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.
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 little thing!' cried Alice, catching up the kitten, and giving it a 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 reproachfully 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 bonfire--and
it wants plenty of sticks, Kitty! Only it got so cold, and it snowed so, they 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 mischievous darling! What have you got to say for yourself? 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 that you say?'
(pretending that the kitten was speaking.) `Her paw went into your eye? Well, that's your 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!
Number 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 Wednesday 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? How nice and soft it sounds! 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? 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? 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 wiggling down among my
pieces. Kitty, dear, let's pretend--' 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, principally, 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 behind the fireplace. 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 our books to the glass, and then they hold up 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 you 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 there. And certainly the glass was beginning to melt away, just like a bright silvery mist.
In another moment Alice was through the 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 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'll 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 a 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 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 walking arm in
arm--I don't think they can hear me,' she went on, as she put her head closer down, `and I'm nearly sure they can't
see me. I feel somehow as if I were invisible--'
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.
`It 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, rubbing 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 herself into a fit, she
hastily picked up the Queen 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.
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 invisible hand, and being dusted: he 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 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 look 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
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 down 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.
It was like this.
YKCOWREBBAJ
sevot yhtils eht dna ,gillirb sawT`
;ebaw eht ni elbmig dna eryg diD
,sevogorob eht erew ysmim llA
.ebargtuo shtar emom eht dnA
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 brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
`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 uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
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.
`And has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! 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 understand!' (You see she
didn't like to confess, ever 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 haste I shall have to 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
of hers 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.
The Garden of Live Flowers
CHAPTER II
You can Listen to this chapter press play
`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, 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 afterwards), 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!'
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.
`O Tiger-lily,' said Alice, addressing herself 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 could not 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 Rose, `and I really was wondering when you'd speak! Said
I to myself, "Her face has got some sense in it, thought 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.'
Alice didn't like being criticised, so she began asking questions. `Aren't you sometimes frightened at being
planted out here, with nobody to take care of you?'
`There's the tree in the middle,' said the Rose: `what else is it good for?'<
`But what could it do, if any danger came?' Alice asked.
`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 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'll 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.
`It's my opinion that you never think at all,' the Rose 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!'
`Are there any more people in the garden besides me?' Alice said, not choosing to notice the Rose's last remark.
`There's one other flower in the garden that can move about like you,' said the Rose. `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 you,' the Rose 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 tumbled about anyhow,
like yours.'
`But that's not your fault,' the Rose 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 Rose. `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 Rose 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, thump, along the gravel-walk!'
Alice looked round eagerly, and found that it was the Red 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 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 Red
Queen, and full in sight of the hill she had been so long aiming at.
`Where do you come from?' said the Red Queen. `And where are you going? 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."'<
`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 be 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 interrupted, `I 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 can't be a valley, you know.
That would be nonsense--'
The Red 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: and they walked
on in silence till they got to the top of the little hill.
For some minutes Alice stood without speaking, 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 chessboard!' Alice said at last. `There ought 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! I wouldn't mind being a Pawn, if only 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 began 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 thinking it over afterwards, how it was that they began: all she remembers
is, that they were running 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 not
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 wind whistling in Alice's ears, and almost blowing her hair off her head, she fancied.
`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 suddenly, 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.'
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?'
`Well, in our country,' said Alice, still panting a little, `you'd generally get to somewhere 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. 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 all 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.
nbsp;
`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, I 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 then end of four, I shall say good-bye. And at then end of five, I shall go!'
She had got all the pegs put in by this time, and Alice looked on with great interest 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?'
`I--I didn't know I had to make one--just then,' Alice faltered out.
`You should have said,' `"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 again.
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 remember 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.
Looking-Glass Insects
CHAPTER III
You can Listen to this chapter press play
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 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 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 like my walk. I shall say--
"Oh, I like 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!"'
`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 everybody 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!'
`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-driver.' 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 I don't), `Better say nothing at all. Language is worth a thousand pounds a word!'
`I shall dream about a thousand pounds tonight, I know I shall!' thought Alice.
All this time the Guard was looking at her, first through a telescope, then through a microscope, 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!'
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 to 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 was obliged to leave off.
`It sounds like a horse,' Alice thought to herself. And an extremely small voice, close to her ear, said, `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!' 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.
But 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 impatiently. `I don't belong to this railway journey at all--I was in a
wood just now --and I wish I could get back there.'
`You might make a joke on that,' said the little voice close to her 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 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 off her thoughts from the unhappiness of the poor little creature.
`I know you are a friend, the little voice went on; `a dear friend, and an old friend. And you won't hurt me, though I am an insect.'
`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.
`What, 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 only a brook we have to
jump over.' Everybody seemed satisfied with this, though Alice 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 herself. 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 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 Icome 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 explained, `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 who 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.'
`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 swinging 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 up at the Rocking-horse-fly with great interest, and made up her mind that it must have 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'll 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?'
`Frumenty and mince pie,' the Gnat replied; `and it makes its nest in a Christmas box.'
`And then there's the Butterfly,' Alice went on, after she had taken a good look at the insect 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-Butterfly. 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?'
`Weak tea with cream in it.'
A new difficulty came into Alice's head. `Supposing 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?'
`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.'
`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 I 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 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 back,' 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'll 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 advertisements, 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 hot, to get into the--into what?'
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
much, and all she could say, after a great deal of puzzling, was, `L, Iknow 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 again.
`What do you call yourself?' the Fawn said at last. Such a soft sweet voice it had!
`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'll tell you, if you'll move a little further on,' the Fawn said. `I can't remember here.'
So they walked on together though 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--I 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.'
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'you 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 --
