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ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

RETOLD IN WORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE

By MRS. J. C. GORHAM

_FULLY ILLUSTRATED_

A. L. BURT COMPANYPUBLISHERS, NEW YORKCOPYRIGHT 1905

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CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

CHAPTER II. THE POOL OF TEARS

CHAPTER III. A RACE

CHAPTER IV. THE RABBIT SENDS IN A BILL

CHAPTER V. A CATERPILLAR TELLS ALICE WHAT TO DO

CHAPTER VI. PIG AND PEPPER

CHAPTER VII. A MAD TEA PARTY

CHAPTER VIII. THE QUEEN'S CROQUET GROUND

CHAPTER IX. THE MOCK TURTLE

CHAPTER X. THE LOBSTER DANCE

CHAPTER XI. WHO STOLE THE TARTS?

CHAPTER XII. ALICE ON THE STAND

CHAPTER I. 

DOWN THE RAB-BIT HOLE. 

Al-ice had sat on the bank by her sis-ter till she was tired. Once ortwice she had looked at the book her sis-ter held in her hand, but therewere no pict-ures in it, "and what is the use of a book, " thought Alice, "with-out pict-ures?" She asked her-self as well as she could, for thehot day made her feel quite dull, if it would be worth while to get upand pick some dai-sies to make a chain. Just then a white rab-bit withpink eyes ran close by her. 

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That was not such a strange thing, nor did Alice think it so much out ofthe way to hear the Rab-bit say, "Oh dear! Oh, dear! I shall be late!"But when the Rab-bit took a watch out of its pock-et, and looked at itand then ran on, Al-ice start-ed to her feet, for she knew that was thefirst time she had seen a Rab-bit with a watch. She jumped up and ran toget a look at it, and was just in time to see it pop down a largerab-bit hole near the hedge. 

As fast as she could go, Al-ice went down the hole af-ter it, and didnot once stop to think how in the world she was to get out. 

The hole went straight on for some way and then turned down with a sharpbend, so sharp that Al-ice had no time to think to stop till she foundher-self fall-ing in what seemed a deep well. 

She must not have moved fast, or the well must have been quite deep, forit took her a long time to go down, and as she went she had time to lookat the strange things she passed. First she tried to look down and makeout what was there, but it was too dark to see; then she looked at thesides of the well and saw that they were piled with book-shelves; hereand there she saw maps hung on pegs. She took down a jar from one of theshelves as she passed. On it was the word _Jam_, but there was no jam init, so she put it back on one of the shelves as she fell past it. 

"Well, " thought Al-ice to her-self, "af-ter such a fall as this, I shallnot mind a fall down stairs at all. How brave they'll all think me athome! Why, I wouldn't say a thing if I fell off the top of the house. "(Which I dare say was quite true. )

Down, down, down. Would the fall nev-er come to an end? "I should liketo know, " she said, "how far I have come by this time. Wouldn't it bestrange if I should fall right through the earth and come out where thefolks walk with their feet up and their heads down?"

Down, down, down. "Di-nah will miss me to-night, " Al-ice went on. (Di-nah was the cat. ) "I hope they'll think to give her her milk attea-time. Di-nah, my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There areno mice in the air, but you might catch a bat, and that's much like amouse, you know. But do cats eat bats?" And here Al-ice must have goneto sleep, for she dreamed that she walked hand in hand with Di-nah, andjust as she asked her, "Now, Di-nah, tell me the truth, do you eatbats?" all at once, thump! thump! down she came on a heap of sticks anddry leaves, and the long fall was o-ver. 

Al-ice was not a bit hurt, but at once jumped to her feet. She lookedup, but all was dark there. At the end of a long hall in front of herthe white rab-bit was still in sight. There was no time to be lost, sooff Al-ice went like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, "Oh, my ears, how late it is!" then it was out of sight. She found she was ina long hall with a low roof, from which hung a row of light-ed lamps. 

There were doors on all sides, but when Al-ice had been all round andtried each one, she found they were all locked. She walked back andforth and tried to think how she was to get out. At last she came to astand made all of glass. On it was a ti-ny key of gold, and Al-ice'sfirst thought was that this might be a key to one of the doors of thehall, but when she had tried the key in each lock, she found the lockswere too large or the key was too small--it did not fit one of them. Butwhen she went round the hall once more she came to a low cur-tain whichshe had not seen at first, and when she drew this back she found a smalldoor, not much more than a foot high; she tried the key in the lock, andto her great joy it fit-ted!

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Al-ice found that the door led to a hall the size of a rat hole; sheknelt down and looked through it in-to a gar-den of gay flow-ers. Howshe longed to get out of that dark hall and near those bright blooms;but she could not so much as get her head through the door; "and if myhead would go through, " thought Al-ice, "it would be of no use, for therest of me would still be too large to go through. Oh, how I wish Icould shut up small! I think I could if I knew how to start. "

There seemed to be no use to wait by the small door, so she went back tothe stand with the hope that she might find a key to one of the largedoors, or may-be a book of rules that would teach her to grow small. This time she found a small bot-tle on it ("which I am sure was not herejust now, " said Al-ice), and tied round the neck of the bot-tle was atag with the words "Drink me" printed on it. 

It was all right to say "Drink me, " but Al-ice was too wise to do thatin haste: "No, I'll look first, " she said, "and see if it's marked'poi-son' or not, " for she had been taught if you drink much from abot-tle marked 'poi-son, ' it is sure to make you sick. This had no suchmark on it, so she dared to taste it, and as she found it nice (it had, in fact, a taste of pie, ice-cream, roast fowl, and hot toast), she soondrank it off. 

"How strange I feel, " said Al-ice. "I am sure I am not so large as Iwas!"

And so it was; she was now not quite a foot high, and her face light-edup at the thought that she was now the right size to go through thesmall door and get out to that love-ly gar-den. 

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Poor Al-ice! When she reached the door she found that she had left thekey on the stand, and when she went back for it, she found she could byno means reach it. She could see it through the glass, and she tried herbest to climb one of the legs of the stand, but it was too sleek, andwhen she was quite tired out, she sat down and cried. 

"Come, there's no use to cry like that!" Al-ice said to her-self asstern as she could speak. "I tell you to leave off at once!"

Soon her eyes fell on a small glass box that lay on the floor. Shelooked in it and found a tiny cake on which were the words "Eat me, "marked in grapes. "Well, I'll eat it, " said Al-ice, "and if it makes megrow tall, I can reach the key, and if it makes me shrink up, I cancreep un-der the door; so I'll get out some way. "

So she set to work and soon ate all the cake. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE POOL OF TEARS. 

