse, and if he misses, he
tumbles off" himself- and another Rule seems
to be that they hold their clubs with their arms,
as if they were Punch and Judy What a noise
they make when they tumble ! Just like a whole
IT S MY OWN INVENTION. 161
set of fire-irons fallings into the fender ! And how
quiet the horses are ! They let them get on
and off them just as if they were tables ! ,;
Another Eule of Battle, that Alice had not
noticed, seemed to be that they always fell on
their heads, and the battle ended with their both
falling off in this way, side by side : when
they got up again, they shook hands, and then
the Eed Knight mounted and galloped off.
" It was a glorious victory, wasn't it ? " said
the White Knight, as he came up panting.
"I don't know," Alice said doubtfully. "I
don't want to be anybody's prisoner. I want to
be a Queen."
"So you will, when you've crossed the next
brook," said the White Knight. " I'll see you
safe to the end of the wood and then I must
go back, you know. That 's the end of my move. "
" Thank you very much," said Alice. " May I
help you off with your helmet ? " It was evidently
more than he could manage by himself; however,
she managed to shake him out of it at last.
M
162 '" IT S MY OWN INVENTION.
" Now one can breathe more easily," said the
Knight, putting back his shaggy hair with both
hands, and turning his gentle face and large mild
eyes to Alice. She thought she had never seen
such a strange-looking soldier in all her life.
He was dressed in tin armour, which seemed
to fit him very badly, and he had a queer-shaped
little deal box fastened across his shoulders,
upside-down, and with the lid hanging open.
Alice looked at it with great curiosity.
" I see you're admiring my little box/' the
Knight said in a friendly tone. " It's my own
invention to keep clothes and sandwiches in.
You see I carry it upside-down, so that the rain
can't get in."
" But the things can get out," Alice gently
remarked. "Do you know the lid's open?"
" I didn't know it," the Knight said, a shade
of vexation passing over his face. " Then all the
things must have fallen out ! And the box is no
use without them." He unfastened it as he spoke,
and was just going to throw it into the bushes,
IT S MY OWN INVENTION. 163
when a sudden thought seemed to strike him,
and he hung it carefully on a tree. " Can you
guess why I did that ? " he said to Alice.
Alice shook her head.
"In hopes some bees may make a nest in it
then I should get the honey."
" But you've got a bee-hive or something
like one fastened to the saddle," said Alice.
"Yes, it's a very good bee-hive," the Knight
said in a discontented tone, " one of the best
kind. But not a single bee has come near it yet.
And the other thing is a mouse-trap. I suppose
the mice keep the bees out or the bees keep
the mice out, I don't know which."
"I was wondering what the mouse-trap was
for," said Alice. " It isn't very likely there
would be any mice on the horse's back."
" Not very likely, perhaps," said the Knight ;
" but if they do come, I don't choose to have
them running all about."
" You see," he went on after a pause, "it's as
well to be provided for everything. That's the
M 2
164 " IT S MY OWN INVENTION.
reason the horse has all those anklets round his
feet."
" But what are they for ? " Alice asked in a
tone of great curiosity.
" To guard against the bites of sharks," the
Knight replied. " It's an invention of my own.
And now help me on. I'll go with you to the
end of the wood What's that dish for ? "
"It's meant for plum-cake," said Alice.
" We 'd better take it with us," the Knight
said. " It '11 come in handy if we find any
plum-cake. Help me to get it into this bag."
This took a long time to manage, though Alice
held the bag open very carefully, because the
Knight was so very awkward in putting in the
dish : the first two or three times that he tried
he fell in himself instead. " It 's rather a tight
fit, you see," he said, as they got it in at last ;
" there are so many candlesticks in the bag."
And he hung it to the saddle, which was already
loaded with bunches of carrots, and fire-irons,
and many other things.
IT S MY OWN INVENTION. 165
"I hope youVe got your hair well fastened
on ? " he continued, as they set off.
" Only in the usual way," Alice said, smiling.
"That's hardly enough," he said, anxiously.
" You see the wind is so very strong here. It 's
as strong as soup."
" Have you invented a plan for keeping the
hair from being blown off ? " Alice enquired.
"Not yet," said the Knight. "But I've got
a plan for keeping it from falling off."
" I should like to hear it, very much."
" First you take an upright stick," said the
Knight. t " Then you make your hair creep up
it, like a fruit-tree. Now the reason hair falls
off is because it hangs down things never
fall upwards, you know. It 's a plan of my
own invention. You may try it if you like."
It didn't sound a comfortable plan, Alice
thought, and for a few minutes she walked on
in silence, puzzling over the idea, and every now
and then stopping to help the poor Knight, who
certainly was not a good rider.
1(56
it's my own invention,
Whenever the horse stopped (which it did
very often), he fell off in front; and when-
ever it went on again (which it generally did
rather suddenly), he fell off behind. Otherwise
he kept on pretty well, except that he had a
habit of now and then falling off sideways ; and
as he generally did this on the side on which
IT S MY OWN INVENTION. 167
Alice was walking, she soon found that it was the
best plan not to walk quite close to the horse.
" I 'm afraid you Ve not had much practice in
riding," she ventured to say, as she was helping
him up from his fifth tumble.
The Knight looked very much surprised, and a
little offended at the remark. " What makes you
say that % " he asked, as he scrambled back into the
saddle, keeping hold of Alice's hair with one hand,
to save himself from falling over on the other side.
"Because people don't fall off quite so often,
when they 've had much practice."