"How strange! Oh my!" said Al-ice, "how tall I am, and all at once, too!Good-by, feet. " (For when she looked down at her feet they seemed so faroff, she thought they would soon be out of sight. ) "Oh, my poor feet, who will put on your shoes for you now, dears? I'm sure I shan't do it. I shall be a great deal too far off to take care of you; you must get onthe best way you can; but I must be kind to them, " thought Al-ice, "orthey won't walk the way I want to go! Let me see: I'll give them a pairof new shoes each, Christ-mas. "

She stopped to think how she would send them. "They must go by themail, " she thought; "and how fun-ny it'll seem to send shoes to one'sown feet. How odd the ad-dress will look!

 AL-ICE'S RIGHT FOOT, ESQ. , Hearth-rug, Near the Fire. (With Al-ice's love. )

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Oh dear, there's no sense in all that. "

Just then her head struck the roof of the hall; in fact she was now morethan nine feet high, and she at once took up the small key and went backto the door. 

Poor Al-ice! It was as much as she could do, when she lay down on oneside, to look through to the gar-den with one eye: but to get throughwas not to be hoped for, so she sat down and had a good cry. 

"Shame on you, " said Al-ice, "a great big girl like you" (she might wellsay this) "to cry in this way! Stop at once, I tell you!" But she wenton all the same, and shed tears till there was a large pool all roundher, and which reached half way down the hall. 

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At last she heard the sound of feet not far off, then she dried her eyesin great haste to see who it was. It was the White Rab-bit that had comeback, dressed in fine clothes, with a pair of white kid gloves in onehand, and a large fan in the oth-er. He trot-ted on in great haste, andtalked to him-self as he came, "Oh! the Duch-ess, the Duch-ess! Oh!won't she be in a fine rage if I've made her wait?"

Al-ice felt so bad and so in need of help from some one, that when theRab-bit came near, she said in a low tim-id voice, "If you please, sir--" The Rab-bit started as if shot, dropped the white kid gloves andthe fan and ran off in-to the dark as fast as his two hind feet couldtake him. 

Al-ice took up the fan and gloves and as the hall was quite hot, shefanned her-self all the time she went on talk-ing. "Dear, dear! Howqueer all things are to-day! Could I have been changed in the night? Letme think: was I the same when I got up to-day? Seems to me I didn't feelquite the same. But if I'm not the same, then who in the world am I?"Then she thought of all the girls she knew that were of her age, to seeif she could have been changed for one of them. 

"I'm sure I'm not A-da, " she said, "for her hair is in such long curlsand mine doesn't curl at all; and I'm sure I can't be Ma-bel, for I knowall sorts of things, and she, oh! she knows such a lit-tle! Then, she'sshe, and I'm I, and--oh dear, how strange it all is! I'll try if I knowall the things I used to know. Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thir-teen, and four times sev-en is--oh dear! thatis not right. I must have been changed for Ma-bel! I'll try if I know'How doth the lit-tle--'" and she placed her hands on her lap, as ifshe were at school and tried to say it, but her voice was hoarse andstrange and the words did not come the same as they used to do. 

"I'm sure those are not the right words, " said poor Al-ice, and her eyesfilled with tears as she went on, "I must be Ma-bel af-ter all, and Ishall have to go and live in that po-ky house and have next to no toysto play with, and oh! such hard things to learn. No, I've made up mymind; if I'm Ma-bel, I'll stay down here! It'll be no use for them toput their heads down and say, 'Come up, dear!' I shall look up and say, 'Who am I, then? Tell me that first, and then if I like it, I'll comeup; if not, I'll stay down here till I'm some one else'--but, oh dear, "cried Al-ice with a fresh burst of tears, "I do wish they would put theirheads down! I am so tired of this place!"

As she said this she looked down at her hands and saw that she had puton one of the Rab-bit's white kid gloves while she was talk-ing. "Howcan I have done that?" she thought. "I must have grown small once more. "She got up and went to the glass stand to test her height by that, andfound that as well as she could guess she was now not more than two feethigh, and still shrink-ing quite fast. She soon found out that the causeof this, was the fan she held and she dropped it at once, or she mighthave shrunk to the size of a gnat. 

Al-ice was, at first, in a sad fright at the quick change, but glad thatit was no worse. "Now for the gar-den, " and she ran with all her speedback to the small door; but, oh dear! the door was shut, and the key layon the glass stand, "and things are worse than ev-er, " thought the poorchild, "for I nev-er was so small as this, nev-er! It's too bad, that itis!"

As she said these words her foot slipped, and splash! she was up to herchin in salt wa-ter. At first she thought she must be in the sea, butshe soon made out that she was in the pool of tears which she had weptwhen she was nine feet high. 

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"I wish I hadn't cried so much!" said Al-ice as she swam round and triedto find her way out. "I shall now be drowned in my own tears. That willbe a queer thing, to be sure! But all things are queer to-day. "

Just then she heard a splash in the pool a lit-tle way off, and she swamnear to make out what it was; at first she thought it must be a whale, but when she thought how small she was now, she soon made out that itwas a mouse that had slipped in the pond. 

"Would it be of an-y use now to speak to this mouse? All things are soout-of-way down here, I should think may-be it can talk, at leastthere's no harm to try. " So she said: "O Mouse, do you know the way outof this pool? I have swum here till I'm quite tired, O Mouse!" The Mouselooked at her and seemed to her to wink with one of its small eyes, butit did not speak. 

"It may be a French Mouse, " thought Al-ice, so she said: "Où est machatte?" (Where is my cat?) which was all the French she could think ofjust then. The Mouse gave a quick leap out of the wa-ter, and seemed ina great fright, "Oh, I beg your par-don, " cried Al-ice. "I quite for-gotyou didn't like cats. "

"Not like cats!" cried the Mouse in a shrill, harsh voice. "Would youlike cats if you were me?"

"Well, I guess not, " said Al-ice, "but please don't get mad. And yet Iwish I could show you our cat, Di-nah. I'm sure you'd like cats if youcould see her. She is such a dear thing, " Al-ice went on half toher-self as she swam round in the pool, "and she sits and purrs by thefire and licks her paws and wash-es her face--and she is such a nicesoft thing to nurse--and she's a fine one to catch mice--Oh, dear!"cried Al-ice, for this time the Mouse was in a great fright and eachhair stood on end. "We won't talk of her if you don't like it. "

"We talk!" cried the Mouse, who shook down to the end of his tail. "Asif _I_ would talk of such low, mean things as cats! All rats hate them. Don't let me hear the name a-gain!"