"I've had plenty of practice," the Knight said
very gravely : " plenty of practice ! "
Alice could think of nothing better to say
than " Indeed ? " but she said it as heartily as
she could. They went on a little way in silence
after this, the Knight with his eyes shut, mutter-
ing to himself, and Alice watching anxiously for
the next tumble.
" The great art of riding," the Knight suddenly
began in a loud voice, waving his right arm as he
168 "IT S MY OWN INVENTION.
spoke, "is to keep " Here the sentence ended
as suddenly as it had begun, as the Knight fell
heavily on the top of his head exactly in the path
where Alice was walking. She was quite frightened
this time, and said in an anxious tone, as she
picked him up, " I hope no bones are broken ? "
" None to speak of," the Knight said, as if
he didn't mind breaking two or three of them.
"The great art of riding, as I was saying, is —
to keep your balance properly. Like this, you
know "
He let go the bridle, and stretched out both
his arms to show Alice what he meant, and this
time he fell flat on his back, right under the
horse's feet.
" Plenty of practice ! " he went on repeating,
all the time that Alice was getting him on his
feet again. " Plenty of practice ! "
" It 's too ridiculous ! " cried Alice, losing all
her patience this time. " You ought to have a
wooden horse on wheels, that you ought ! "
" Does that kind go smoothly ? " the Knight
"IT S MY OWN" INVENTION. 169
asked in a tone of great interest, clasping his
arms round the horse's neck as he spoke, just in
time to save himself from tumblina; off as;ain.
"Much more smoothly than a live horse,"
Alice said, with a little scream of laughter, in
spite of all she could do to prevent it.
" I '11 get one," the Knight said thoughtfully
to himself. " One or two several."
There was a short silence after this, and
then the Knight went on again. " I 'm a great
hand at inventing things. Now, I daresay you
noticed, the last time you picked me up, that
I was looking rather thoughtful ? "
" You were a little grave," said Alice.
" Well, just then I was inventing a new
way of getting over a gate would you like
to hear it ? "
" Very much indeed," Alice said politely.
" I'll tell you how I came to think of it," said
the Knight. " You see, I said to myself, ' The
only difficulty is with the feet : the head is high
enough already.' Now, first I put my head on
170 "it s my own invention.
the top of the gate then the head's high
enough then I stand on my head then
the feet are high enough, you see then I'm
over, you see."
"Yes, I suppose you'd be over when that
was done," Alice said thoughtfully : " but don'.t
you think it wou]d be rather hard?"
"I haven't tried it yet," the Knight said,
gravely : "so I can't tell for certain but I 'm
afraid it would be a little hard."
He looked so vexed at the idea, that Alice
changed the subject hastily. " What a curious
helmet you've got ! " she said cheerfully. " Is
that your invention too ? "
The Knight looked down proudly at his helmet,
which hung from the saddle. " Yes," he said,
"but I've invented a better one than that —like
a sugar-loaf. When I used to wear it, if I fell off
the horse, it always touched the ground directly.
So I had a very little way to fall, you see But
there was the danger of falling into it, to be sure.
That happened to me once and the worst of
IT S MY OWN INVENTION. 171
it was, before I could get out again, the other
White Knight came and put it on. He thought
it was his own helmet."
The Knight looked so solemn about it that
Alice did not dare to laugh. "I'm afraid you
must have hurt him/' she said in a trembling
voice, " being on the top of his head."
" I had to kick him, of course," the Knight
said, very seriously. " And then he took the
helmet off again but it took hours and hours
to get me out. I was as fast as as lightning,
you know."
" But that 's a different kind of fastness,"
Alice objected.
The Knight shook his head. " It was all
kinds of fastness with me, I can assure you \" he
said. He raised his hands in some excitement as
he said this, and instantly rolled out of the saddle,
and fell headlong into a deep ditch.
Alice ran to the side of the ditch to look for
him. She was rather startled by the fall, as for
some time he had kept on very well, and she was
172
IT S MY OWN INVENTION.
afraid that he really ivas hurt this time. However,
though she could see nothing but the soles of his
feet, she was much relieved to hear that he was
talking on in his usual tone. " All kinds of fast-
ness," he repeated : " but it was careless of him to
put another man's helmet on — —with the man
in it, too."
" How can you go on talking so quietly, head
downwards?" Alice asked, as she dragged him
out by the feet, and laid him in a heap on the
bank.
"IT S MY OWN INVENTION. 173
The Knight looked surprised at the question.
" What does it matter where my body happens
to be ? " he said. " My mind goes on working all
the same. In fact, the more head downwards
I am, the more I keep inventing new things."
" Now the cleverest thing of the sort that I
ever did," he went on after a pause, " was invent-
ing a new pudding during the meat- course."
" In time to have it cooked for the next
course ? " said Alice. " Well, that was quick work,
certainly ! "
" Well, not the next course," the Knight said
in a slow thoughtful tone : " no, certainly not the
next course!'1
" Then it would have to be the next day. I
suppose you wouldn't have two pudding-courses
in one dinner ? "
" Well, not the next day," the Knight repeated
as before : " not the next day. In fact," he went
on, holding his head down, and his voice getting
lower and lower, "I don't believe that pudding
ever vxis cooked ! In fact, I don't believe that
174 " IT S MY OWN INVENTION.
pudding ever will be cooked ! And yet it was
a very clever pudding to invent."
" What did you mean it to be made of % "
Alice asked, hoping to cheer him up, for the poor
Knight seemed quite low-spirited about it.
" It began with blotting-paper," the Knight
answered with a groan.