"I won't, " said Al-ice, in great haste to change the theme. "Are youfond--of--of dogs?" The mouse did not speak, so Al-ice went on: "Thereis such a nice dog near our house, I should like to show you! A ti-nybright-eyed dog, you know, with oh! such long cur-ly brown hair! Andit'll fetch things when you throw them, and it'll sit up and beg for itsmeat and do all sorts of things--I can't tell you half of them. And itkills all the rats, and m--oh dear!" cried Al-ice in a sad tone, "I'vemade it mad a-gain!" For the Mouse swam off from her as fast as it couldgo, and made quite a stir in the pool as it went. 

So she called it in a soft, kind voice, "Mouse dear! Do come back and wewon't talk of cats or dogs if you don't like them!" When the Mouse heardthis it turned round and swam back to her; its face was quite pale (withrage, Al-ice thought), and it said in a low, weak voice, "Let us get tothe shore, and then I'll tell you why it is I hate cats and dogs. "

It was high time to go, for the pool was by this time quite crowded withthe birds and beasts that had slipped in-to it. Al-ice led the way andthey all swam to the shore. 

CHAPTER III. 

A RACE. 

They were a queer look-ing crowd as they stood or sat on the bank--thewings and tails of the birds drooped to the earth; the fur of the beastsclung close to them, and all were as wet and cross as could be. 

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The first thought, of course, was how to get dry. They had a long talka-bout this, and Al-ice joined with, them as if she had known them allher life. But it was hard to tell what was best. 

"What I want to say, " at last spoke up the Do-do, "is that the bestthing to get us dry would be a race. "

"What kind of race?" asked Al-ice, not that she much want-ed to know, but the Do-do had paused as if it thought that some one ought to speak, and no one else would say a word. "Why, " said the Do-do, "the best wayto make it plain is to do it. " (And as you might like to try the thingsome cold day, I'll tell you how the Do-do did it. )

First it marked out a race-course in a sort of ring (it didn't care muchfor the shape), and then all the crowd were placed on the course, hereand there. There was no "One, two, three, and here we go, " but they ranwhen they liked and left off when they liked, so that no one could tellwhen the race was ended. When they had been running half an hour or soand were all quite dry, the Do-do called out, "The race is o-ver!" andthey all crow-ded round it and and asked, "But who has won?"

This the Do-do could not, at first, tell, but sat for a long time withone claw pressed to its head while the rest wait-ed, but did not speak. At last the Do-do said, "All have won and each must have a prize. "

"But who is to give them?" all asked at once. 

"Why, she of course, " said the Do-do, as it point-ed to Al-ice with onelong claw; and the whole par-ty at once crowd-ed round her as theycalled out, "A prize, a prize!"

Al-ice did not know what to do, but she pulled from her pock-et a box oflit-tle cakes (by a strange, good luck they did not get wet while shewas in the pool) and hand-ed them round as priz-es. There was onea-piece all round. 

"But she must have a prize, you know, " said the Mouse. 

"Of course, " the Do-do said. "What else have you got?" he went on as heturned to Al-ice. 

"A thim-ble, " said Al-ice looking quite sad. 

"Hand it here, " said the Do-do. 

Then they all crowd-ed round her once more, while the Do-do hand-ed thethim-ble back to Al-ice and said, "We beg that you accept this finethim-ble;" and when it had made this short speech they all cheered. 

Al-ice thought the whole thing quite fool-ish, but they all looked sograve that she did not dare to laugh, and as she could not think what tosay she bowed and took the thim-ble, while she looked as staid as shecould. 

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The next thing was to eat the cakes: this caused some noise, as thelarge birds said they could not taste theirs, and the small ones chokedand had to be pat-ted on the back. It was o-ver at last and they satdown in a ring and begged the Mouse to tell them a tale. 

"You said you would tell us why you hate cats and dogs, " said Al-ice. 

"Mine is a long and a sad tale, " said the Mouse, as it turned to Al-icewith a sigh. 

"It is a long tail, I'm sure, " said Al-ice, look-ing down at the Mouse'stail; "but why do you call it sad?"

"I shall not tell you, " said the Mouse, as it got up and walked off. 

"Please come back and tell us your tale, " called Al-ice; and all joinedin, "Yes, please do!" but the Mouse shook its head and walked on and wassoon out of sight. 

"I wish I had our Di-nah here, I know I do!" said Al-ice. "She'd soonfetch it back. "

"And who is Di-nah, if I may dare to ask such a thing?" said one of thebirds. 

Al-ice was glad to talk of her pet. "Di-nah's our cat; and she's such afine one to catch mice, you can't think. And oh, I wish you could seeher chase a bird! Why she'll eat a bird as soon as look at it!"

This speech caused a great stir in the par-ty. Some of the birds rushedoff at once; one old jay wrapped it-self up with care and said, "I mustget home; the night air doesn't suit my throat!" and a wren called outto her brood, "come, my dears! It's high time you were all in bed. "

Soon they all moved off and Al-ice was left a-lone. 

"I wish I hadn't told them of Di-nah, " she said to her-self. "No oneseems to like her down here, and I'm sure she's the best cat in theworld! Oh, my dear Di-nah! Shall I ev-er see you an-y more?" And herepoor Al-ice burst in-to tears, for she felt ver-y sad and lone-ly. In ashort time she heard the pat-ter of feet, and she looked up with thehope that the Mouse had changed its mind and come back to tell his "longand sad tale. "

CHAPTER IV. 

THE RAB-BIT SENDS IN A BILL. 

It was the White Rab-bit who trot-ted back a-gain. It looked from sideto side as it went as if it had lost some-thing; and Al-ice heard it sayto it-self, "The Duch-ess! The Duch-ess! Oh, my dear paws! She'll get myhead cut off as sure as rats are rats! Where can I have lost them!"Al-ice guessed at once that he was in search of the fan and the pair ofwhite kid gloves, and like the good girl that she was, she set out tohunt for them, but they were not to be found. All things seemed to havechanged since her swim in the pool; the great hall with the glass standand the lit-tle door--all were gone. Soon the Rab-bit saw Al-ice andcalled out to her, "Why, Ann, what are you out here for? Run home atonce, and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan! Quick, now!" And Al-icewas in such a fright that she ran off and did not wait to tell it whoshe was. 

"He took me for his house-maid, " she said to her-self as she ran. "Whatwill he think when he finds out who I am! But I must take him his fanand gloves--that is if I can find them. "

As she said this she came to a small neat house on the door of which wasa bright brass plate with the name W. Rab-bit on it. She ran up-stairsin great fear lest she should meet Ann and be turned out of the housebe-fore she had found the fan and gloves. 

"How queer it seems that I should do things for a Rab-bit! I guessDi-nah'll send me to wait on her next!"

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By this time she had made her way to a ti-dy room with a ta-ble near thewall, and on it, as she had hoped, a fan and two or three pairs of smallwhite kid gloves. She took up the fan and a pair of gloves, and turnedto leave the room, when her eye fell up-on a small bot-tle that stoodnear. There was no tag this time with the words "Drink me, " but Al-iceput it to her lips. "I know I am sure to change in some way, if I eat ordrink any-thing; so I'll just see what this does. I do hope it'll makeme grow large a-gain, for I'm quite tired of this size, " Al-ice said toher-self. 

It did as she had wished, for in a short time her head pressed the roofso hard she couldn't stand up straight. She put the bot-tle down inhaste and said, "That's as much as I need--I hope I shan't grow an-ymore--as it is, I can't get out at the door--I do wish I hadn't drunk somuch!"

But it was too late to wish that! She grew and grew, till she had tokneel down on the floor; next there was not room for this and she had tolie down. Still she grew and grew and grew till she had to put one armout the window and one foot up the chim-ney and said to her-self, "Now Ican do no more, let come what may. " There seemed no sort of chance thatshe could ev-er get out of the room. 

"I wish I was at home, " thought poor Al-ice, "where I wouldn't change somuch, and where I didn't have to do things for mice and rab-bits. I wishI hadn't gone down that rab-bit hole--and yet--and yet--it's queer, youknow, this sort of life! When I used to read fair-y tales, I thoughtthey were just made up by some one, and now here I am in one my-self. When I grow up I'll write a book a-bout these strange things--but I'mgrown up now, " she added in a sad tone, "at least there's no room togrow an-y more here. "

She heard a voice out-side and stopped to list-en. 

"Ann! Ann!" said the voice, "fetch me my gloves, quick!" Then came thesound of feet on the stairs. Al-ice knew it was the Rab-bit and that ithad come to look for her. She quaked with fear till she shook the house. Poor thing! She didn't think that she was now more than ten times aslarge as the Rab-bit, and that she had no cause to be a-fraid of it. 

Soon the Rab-bit came to the door and tried to come in, but Al-ice's armpressed it so hard the door would not move. Al-ice heard it say, "ThenI'll go round and get in at the win-dow. "

[Illustration:]

"That you won't!" thought Al-ice; then she wait-ed till she heard theRab-bit quite near the win-dow, then spread out her hand and made asnatch in the air. She did not get hold of it, but she heard a shriekand a fall. 

Next came an an-gry voice--the Rab-bit's--"Pat! Pat! Where are you?" Andthen a voice which was new to her, "Sure then, I'm here! Dig-ging forapples, yer hon-or!"

"Dig-ging for ap-ples, in-deed!" said the Rab-bit. "Here! Come and helpme out of this! Now, tell me, Pat, what's that in the win-dow?"

"Sure it's an arm, yer hon-or"

"An arm, you goose! Who-ever saw one that size? Why, it fills the wholewin-dow!"

"Sure it does, yer hon-or; but it's an arm for all that. "

"Well, it has no right there; go and take it out!"

For a long time they seemed to stand still, but now and then Al-icecould hear a few words in a low voice, such as, "Sure I don't like it, yer hon-or, at all, at all!"

"Do as I tell you, you cow-ard!" and at last she spread out her hand andmade a snatch in the air. This time there were two lit-tle shrieks. 

"I should like to know what they'll do next! As to their threats to pullme out, I on-ly wish they could. I'm sure I don't want to stay in here. "

She wait-ed for some time, but all was still; at last came the noise ofsmall cart wheels and the sound of voi-ces, from which she made out thewords, "Where's the oth-er lad-der? Why, I hadn't to bring but one;Bill's got the oth-er. Bill, fetch it here, lad! Here, put 'em up atthis place. No, tie 'em first--they don't reach half as high as theyshould yet--oh, they'll do. Here, Bill! catch hold of this rope--Willthe roof bear? Mind that loose slate--oh, here it comes! Look out. (Aloud crash. )--Now who did that? It was Bill, I guess--Who's to go downthe chim-ney? Nay, I shan't! You do it!--That I won't then!--Bill's gotto go down--Here, Bill, you've got to go down the chim-ney!"

"Oh, so Bill's got to come down, has he?" said Al-ice to her-self. "Why, they seem to put all the work on Bill. I wouldn't be in Bill's place fora good deal; this fire-place is small, to be sure, but I think I cankick some. "

She drew her foot as far down as she could, and wait-ed till she heard asmall beast (she couldn't guess of what sort it was) come scratch!scratch! down the chim-ney quite close to her; then she said toher-self: "This is Bill, " gave one sharp kick and wait-ed to see whatwould hap-pen next. 

[Illustration]

The first thing she heard was, "There goes Bill!" then the Rab-bit'svoice, "Catch him, you by the hedge!" Then all was still, then thevoices--"Hold up his head--Wine now--Don't choke him--How was it, oldfel-low? What sent you up so fast? Tell us all a-bout it!"

Last came a weak voice ("That's Bill, " thought Al-ice), "Well, I don'tknow--no more, thank'ye, I'm not so weak now--but I'm a deal too shockedto tell you--all I know is, a thing comes at me like a Jack-in-the-box, and up I goes like a rocket. "

"So you did, old fel-low, " said the oth-ers. 

"We must burn the house down, " said the Rab-bit's voice, and Al-icecalled out as loud as she could, "If you do, I'll set Di-nah at you!"

At once all was still as death, and Al-ice thought, "What will they donext? If they had an-y sense, they'd take the roof off. "

Then she heard the Rab-bit say, "One load will do to start with. "

"A load of what?" thought Al-ice, but she had not long to doubt, forsoon a show-er of small stones came in at the win-dow, and some of themhit her in the face. "I'll put a stop to this, " she said to her-self, and shout-ed out, "You stop that, at once!" A-gain all was still asdeath. 

Al-ice saw that the stones all changed to small cakes as they lay on thefloor, and a bright thought came to her. "If I eat one of these cakes, "she said, "it is sure to make some change in my size; and as it can'tmake me larg-er, I hope it will change me to the size I used to be. "

So she ate one of the cakes and was glad to see that she shrank quitefast. She was soon so small that she could get through the door, so sheran out of the house and found quite a crowd of beasts and birds in theyard. The poor liz-ard, Bill, was in the midst of the group, held up bytwo guin-ea pigs, who gave it some-thing to drink out of a bot-tle. Theyall made a rush at Al-ice, as soon as she came out, but she ran off ashard as she could, and was soon safe in a thick wood. 