" That wouldn't be very nice, I in afraid "
" Not very nice alone," he interrupted, quite
eagerly : "but you've no idea what a difference
it makes, mixing it with other things such
as gunpowder and sealing-wax. And here I
must leave you." They had just come to the
end of the wood.
Alice could only look puzzled : she was
thinking of the pudding.
"You are sad," the Knight said in an anxious
tone : "let me sing you a song to comfort you."
" Is it very long ? " Alice asked, for she had
heard a good deal of poetry that day.
"It's long," said the Knight, "but it's very,
very beautiful. Everybody that hears me sing
" IT S MY OWN INVENTION. 175
it either it brings the tears into their eyes,
or else "
" Or else what ? " said Alice, for the Knight
had made a sudden pause.
" Or else it doesn't, you know. The name
of the song is called ' Haddocks Eyes? "
"Oh, that's the name of the song, is it?"
Alice said, trying to feel interested.
" No, you don't understand," the Knight said,
looking a little vexed. " That 's what the name
is called. The name really is ' The Aged Aged
Man? "
" Then I ought to have said ' That 's what
the song is called ' ? " Alice corrected herself.
"No, you oughtn't: that's quite another
thing ! The song is called ' Ways And Means ' :
but that 's only what it's called, you know ! "
" Well, what is the song, then ? " said Alice,
who was by this time completely bewildered.
" I was coming to that," the Knight said .
" The song really is ' A-sitting On A Gate ' : and
the tune 's my own invention."
176 " IT S MY OWN INVENTION.
So saying, he stopped his horse and let the
reins fall on its neck : then, slowly beating time
with one hand, and with a faint smile lighting
up his gentle foolish face, as if he enjoyed the
music of his song, he began.
Of all the strange things that Alice saw
in her journey Through The Looking- Glass,
this was the one that she always remembered
most clearly. Years afterwards she could bring
the whole scene back again, as if it had been
only yesterday the mild blue eyes and kindly
smile of the Knight the setting sun gleaming
through his hair, and shining on his armour
in a blaze of light that quite dazzled her
the horse quietly moving about, with the reins
hanging loose on his neck, cropping the grass
at her feet and the black shadows of the
forest behind all this she took in like a
picture, as, with one hand shading her eyes, she
leant against a tree, watching the strange pair,
and listening, in a half dream, to the melan-
choly music of the song.
' IT S MY OWN INVENTION. 177
"Bat the tune isn't his own invention," she
said to herself: "it's 'I give thee all, I can no
more.'" She stood and listened very attentively,
but no tears came into her eyes.
"I'll tell thee everything I can;
There's little to relate.
1 saw an aged aged man,
A-sitting on a gate.
' Who are you, aged man ? ' I said.
1 And how is it you live ? '
And his answer trickled through my head
Like water through a sieve.
He said ' i" look for hutterjlies
That sleep among the wheat :
I make them into mutton-pies,
And sell them in the street.
I sell them unto men,'' he said,
1 Who sail on stormy seas;
And that's the way I get my bread —
A trifle, if you please.'
178 " IT 'fl MY OWN INVENTION.
But I was thinking of a plan
To dye one's whiskers green,
And always use so large a fan
That they could not be seen.
80, having no reply to give
To what the old man said,
I cried ' Come, tell me how you live ! '
And thumped him on the head.
His accents mild took up the tale :
He said ' I go my ways,
And when I find a mountain-rill,
I set it in a blaze ;
And thence they make a stuf) they call
Rowlands' Macassar Oil —
Yet twopence-halfpenny is all
They give me for my toiV
But I was thinking of a way
To feed oneself on batter,
And so go on from day to day
Getting a little fatter.
"it s my own invention.
I shook him well from side to side,
Until his face was blue :
1 Come, tell me how you live,' I cried,
' And what it is you do ! '
179
He said. ' i" hunt for haddock^ eyes
Among the heather bright,
And work them into waistcoat-buttons
In the silent night.
n 2
180 "it s my own invention.
And these I do not sell for gold
Or coin of silvery shine,
But for a copper halfpenny,
And that will purchase nine.
1 1 sometimes dig for buttered rolls,
Or set limed twigs for crabs ;
I sometimes search the grassy knolls
For wheels of Hansom-cabs.
And that's the way' (he gave a wink)
' By which I get my wealth —
And very gladly will I drink
Your Honour's noble health'
I heard him then, for I had just
Completed my design
To keep the Menai bridge from rust
By boiling it in wine.
I thanked him much for telling me
The way he got his wealth,
But chiefly for his wish that he
Might drink my noble health.
"IT S MY OWN INVENTION. 181
And now, if e'er by chance I put
My fingers into glue,
Or madly squeeze a right-hand foot
Into a left-hand shoe,
Or if I drop upon my toe
A very heavy weight,
I weep, for it reminds me so
Of that old man I used to know —
Whose look was mild, whose speech was slow,
Whose hair was whiter than the snoiv,
Whose face was very like a crow,
With eyes, like cinders, all aglow,
Who seemed distracted with his woe,
Who rocked his body to and fro,
And muttered mumblingly and low,
As if his mouth were full of dough,
Who snorted like a buffalo
That summer evening, long ago,
A-sitting on a gate."
As the Knight sang the last words of the
ballad, he gathered up the reins, and turned
182 IT S MY OWN INVENTION.
his horse's head along the road by which they
had come. " You 've only a few yards to go,"
he said, " down the hill and over that little
brook, and then you'll be a Queen But
you 11 stay and see me off first 1 ,; he added
as Alice turned with an eager look in the
direction to which he pointed. " I shan't be
long. You'll wait and wave your handkerchief
when I get to that turn in the road ? I think
it '11 encourage me, you see."