"The first thing I've got to do, " said Al-ice to her-self, as she walkedround in the wood, "is to grow to my right size again; and the nextthing is to find my way to that love-ly gar-den. I think that will bethe best plan. "

It was a fine scheme, no doubt, and well planned, but the hard thing wasthat she did not in the least know how she should start to work it out;and while she peered round through the trees, a sharp bark just o-verher head made her look up in great haste. 

[Illustration]

A great pup-py looked down at her with large round eyes, stretched outone paw and tried to touch her. "Poor thing!" said Al-ice in a kind toneand tried hard to show it that she wished to be its friend, but she wasin a sore fright, lest it should eat her up. 

Al-ice could not think what to do next, so she picked up a bit of stickand held it out to the pup-py. It jumped from the tree with a yelp ofjoy as if to play with it; then Al-ice dodged round a large plant thatstood near, but the pup-py soon found her and made a rush at the sticka-gain, but tum-bled head o-ver heels in its haste to get hold of it. Al-ice felt that it was quite like a game with a cart horse, and lookedat each turn to be crushed 'neath its great feet. At last, to her joy, it seemed to grow tired of the sport and ran a good way off and sat downwith its tongue out of its mouth and its big eyes half shut. 

This seemed to Al-ice a good time to get out of its sight, so she setout at once and ran till she was quite tired and out of breath, and tillthe pup-py's bark sound-ed quite faint. 

[Illustration]

"And yet what a dear pup-py it was, " said Al-ice, as she stopped to restand fanned her-self with a leaf: "I should have liked so much to teachit tricks, if--if I'd been the right size to do it! Oh dear! I've got togrow up a-gain! Let me see--how am I to do it? I guess I ought to eat ordrink some-thing, but I don't know what!"

Al-ice looked all round her at the blades of grass, the blooms, theleaves, but could not see a thing that looked like the right thing toeat or drink to make her grow. 

There was a large mush-room near her, a-bout the same height as she was, and when she had looked all round it, she thought she might as well lookand see what was on the top of it. She stretched up as tall as shecould, and her eyes met those of a large blue cat-er-pil-lar that sat onthe top with its arms fold-ed, smok-ing a queer pipe with a long stemthat bent and curved round it like a hoop. 

CHAPTER V. 

A CAT-ER-PIL-LAR TELLS ALICE WHAT TO DO. 

The Cat-er-pil-lar looked at Al-ice, and she stared at it, but did notspeak. At last, it took the pipe from its mouth and said, "Who are you?"Al-ice said, "I'm not sure, sir, who I am just now--I know who I waswhen I left home, but I think I have been changed two or three timessince then. "

"What do you mean by that?" asked the Cat-er-pil-lar. 

"I fear I can't tell you, for I'm sure I don't know, my-self; but tochange so man-y times all in one day, makes one's head swim. "

"It doesn't, " said the Cat-er-pil-lar. 

"Well, may-be you haven't found it so yet, " said Al-ice, "but when youhave to change--you will some day, you know--I should think you'd feelit queer, won't you?"

"Not a bit, " said the Cat-er-pil-lar. 

"Well, you may not feel as I do, " said Al-ice; "all I know is, it feelsqueer to me to change so much. "

"You!" said the Cat-er-pil-lar with its nose in the air. "Who are you?"

Which brought them back to the point from which they start-ed. Al-icewas not pleased at this, so she said in as stern a voice as she could, "I think you ought to tell me who you are first. "

"Why?" said the Cat-er-pil-lar. 

As Al-ice could not think what to say to this and as it did not seem towant to talk, she turned a-way. 

"Come back!" said the Cat-er-pil-lar. "I have some-thing to say to you!"

Al-ice turned and came back. 

"Keep your tem-per, " said the Cat-er-pil-lar. 

"Is that all?" asked Al-ice, while she hid her an-ger as well as shecould. 

"No, " said the Cat-er-pil-lar. 

Al-ice wait-ed what seemed to her a long time, while it sat and smokedbut did not speak. At last, it took the pipe from its mouth, and said, "So you think you're changed, do you?"

"I fear I am, sir, " said Al-ice, "I don't know things as I once did--andI don't keep the same size, but a short while at a time. "

"What things is it you don't know?"

"Well, I've tried to say the things I knew at school, but the words allcame wrong. "

"Let me hear you say, 'You are old, Fath-er Wil-liam, '" said theCat-er-pil-lar. 

Al-ice folded her hands, and be-gan:--

[Illustration]

 "'You are old, Fath-er Wil-liam, ' the young man said, 'And your hair has be-come ver-y white, And yet you stand all the time on your head-- Do you think, at your age, it is right?'

 "'In my youth, ' Fath-er Wil-liam then said to his son, 'I feared it might in-jure the brain; But now that I know full well I have none, Why, I do it a-gain and a-gain. '

 "'You are old, ' said the youth, 'shall I tell you once more? And are now quite as large as a tun; Yet you turned a back som-er-set in at the door-- Pray, tell me now, how was that done?'

 [Illustration]

 "'In my youth, ' said the sage, as he shook his gray locks. I kept all my limbs ver-y sup-ple By the use of this oint-ment--one shil-ling the box-- Al-low me to sell you a coup-le. '

 "'You are old, ' said the youth, and your jaws are too weak For an-y thing tough-er than su-et; Yet you ate up the goose, with the bones and the beak: Pray, how did you man-age to do it?'

 [Illustration]

 "'In my youth, ' said his fath-er, 'I took to the law And ar-gued each case with my wife; And the ver-y great strength, which it gave to my jaw, Has last-ed the rest of my life. '

 "'You are old, ' said the youth; 'one would hard-ly sup-pose That your eye was as stead-y as ev-er; Yet you bal-ance an eel on the end of your nose-- What makes you al-ways so clev-er?'

 [Illustration]

 "'I have re-plied to three ques-tions, and that is e-nough, ' Said the fath-er; 'don't give your-self airs! Do you think I can lis-ten all day to such stuff? Be off, or I'll kick you down-stairs!'"

"That is not said right, " said the Cat-er-pil-lar. 

"Not quite right, I fear, " said Al-ice, "some of the words arechanged. "

"It is wrong from first to last, " said the Cat-er-pil-lar; then did notspeak for some time. At last it said, "What size do you want to be?"

"Oh, I don't care so much as to size, but one does'nt like to change somuch, you know. "

"I don't know, " it said. 

Al-ice was too much vexed to speak, for she had nev-er, in all her life, been talked to in that rude way. 

"Do you like your size now?" asked the Cat-er-pil-lar. 

"Well, I'm not quite so large as I would like to be, " said Al-ice;"three inch-es is such a wretch-ed height to be. "

"It is a good height, in-deed!" said the Cat-er-pil-lar, and rearedit-self up straight as it spoke. (It was just three inch-es high. )

"But I'm not used to it!" plead-ed poor Al-ice. And she thought, "I wishthe things wouldn't be so ea-sy to get mad!"