" Of course I '11 wait," said Alice : " and thank
you very much for' coming so far and for
the song 1 liked it very much."
" I hope so," the Knight said doubtfully :
"but you didn't cry so much as I thought
you would."
So they shook hands, and then the Knight
rode slowly away into the forest. " It won't
take long to see him off, I expect," Alice said
to herself, as she stood watching him. " There
he goes ! Eight on his head as usual ! How-
ever, he gets on again pretty easily that
"IT S MY OWN INVENTION. 183
comes of having so many things hung round the
horse " So she went on talking to herself,
as she watched the horse walking leisurely along
the road, and the Knight tumbling off, first on
one side and then on the other. After the
fourth or fifth tumble he reached the turn, and
then she waved her handkerchief to him, and
waited till he was out of sight.
" I hope it encouraged him," she said, as
she turned to run down the hill : "and now
for the last brook, and to be a Queen ! How
grand it sounds ! " A very few steps brought
her to the edge of the brook. " The Eighth
Square at last ! " she cried as she bounded across,
and threw herself down to rest on a lawn as
soft as moss, with little flower-beds dotted about
it here and there. " Oh, how glad I am to get
here ! And what is this on my head \ " she
184
IT S MY OWN INVENTION.
exclaimed in a
tone of dismay,
as she put her
hands up to
something very
heavy, that fitted
tight all round
her head.
" But how can
it have got there
without my know-
ing it ? " she
said to herself,
as she lifted it
off, and set it on her lap to make out what
it could possibly be.
It was a golden crown.
CHAPTER IX.
QUEEN ALICE.
" Well, this is grand ! " said Alice. " I never
expected I should be a Queen so soon and
I '11 tell you what it is, your Majesty," she went
on in a severe tone (she was always rather fond
of scolding herself), " it '11 never do for you to
be lolling about on the grass like that ! Queens
have to be dignified, you know ! "
So she got up and walked about rather
stiffly just at . first, as she was afraid that the
crown might come off: but she comforted herself
with the thought that there was nobody to see
her, " and if I really am a Queen," she said
186 QUEEN ALICE.
as she sat down again, "I shall be able to
manage it quite well in time."
Everything was happening so oddly that she
didn't feel a bit surprised at finding the Red
Queen and the White Queen sitting close to her,
one on each side : she would have liked very
much to ask them how they came there, but
she feared, it would not be quite civil. How-
ever, there would be no harm, she thought, in
asking if the game was over. "Please, would
you tell me — : — " she began, looking timidly at
the Red Queen."
" Speak when you 're spoken to ! " the Queen
sharply interrupted her.
" But if everybody obeyed that rule," said
Alice, who was always ready for a little argu-
ment, " and if you only spoke when you were
spoken to, and the other person always waited
for you to begin, you see nobody would ever
say anything, so that "
" Ridiculous ! " cried the Queen. " Why, don't
you see, child " here she broke off with a
QUEEN ALICE. 187
frown, and, after thinking for a minute, suddenly
changed the subject of the conversation. "What
do you mean by ' If you really are a Queen ' %
What right have you to call yourself so ? You
can't be a Queen, you know, till you've passed
the proper examination. And the sooner we
begin it, the better."
"I only said 'if'!" poor Alice pleaded in
a piteous tone.
The two Queens looked at each other, and
the Eed Queen remarked, with a little shudder,
" She says she only said ' if ' "
" But she said a great deal more than that ! "
the White Queen moaned, wringing her hands.
" Oh, ever so much more than that ! "
" So you did, you know," the Eed Queen
said to Alice. " Always speak the truth
think before you speak and write it down
afterwards."
" I 'm sure I didn't mean " Alice was
beginning, but the Eed Queen interrupted her
impatiently.
183 QUEEN ALIOE.
"That's just what I complain of! You
should have meant ! What do you suppose is
the use of a child without any meaning ? Even
a joke should have some meaning and a
child's more important than a joke, I hope.
You couldn't deny that, even if you tried with
both hands."
" I don't deny things with my hands," Alice
objected.
"Nobody said you did," said the Red Queen.
" I said you couldn't if you tried."
" She 's in that state of mind," said the "White
Queen, " that she wants to deny something
only she doesn't know what to deny ! "
"A nasty, vicious temper," the Red Queen
remarked ; and then there was an uncomfortable
silence for a minute or two.
The Red Queen broke the silence by saying
to the White Queen, "I invite you to Alice's
dinner-party this afternoon."
The White Queen smiled feebly, and said
" And I invite you"
QUEEN ALICE. 189
"I didn't know I was to have a party at
all," said Alice ; " but if there is to be one, I
think / ought to invite the guests/'
"We gave you the opportunity of doing it,"
the Eed Queen remarked : "but I daresay you've
not had many lessons in manners yet ? "
" Manners are not taught in lessons," said
Alice. " Lessons teach you to do sums, and
things of that sort."
" Can you do Addition ? " the White Queen
asked. " What 's one and one and one and one
and one and one and one and one and one and
one I
" I don't know," said Alice. " I lost count."
"She can't do Addition," the Eed Queen in-
terrupted. " Can you do Subtraction % Take
nine from eight."
"Nine from eight I can't, you know," Alice
replied very readily : "but "
" She can't do Substraction," said the White
Queen. " Can you do Division ? Divide a loaf
by a knife what 's the answer to that ? "
190 QUEEN ALICE.
" I suppose " Alice was beginning, but the
Eed Queen answered for her. " Bread-and-butter,
of course. Try another Subtraction sum. Take
a bone from a dog : what remains ? "
Alice considered. " The bone wouldn't re-
main, of course, if I took it and the dog
wouldn't remain ; it would come to bite me
and I 'm sure / shouldn't remain ! "
"Then you think nothing would remain?"
said the Eed Queen.