"You'll get used to it in time, " the Cat-er-pil-lar said, and put thepipe to its mouth, and Al-ice wait-ed till it should choose to speak. Atlast it took the pipe from its mouth, yawned once or twice, then gotdown from its perch and crawled off in the grass. As it went it said, "One side will make you tall, and one side will make you small. 

"One side of what?" thought Al-ice to her-self. 

"Of the mush-room, " said the Cat-er-pil-lar, just as if it had heard herspeak; soon it was out of sight. 

Al-ice stood and looked at the mush-room a long time and tried to makeout which were the two sides of it; as it was round she found this ahard thing to do. At last she stretched her arms round it as far as theywould go, and broke off a bit of the edge with each hand. 

"And now which is which?" she said to her-self, and ate a small piece ofthe right-hand bit, to try what it would do. The next mo-ment she felther chin strike her foot with a hard blow. 

She was in a sore fright at this quick change, but she felt that therewas no time to be lost as she was shrink-ing so fast; so she set to workat once to eat some from the left hand bit. 

 * * * * *

"Come, my head's free at last!" said Al-ice, with great joy, whichchanged to fear when she found that her waist and hands were no-where tobe seen. All she could see when she looked down was a vast length ofneck, which seemed to rise like a stalk out of a sea of green leavesthat lay far be-low her. 

"What can all that green stuff be?" said Al-ice. "And where has my waistgot to? And oh, my poor hands, how is it I can't see you?" She movedthem as she spoke; the green leaves shook as if to let her know herhands were there, but she could not see them. 

As there seemed to be no chance to get her hands up to her head, shetried to get her head down to them and was pleased to find that her neckwould bend a-bout like a snake. Just as she had curved it down and meantto dive in the sea of green, which she found was the tops of the trees'neath which she had been walk-ing, a sharp hiss made her draw back inhaste. A large bird had flown in-to her face, and struck her with itswings. 

"Snake! snake!" screamed the bird. 

"I'm not a snake, " said Al-ice. "Let me a-lone!"

"Snake, I say, Snake!" cried the bird, then add-ed with a kind of sob, "I've tried all ways, but I can-not suit them. "

"I don't know what you mean, " said Al-ice. 

The bird seemed not to hear her, but went on, "I've tried the roots oftrees, and I've tried banks, and I've tried a hedge; but those snakes!There's no way to please them. As if it were not hard work to hatch theeggs, but I must watch for snakes night and day! Why I haven't had awink of sleep these three weeks!"

"It's too bad for you to be so much put out, " said Al-ice, who be-gan tosee what it meant. 

"And just as I had built my nest in this high tree, " the bird went on, rais-ing its voice to a shriek, "and just as I thought I should be freeof them at last, they must needs fall down from the sky! Ugh! Snake!"

"But I'm not a snake, I tell you!" said Al-ice. "I'm a--I'm a--"

"Well! What are you?" said the bird. "I can see you will not tell me thetruth!"

"I--I'm a lit-tle girl, " said Al-ice, though she was not sure what shewas when she thought of all the chang-es she had gone through that day. 

"I've seen girls in my time, but none with such a neck as that!" saidthe bird. "No! no! You're a snake; and there's no use to say you're not. I guess you'll say next that you don't eat eggs!"

"Of course I eat eggs, " said Al-ice, "but girls eat eggs quite as muchas snakes do, you know. "

"I don't know, " said the bird, "but if they do, why then they're a kindof snake, that's all I can say. "

This was such a new thing to Al-ice that at first, she did not speak, which gave the bird a chance to add, "You want eggs now, I know thatquite well. "

"But I don't want eggs, and if I did I should-n't want yours. I don'tlike them raw. "

"Well, be off, then!" said the bird as it sat down in its nest. 

Al-ice crouched down through the trees as well as she could, for herneck would twist round the boughs, and now and then she had to stop toget it off. At last, she thought of the mush-room in her hands, and setto work with great care, to take a small bite first from the right hand, then from the left, till at length she brought her-self down to theright size. 

It was so long since she had been this height, that it felt quitestrange, at first, but she soon got used to it. 

"Come, there's half my plan done now!" she said. "How strange all thesethings are! I'm not sure one hour, what I shall be the next! I'm gladI'm back to my right size: the next thing is, to get in-to thatgar-den--how is that to be done, I should like to know?" As she saidthis, she saw in front of her, a small house, not more than four feethigh. "Who lives there?" thought Al-ice, "it'll not do at all to comeup-on them this size: why I should scare them out of their wits!"

So she ate some of the right hand bit, a-gain and did not dare to gonear the house till she had brought her-self down to nine inch-es high. 

CHAPTER VI. 

PIG AND PEP-PER. 

For a while Al-ice stood and looked at the house and tried to think whatto do next, when a foot-man ran out of the wood (from the way he wasdressed, she took him to be a foot-man; though if she had judged by hisface she would have called him a fish) and knocked at the door with hisfist. A foot-man with a round face and large eyes, came to the door. Al-ice want-ed to know what it all meant, so she crept a short way outof the wood to hear what they said. 

[Illustration]

The Fish-Foot-man took from un-der his arm a great let-ter and hand-edit to the oth-er and said in a grave tone "For the Duch-ess; from theQueen. " The Frog-Foot-man said in the same grave tone, "From the Queen, for the Duch-ess. " Then they both bowed so low that their heads touchedeach oth-er. 

All this made Al-ice laugh so much that she had to run back to the woodfor fear they would hear her, and when she next peeped out theFish-Foot-man was gone, and the oth-er sat on the ground near the doorand stared up at the sky. 

Al-ice went up to the door and knocked. 

"There's no sort of use for you to knock, " said the Foot-man, "I'm onthe same side of the door that you are, and there is so much noise inthe room that no one could hear you. " There was, in-deed, a great noisein the house--a howl-ing and sneez-ing, with now and then a great crash, as if a dish or a pot had been bro-ken to piec-es. 

"Please, then, " said Al-ice, "how am I to get in?"

"There might be some sense in your knock-ing, " the Foot-man went on, "ifwe were not both on the same side of the door. If you were in the room, you might knock and I could let you out, you know. " He looked up at thesky all the time he was speak-ing, which Al-ice thought was quite rude. "But per-haps he can't help it, " she thought, "his eyes are so near thetop of his head. Still he might tell me what I ask him--How am I to getin?" she asked. 