"I think that's the answer."
QUEEN ALICE. 191
" Wrong, as usual/' said the Red Queen :
" the dog's temper would remain."
" But I don't see how ■"
" Why, look here ! " the Red Queen cried.
" The dog would lose its temper, wouldn't it ? "
" Perhaps it would," Alice replied cautiously.
" Then if the dog went away, its temper
would remain! " the Queen exclaimed trium-
phantly.
Alice said, as gravely as she could, " They
might go different ways." But she couldn't help
thinking to herself, " What dreadful nonsense
we are talking ! "
" She can't do sums a hit ! " the Queens
said together, with great emphasis.
" Can you do sums ? " Alice , said, turning
suddenly on the White Queen, for she didn't
like being found fault with so much.
The Queen gasped and shut her eyes. " I
can do Addition," she said, "if you give me
time but I can't do Substraction, under any
circumstances ! "
192 QUEEN ALICE.
" Of course you know your ABC?" said
the Eed Queen.
" To be sure I do," said Alice.
"So do I," the White Queen whispered :
"we'll often say it over together, dear. And
111 tell you a secret 1 can read words of
one letter ! Isn't that grand ? However, don't
be discouraged. You'll come to it in time."
Here the Eed Queen began again. " Can
you answer useful questions 1 " she said. " How
is bread made % "
" I know that ! " Alice cried eagerly. " You
take some flour "
" Where do you pick the flower ? " the
White Queen asked. " In a garden, or in the
hedges ? "
" Well, it isn't picked at all," Alice explained :
" it 's ground "
" How many acres of ground ? " said the
White Queen. " You mustn't leave out so
many things."
" Fan her head ! " the Eed Queen anxiously
QUEEN ALICE. 193
interrupted. " She 11 be feverish after so much
thinking." So they set to work and fanned
her with bunches of leaves, till she had to beg
them to leave off, it blew her hair about so.
" She 's all right again now," said the Eed
Queen. " Do you know Languages ? What 's
the French for fiddle-de-dee ? "
" Fiddle-de-dee 's not English," Alice replied
gravely.
" Who ever said it was ? " said the Eed
Queen.
Alice thought she saw a way out of the
difficulty this time. " If you 11 tell me what
language ' fiddle-de-dee ' is, I '11 tell you the
French for it ! " she exclaimed triumphantly.
But the Eed Queen drew herself up rather
stiffly, and said " Queens never make bargains."
"I wish Queens never asked questions," Alice
thought to herself.
"Don't let us quarrel," the White Queen
said in an anxious tone. "What is the cause
of lightning ? "
o
194 QUEEN ALICE.
"The cause of lightning/' Alice said very
decidedly, for she felt quite certain about this,
" is the thunder no, no ! " she hastily cor-
rected herself. " I meant the other way."
" It 's too late to correct it," said the Eed
Queen : " when you Ve once said a thing, that
fixes it, and you must take the consequences."
" Which reminds me " the White Queen
said, looking down and nervously clasping and
unclasping her hands, "we had such a thunder-
storm last Tuesday— — I mean one of the last
set of Tuesdays, you know."
Alice was puzzled. " In our country," she
remarked, " there 's only one day at a time."
The Eed Queen said " That 's a poor thin way
of doing things. Now here, we mostly have
days and nights two or three at a time, and
sometimes in the winter we take as many as
five nights together for warmth, you know."
" Are five nights warmer than one night,
then ? " Alice ventured to ask.
" Five times as warm, of course."
QUEEN ALICE. 195
" But they should be five times as cold, by
the same rule "
" Just so ! " cried the Ked Queen. " Five
times as warm, and five times as cold just
as I 'm five times as rich as you are, and five
times as clever ! "
Alice sighed and gave it up. " It 's exactly
like a riddle with no answer ! " she thought.
" Humpty Dumpty saw it too," the White
Queen went on in a low voice, more as if she
were talking to herself. " He came to the door
with a corkscrew in his hand "
" What did he want ? " said the Eed Queen.
" He said he would come in," the White
Queen went on, " because he was looking for
a hippopotamus. Now, as it happened, there
wasn't such a thing in the house, that morning."
" Is there generally ? " Alice asked in an
astonished tone.
" Well, only on Thursdays," said the Queen.
" I know what he came for3" said Alice :
" he wanted to punish the fish, because "
o 2
196 QUEEN ALICE.
Here the White Queen began again. "It was
such a thunderstorm, you can't think ! " (" She
never could, you know/' said the Eed Queen.)
" And part of the roof came off, and ever so
much thunder got in and it went rolling
round the room in great lumps and knocking
over the tables and things -till I was so
frightened, I couldn't remember my own name ! "
Alice thought to herself, " I never should
try to remember my name in the middle of an
accident ! Where would be the use of it ? " but
she did not say this aloud, for fear of hurting
the poor Queen's feelings.
" Your Majesty must excuse her," the Eed
Queen said to Alice, taking one of the White
Queen's hands in her own, and gently stroking
it : " she means well, but she can't help saying
foolish things, as a general rule."
The White Queen looked timidly at Alice, who
felt she ought to say something kind, but really
couldn't think of anything at the moment.
" She never was really well brought up," the
QUEEN ALICE. 197
Red Queen went on : " but it 's amazing how
good-tempered she is ! Pat her on the head,
and see how pleased she '11 be ! " But this was
more than Alice had courage to do.
"A little kindness and putting her hair
in papers would do wonders with her "
The White Queen gave a deep sigh, and
laid her head on Alice's shoulder. "I am so
sleepy ! " she moaned.
" She 's tired, poor thing ! " said the Red
Queen. " Smooth her hair lend her your
nightcap and sing her a soothing lullaby."
" I haven't got a nightcap with me," said
Alice, as she tried to obey the first direction :
" and I don't know any soothing lullabies."
" I must do it myself, then," said the Red
Queen, and she began :
" Hush-a-by lady, in Alice's lap !
Till the feast 's ready, we 've time for a nap :
Wlien the feast 's over, we 'M go to the ball —
Bed Queen, and White Queen, and Alice, and all ! "
198
QUEEN ALICE.
"And now you know the words," she added,
as she put her head down on Alice's other
shoulder, "just sing it through to me. I'm
getting sleepy too." In another moment both
Queens were fast asleep, and snoring loud.
L>Ji.Ov-v, i/ /• -~-J
" What am I to do \ " exclaimed Alice,
looking about in great perplexity, as first one
round head, and then the other, rolled down
from her shoulder, and lay like a heavy lump
in her lap. "I don't think it ever happened
before, that any one had to take care of two
QUEEN ALICE. 199
Queens asleep at once ! No, not in all the
History of England it couldn't, you know,
because there never was more than one Queen
at a time. Do wake up, you heavy things ! "
she went on in an impatient tone ; but there
was no answer but a gentle snoring.
The snoring got more distinct every minute,
and sounded more like a tune : at last she
could even make out words, and she listened so
eagerly that, when the two great heads suddenly
vanished from her lap, she hardly missed them.
She was standing before an arched doorway
over which were the words QUEEN ALICE
in large letters, and on each side of the arch
there was a bell-handle ; one was marked
" Visitors' Bell," and the other " Servants' Bell."
" I '11 wait till the song 's over," thought
Alice, "and then I'll ring the the which
bell must I ring 1 " she went on, very much
puzzled by the names. " I 'm not a visitor,
and I 'm not a servant. There ought to be
one marked 'Queen,' you know "
200 QUEEN ALICE.
Just then the door opened a little way, and
a creature with a long beak put its head out
for a moment and said "No admittance till the
week after next ! " and shut the door again
with a bang.
Alice knocked and rang; in vain for a
long time, but at last a very old Frog, who
was sitting under a tree, got up and hobbled
slowly towards her : he was dressed in bright
yellow, and had enormous boots on.
" What is it, now ? " the Frog said in a deep
hoarse whisper.
Alice turned round, ready to find fault with
anybody. " Where 's the servant whose business
it is to answer the door ? " she began angrily.
" Which door ? " said the Frog.
Alice almost stamped with irritation at the
slow drawl in which he spoke. " This door,
of course ! "
The Frog looked at the door with his large
dull eyes for a minute : then he went nearer
and rubbed it with his thumb, as if he were
QUEEN ALICE.
201
trying whether the paint would come" off ;
then he looked at Alice,
" To answer the door ? " he said. " What 's
it been asking of?" He was so hoarse that
Alice could scarcely hear him.
" I don't know what you mean," she said.
202 QUEEN ALICE.
" I speaks English, doesn't I ? " the Frog
went on. "Or are you deaf? What did it
ask you ? "
" Nothing ! " Alice said impatiently. " I 've
been knocking at it ! "
" Shouldn't do that shouldn't do that "
the Frog muttered. "Wexes it, you know."
Then he went up and gave the door a kick
with one of his great feet. " You let it alone,"
he panted out, as he hobbled back to his tree,
" and it 11 let you alone, you know."
At this moment the door was flung open,
and a shrill voice was heard singing :
" To the Looking-Glass world it was Alice that said,
'I've a sceptre in hand, I've a crown on my head;
Let the Looking-Glass creatures, whatever they be,
Come and dine with the Bed Queen, the White Queen,
and me ! '"
And hundreds , of voices joined in the
chorus :
QUEEN ALICE. 203
" Then fill up the glasses as quick as you can,
And sprinkle the table with buttons and bran :
Put cats in the coffee, and mice in the tea —
And welcome Queen Alice with thirty-times-three ! "
Then followed a confused noise of cheering,
and Alice thought to herself, " Thirty times
three makes ninety. I wonder if any one 's
counting V Id a minute there was silence again,
and the same shrill voice sang another verse :
" ' 0 Looking -Glass creatures] quoth Alice, ' draiv near !
'Tis an honour to see me, a favour to hear :
'Tis a, privilege high to have dinner and tea
Along with the Red Queen, the White Queen, and me I ' "
Then came the chorus again : —
" Then fill up the glasses with treacle and ink,
Or anything else that is pleasant to drink ;
Mix sand with the cider, and wool with the wine —
And welcome Queen Alice with ninety-times-nine ! "
204 QUEEN ALICE.
" Ninety times nine ! " Alice repeated in de-
spair. " Oh, that 11 never be done ! I 'd better
go in at once " and in she went, and there
was a dead silence the moment she appeared.
Alice glanced nervously along the table, as
she walked up the large hall, and noticed that
there were about fifty guests, of all kinds : some
were animals, some birds, and there were even
a few flowers among them. " I 'm glad they Ve
come without waiting to be asked," she thought :
" I should never have known who were the
right people to invite ! "
There were three chairs at the head of the
table ; the Red and White Queens had already
taken two of them, but the middle one was
empty. Alice sat down in it, rather uncomfortable
at the silence, and longing for some one to speak.