"I shall sit here, " the Foot-man said, "till to-mor-row--"

Just then the door of the house flew o-pen and a large plate skimmed outstraight at his head; it just grazed his nose and broke on one of thetrees near him. "--or next day, may-be, " he went on in the same tone asif he had not seen the plate. 

[Illustration]

"How am I to get in?" Al-ice asked as loud as she could speak. 

"Are you to get in at all?" he said. "That's the first thing, you know. "

It was, no doubt; but Al-ice didn't like to be told so. 

The Foot-man seemed to think this a good time to say a-gain, "I shallsit here on and off, for days and days. "

"But what am I to do?" said Al-ice. 

"Do what you like, " he said. 

"Oh, there's no use to try to talk to him, " said Al-ice; "he has nosense at all. " And she o-pened the door and went in. 

The door led right in-to a large room that was full of smoke from end toend: the Duch-ess sat on a stool and held a child in her arms; the cookstood near the fire and stirred a large pot which seemed to be full ofsoup. 

"There's too much pep-per in that soup!" Al-ice said to her-self as wellas she could for sneez-ing. There was too much of it in the air, for theDuch-ess sneezed now and then; and as for the child, it sneezed andhowled all the time. 

A large cat sat on the hearth grin-ning from ear to ear. 

"Please, would you tell me, " said Al-ice, not quite sure that it wasright for her to speak first, "why your cat grins like that?"

"It's a Che-shire cat, " said the Duch-ess, "and that's why. Pig!"

She said the last word so loud that Al-ice jumped; but she soon saw thatthe Duch-ess spoke to the child and not to her, so she went on:

"I didn't know that Che-shire cats grinned; in fact, I didn't know thatcats could grin. "

"They all can, " said the Duch-ess; "and most of 'em do. "

"I don't know of an-y that do, " Al-ice said, quite pleased to have someone to talk with. 

"You don't know much, " said the Duch-ess; "and that's a fact. "

Al-ice did not at all like the tone in which this was said, and thoughtit would be as well to speak of some-thing else. While she tried tothink of what to say, the cook took the pot from the fire, and at onceset to work throw-ing things at the Duch-ess and the child--the tongscame first, then pots, pans, plates and cups flew thick and fast throughthe air. The Duch-ess did not seem to see them, e-ven when they hit her;and the child had howled so loud all the while, that one could not tellif the blows hurt it or not. 

"Oh, please mind what you do!" cried Al-ice, as she jumped up and downin great fear, lest she should be struck. 

"Hold your tongue, " said the Duch-ess; then she be-gan a sort of song tothe child, giv-ing it a hard shake at the end of each line. 

At the end of the song she threw the child at Al-ice and said, "Here, you may nurse it a bit if you like; I must go and get read-y to playcro-quet with the Queen, " and she left the room in great haste. The cookthrew a pan after her as she went, but it just missed her. 

Al-ice caught the child, which held out its arms and legs on all sides, "just like a star-fish, " Al-ice thought. The poor thing snort-ed like asteam en-gine when she caught it, and turned a-bout so much, it was asmuch as she could do at first to hold it. 

As soon as she found out the right way to nurse it, (which was to twistit up in a sort of knot, then keep tight hold of its right ear and leftfoot), she took it out in the fresh air. "If I don't take this childwith me, " thought Al-ice, "they're sure to kill it in a day or two;wouldn't it be wrong to leave it here?" She said the last words outloud, and the child grunt-ed (it had left off sneez-ing by this time). "Don't grunt, " said Al-ice, "that is not at all the right way to do. "

The child grunt-ed a-gain and Al-ice looked at its face to see what waswrong with it. There could be no doubt that it had a turn-up nose, muchmore like a snout than a child's nose. Its eyes were quite small too; infact she did not like the look of the thing at all. 

[Illustration]

"Per-haps that was not a grunt, but a sob, " and she looked to see ifthere were tears in its eyes. 

No, there were no tears. "If you're go-ing to turn in-to a pig, mydear, " said Al-ice, "I'll have no more to do with you. Mind now!" Thepoor thing sobbed once more (or grunted, Al-ice couldn't say which). 

"Now, what am I to do with this thing when I get it home?" thoughtAl-ice. Just then it grunt-ed so loud that she looked down at its facewith some fear. This time there could be no doubt a-bout it--it was apig!

So she set it down, and felt glad to see it trot off in-to the wood. 

As she turned to walk on, she saw the Che-shire Cat on the bough of atree a few yards off. The Cat grinned when it saw Al-ice. It looked likea good cat, she thought; still it had long claws and large teeth, so shefelt she ought to be kind to it. 

[Illustration]

"Puss, " said Al-ice, "would you please tell me which way I ought to walkfrom here?"

"That de-pends a good deal on where you want to go to, " said the Cat. 

"I don't much care where--" said Al-ice. 

"Then you need not care which way you walk, " said the Cat. 

"--so long as I get somewhere, " Al-ice add-ed. 

"Oh, you're sure to do that if you don't stop, " said the Cat. 

Al-ice knew that this was true, so she asked: "What sort of peo-ple livenear here?"

"In that way, " said the Cat, with a wave of its right paw, "lives aHat-ter; and in that way, " with a wave of its left paw, "lives a MarchHare. Go to see the one you like; they're both mad. "

"But I don't want to go where mad folks live, " said Al-ice. 

[Illustration]

"Oh, you can't help that, " said the Cat, "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad. "

"How do you know I'm mad!" asked Al-ice. 

"You must be, " said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here. "

Al-ice didn't think that proved it at all, but she went on; "and how doyou know that you are mad?"

"First, " said the Cat, "a dog's not mad. You grant that?"

"Yes. "

"Well, then, " the Cat went on, "you know a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, andwag my tail when I'm an-gry. So you see, I'm mad. "

"I say the cat purrs; I do not call it a growl, " said Al-ice. 

"Call it what you like, " said the Cat. "Do you play cro-quet with theQueen to-day?"

"I should like it, but I haven't been asked yet, " said Al-ice. 

"You'll see me there, " said the Cat, then fa-ded out of sight. 

Al-ice did not think this so queer as she was now used to strangethings. While she still looked at the place where it had been, it cameback a-gain, all at once. 

"By-the-by, what be-came of the child?" it asked. 

"It turned in-to a pig, " Al-ice said. 

"I thought it would, " said the Cat, then once more fa-ded out of sight. 

Al-ice wait-ed a while to see if it would come back, then walked on inthe way in which the March Hare was said to live. 

"I've seen Hat-ters, " she said to her-self; "so I'll go to see the MarchHare. " As she said this, she looked up, and there sat the Cat on abranch of a tree. 

"Did you say pig, or fig?" asked the Cat. 