At last the Red Queen began. " You Ve
missed the soup and fish," she said. "Put on
the joint ! " And the waiters set a leg of mutton
before Alice, who- looked at it rather anxiously,
as she had never had to carve a joint before.
QUEEN ALICE. 205
" You look a little shy ; let me introduce
you to that leg of mutton," said the Eed Queen.
"Alice Mutton;
Mutton-
- Alice."
The leg of mutton
got up in the dish
and made a little
bow to Alice ; and
Alice returned the
bow, not knowing
whether to be fright-
ened or amused.
" May I give
you a slice ? " she
said, taking up the
knife and fork, and
looking from one Queen to the other.
"Certainly not," the Eed Queen said, very
decidedly : " it isn't etiquette to cut any one
you've been introduced to. Eemove the joint!"
And the waiters carried it off, and brought a
large plum-pudding in its place.
206 QUEEN ALICE.
" I won't be introduced to the pudding,
please," Alice said rather hastily, " or we shall
get no dinner at all. May I give you some ? "
But the Eed Queen looked sulky, and growled
"Pudding- Alice; Alice Pudding. Eemove
the pudding ! " and the waiters took it away
so quickly that Alice couldn't return its bow.
However, she didn't see why the Eed Queen
should be the only one to give orders, so, as
an experiment, she called out " Waiter ! Bring
back the pudding ! " and there it was again in
a moment, like a conjuring- trick. It was so
large that she couldn't help feeling a little shy
with it, as she had been with the mutton ; how-
ever, she conquered her shyness by a great effort,
and cut a slice and handed it to the Eed Queen.
" What impertinence ! " said the Pudding. " I
wonder how you'd like it, if I were to cut a
slice out of you, you creature!"
It spoke in a thick, suety sort of voice,
and Alice hadn't a word to say in reply : she
could only sit and look at it and gasp.
QUEEN ALICE. 207"
" Make a remark," said the Ked Queen : " it 'b
ridiculous to leave all the conversation to the
pudding ! "
" Do you know, I 've had such a quantity
of poetry repeated to me to-day," Alice began,
a little frightened at finding that, the moment
she opened her lips, there was dead silence,
and all eyes were fixed upon her; "and it's a
very curious thing, I think every poem was
about fishes in some way. Do you know why
they 're so fond of fishes, all about here % "
She spoke to the Red Queen, whose answer
was a little wide of the mark. " As to fishes,"
she said, very slowly and solemnly, putting her
mouth close to Alice's ear, "her White Majesty
knows a lovely riddle- —all in poetry all
about fishes. Shall she repeat it ? "
"Her Red Majesty's very kind to mention
it," the White Queen murmured into Alice's other
ear, in a voice like the cooing of a pigeon. "It
would be such a treat ! May IV
" Please do," Alice said very politely.
208 QUEEN ALICE.
The White Queen laughed with delight, and
stroked Alice's cheek. Then she began :
" ' First, the fish must be caught!
That is easy: a baby, I think, could have caught it.
'Next, the fish must be bought.'1
That is easy : a penny, I think, would have bought it.
' Now cook me the fish ! '
That is easy, and will not take more than a minute.
' Let it lie in a dish ! '
That is easy, because it already is in it.
' Bring it here ! Let me sup ! '
Lt is easy to set such a dish on the table.
' Take the dish-cover up ! '
Ah, that is so hard that L fear L'm unable !
For it holds it like glue
Holds the lid to the dish, while it lies in the middle :
Which is easiest to do,
Un-dish-cover the fish, or dishcovcr the riddle ? "
QUEEN ALICE. 2(H)
" Take a minute to think about it, and then
guess," said the Red Queen. "Meanwhile, we'll
drink your health Queen Alice's health ! " she
screamed at the top of her voice, and all the
guests began drinking it directly, and very
queerly they managed it : some of them put
their glasses upon their heads like extinguishers,
and drank all that trickled down their faces
others upset the decanters, and drank the wine
as it ran off the edges of the table and three
of them (who looked like kangaroos) scrambled
into the dish of roast mutton, and began eagerly
lapping up the gravy, "just like pigs in a
trough ! " thought Alice.
"You ought to return thanks in a neat
speech," the Red Queen said, frowning at Alice
as she spoke.
"We must support you, you know," the
White Queen whispered, as Alice got up to do
it, very obediently, but a little frightened.
" Thank you very much," she whispered in
reply, "but I can do quite -Well without."
210 QUEEN ALICE.
" That wouldn't be at all the thing," the
Red Queen said very decidedly : so Alice tried
to submit to it with a good grace.
(" And they did push so ! " she said after-
wards, when she was telling her sister the
history of the feast. " You would have thought
they wanted to squeeze me flat ! ")
In fact it was rather difficult for her to
keep in her place while she made her speech :
the two Queens pushed her so, one on each side,
that they nearly lifted her up into the air :
" I rise to return thanks " Alice began :
and she really did rise as she spoke, several
inches ; but she got hold of the edge of the
table, and managed to pull herself down again.
"Take care of yourself!" screamed the White
Queen, seizing Alice's hair with both her hands.
" Something 's going to happen ! "
And then (as Alice afterwards described it)
all sorts of things happened in a moment. The
candles all grew up to the ceiling, looking some-
thing like a bed of rushes with fireworks at
QUEEN ALICE. 211
the top. As to the bottles, they each took a
pair of plates, which they hastily fitted on as
wings, and so, with forks for legs, went flutter-
ing about in all directions : " and very like birds
they look,'"' Alice thought to herself, as well as
she could in the dreadful confusion that was
beginning.
At this moment she heard a hoarse laugh
at her side, and turned to see what was the
matter with the White Queen; but, instead of
the Queen, there was the leg of mutton sitting
in the chair. " Here I am ! " cried a voice
from the soup-tureen, and Alice turned again,
just in time to see the Queen's broad good-
natured face grinning at her for a moment over
the edge of the tureen, before she disappeared
into the soup.
There was not a moment to be lost. Already
several of the guests were lying down in the
dishes, and the soup-ladle was walking up the
table towards Alice's chair, and beckoning to her
impatiently to get out of its way.
p 2
212
QUEEN ALICE.
" I can't stand
this any longer ! "
she cried as she
j limped up and
seized the table-
cloth with both
hands : one good
pull, and plates,
dishes, guests, and
QUEEN ALICE. 213
candles came crashing down together in a heap
on the floor.
"And as for you" she went on, turning
fiercely upon the Eed Queen, whom she con-
sidered as the cause of all the mischief — —but
the Queen was no longer at her side she had
suddenly dwindled down to the size of a little
doll, and was now on the table, merrily running
round and round after her own shawl, which
was trailing behind her.
At any other time, Alice would have felt
surprised at this, but she was far too much
excited to be surprised at anything now. " As
for you," she repeated, catching hold of the little
creature in the very act of jumping over a bottle
which had just lighted upon the table, " I '11
shake you into a kitten, that I will ! "
CHAPTER X.
SHAKING.
She took her off the table as she spoke, and
shook her backwards and forwards with all her
might.
The Eed Queen made no resistance whatever ;
only her face grew very small, and her eyes
got large and green : and still, as Alice went
on shaking her, she kept on growing shorter
and fatter and softer and rounder
and
CHAPTER XL
WAKING.
-and it really was a kitten, after all.
CHAPTER XII.
WHICH DREAMED IT ?
"Your Bed Majesty shouldn't purr so loud/'
Alice said, rubbing her eyes, and addressing the
kitten, respectfully, yet with some severity.
" You woke me out of oh ! such a nice dream !
And you Ve been along with me, Kitty all
through the Looking-Glass world. Did you know
it, dear % "
It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens
(Alice had once made the remark) that, what-
ever you say to them, they always purr. " If
they would only purr for 'yes,' and mew for
'no/ or any rule of that sort," she had said,
WHICH DREAMED IT \ 219
"so that one could keep up a conversation! But
how can you talk with a person if they always
say the same thing ? "
On this occasion the kitten only purred :
and it was impossible to guess whether it meant
'yes' or 'no/
So Alice hunted among the chessmen on the
table till she had found the Eed Queen : then
she went down on her knees on the hearth-rug,
and put the kitten and the Queen to look at
each other. " Now, Kitty ! " she cried, clapping
her hands triumphantly. " Confess that was
what you turned into ! "
(" But it wouldn 't look at it," she said,
when she was explaining the thing afterwards to
her sister : "it turned away its head, and pre-
tended not to see it : but it looked a little
ashamed of itself, so I think it must have been
the Eed Queen.")
" Sit up a little more stiffly, dear ! " Alice
cried with a merry laugh. " And curtsey while
you're thinking what to what to purr. It
220
WHICH DREAMED IT ?
saves time, remember ! " And she caught it up
and gave it one little kiss, "just in honour of its
having been a Red Queen."
" Snowdrop, my pet ! " she went on, looking
over her shoulder at the White Kitten, which
was still patiently undergoing its toilet, " when
will Dinah have finished with your White Ma-
jesty, I wonder % That must be the reason you
WHICH DKEAMED IT? 221
were so untidy in my dream. Dinah ! Do
you know that you 're scrubbing a White Queen ?
Keally, it 's most disrespectful of you !
" And what did Dinah turn to, I wonder ? "
she prattled on, as she settled comfortably down,
with one elbow on the rug, and her chin in her
hand, to watch the kittens. "Tell me, Dinah,
did you turn to Humpty Dumpty 1 I think
you did however, you'd better not mention
it to your friends just yet, for I 'm not sure.
" By the way, Kitty, if only you 'd been
really with me in my dream, there was one
thing you ivould have enjoyed 1 had such
a quantity of poetry said to me, all about
fishes ! To-morrow morning you shall have a
real treat. All the time you 're eating your
breakfast, I '11 repeat ' The Walrus and the Car-
penter ' to you ; and then you can make believe
it 's oysters, dear !
"Now, Kitty, let's consider who it was that
dreamed it all. This is a serious question, my
dear, and you should not go on licking your
222 WHICH DREAMED IT ?
paw like that as if Dinah hadn't washed
you this morning ! You see, Kitty, it must
have been either me or the Eed King. He
was part of my dream, of course ^-but then
I was part of his dream, too ! Was it the Red
King, Kitty ? You were his wife, my dear,
so you ought to know Oh, Kitty, do help
to settle it ! T 'm sure your paw can wait ! "
But the provoking kitten only began on the
other paw, and pretended it hadn't heard the
question.
Which do you think it was ?
223
A boat, beneath a sunny sky.
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July
Children three that nestle near.
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear —
Long has paled that sunny sky :
Echoes fade and memories die :
Autumn frosts have slain July.
Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.
224
Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.
In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go hy,
Dreaming as the summers die
Ever drifting down the stream-
Lingering in the golden gleam-
Life, what is it hut a dream?
THE END.
[TURN OYER,
WORKS BY LEWIS CARROLL.
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