"I said pig; and I wish you wouldn't come and go, all at once, like youdo; you make one quite gid-dy. "

"All right, " said the Cat; and this time it faded out in such a way thatits tail went first, and the last thing Al-ice saw was the grin whichstayed some time af-ter the rest of it had gone. 

"Well, I've seen a cat with-out a grin, " thought Al-ice; "but a grinwith-out a cat! It's the strang-est thing I ev-er saw in all my life!"

She soon came in sight of the house of the March Hare; she thought itmust be the right place, as the chim-neys were shaped like ears, and theroof was thatched with fur. It was so large a house, that she did notlike to go too near while she was so small; so she ate a small piecefrom the left-hand bit of mush-room, and raised her-self to two feethigh. Then she walked up to the house, though with some fear lest itshould be mad as the Cat had said. 

CHAPTER VII. 

A MAD TEA-PARTY. 

There was a ta-ble set out, in the shade of the trees in front of thehouse, and the March Hare and the Hat-ter were at tea; a Dor-mouse satbe-tween them, but it seemed to have gone to sleep. 

The ta-ble was a long one, but the three were all crowd-ed at onecor-ner of it. "No room! No room!" they cried out as soon as they sawAl-ice. "There's plen-ty of room, " she said, and sat down in a largearm-chair at one end of the table. 

"Have some wine, " the March Hare said in a kind tone. 

Al-ice looked all round the ta-ble, but there was not a thing on it buttea. "I don't see the wine, " she said. 

"There isn't an-y, " said the March Hare. 

"Then it wasn't po-lite of you to ask me to have wine, " said Al-ice. 

"It wasn't po-lite of you to sit down when no one had asked you to havea seat, " said the March Hare. 

"I didn't know it was your ta-ble, " said Al-ice; "it's laid for morethan three. "

"Your hair wants cut-ting, " said the Hat-ter. He had looked hard atAl-ice for some time, and this was his first speech. 

"You should learn not to speak to a guest like that, " said Al-ice; "itis ve-ry rude. "

The Hat-ter stretched his eyes quite wide at this; but all he said was, "Why is a rav-en like a desk?"

[Illustration]

"Come, we shall have some fun now, " thought Al-ice. "I think I can guessthat, " she added out loud. 

"Do you mean that you think you can find out the an-swer to it?" askedthe March Hare. 

"I do, " said Al-ice. 

"Then you should say what you mean, " the March Hare went on. 

"I do, " Al-ice said; "at least--at least I mean what I say--that's thesame thing, you know. "

"Not the same thing a bit!" said the Hat-ter. "Why, you might just aswell say, 'I see what I eat' is the same thing as 'I eat what I see'!"

"You might just as well say, " added the March Hare, that 'I like what Iget' is the same thing as 'I get what I like'!"

"You might just as well say, " added the Dor-mouse, who seemed to betalk-ing in his sleep, "that 'I breathe when I sleep' is the same thingas 'I sleep when I breathe'!"

"It is the same with you, " said the Hat-ter. 

No one spoke for some time, while Al-ice tried to think of all she knewof rav-ens and desks, which wasn't much. 

The Hat-ter was the first to speak. "What day of the month is it?" hesaid, turn-ing to Al-ice. He had his watch in his hand, looked at it andshook it now and then while he held it to his ear. 

Al-ice thought a-while, and said, "The fourth. "

"Two days wrong!" sighed the Hat-ter. "I told you but-ter wouldn't suitthis watch, " he add-ed with a scowl as he looked at the March Hare. 

"It was the best but-ter, " the March Hare said. 

"Yes, but some crumbs must have got in, " the Hat-ter growled; "youshouldn't have put it in with the bread-knife. "

The March Hare took the watch and looked at it; then dipped it in-to hiscup of tea and looked at it a-gain; but all he could think to say was, "it was the best but-ter, you know. "

"Oh, what a fun-ny watch!" said Al-ice. "It tells the day of the monthand doesn't tell what o'clock it is!"

"Why should it?" growled the Hat-ter. 

"Does your watch tell what year it is?"

"Of course not, " said Al-ice, "but there's no need that it should, sinceit stays the same year such a long time. "

"Which is just the case with mine, " said the Hat-ter; which seemed toAl-ice to have no sense in it at all. 

"I don't quite know what you mean, " she said. 

"The Dor-mouse has gone to sleep, once more, " said the Hat-ter, and hepoured some hot tea on the tip of its nose. 

The Dor-mouse shook its head, and said with its eyes still closed, "Ofcourse, of course; just what I want-ed to say my-self. "

"Have you guessed the rid-dle yet?" the Hat-ter asked, turn-ing toAl-ice. 

"No, I give it up, " she said. "What's the an-swer?"

"I do not know at all, " said the Hat-ter. 

"Nor I, " said the March Hare. 

Al-ice sighed. "I think you might do bet-ter with the time than to wasteit, by ask-ing rid-dles that have no an-swers. "

"If you knew Time as well as I do, you wouldn't say 'waste _it_. ' It's_him_. "

"I don't know what you mean, " Al-ice said. 

"Of course you don't!" said the Hat-ter with a toss of his head. "I daresay you nev-er e-ven spoke to Time. "

"May-be not, " she said, "but I know I have to beat time when I learn tosing. "

"Oh! that's it, " said the Hat-ter. "He won't stand beat-ing. Now if youkept on good terms with him, he would do an-y-thing you liked with theclock. Say it was nine o'clock, just time to go to school; you'd havebut to give a hint to Time, and round goes the clock! Half-past one, time for lunch. "

"I wish it was, " the March Hare said to it-self. 

[Illustration]

"That would be grand, I'm sure, " said Al-ice: "but then--I shouldn't behun-gry for it, you know. "

"Not at first, per-haps, but you could keep it to half-past one as longas you liked, " said the Hat-ter. 

"Is that the way you do?" asked Al-ice. 

The Hat-ter shook his head and sighed. "Not I, " he said. "Time and Ifell out last March. It was at the great con-cert giv-en by the Queen ofHearts and I had to sing:

 'Twin-kle, twin-kle, lit-tle bat! How I wonder what you're at!'

You know the song, per-haps?"

"I've heard some-thing like it, " said Alice. 

"It goes on, you know, " the Hat-ter said, "in this way:

 'Up a-bove the world you fly, Like a tea-tray in the sky, Twin-kle, twin-kle----'"

Here the Dor-mouse shook it-self and sang in its sleep, "twin-kle, twin-kle, twin-kle, twin-kle----" and went on so long that they had topinch it to make it stop. 

"Well, while I sang the first verse, " the Hat-ter went on, "the Queenbawled out 'See how he mur-ders the time! Off with his head!' And ev-ersince that, he won't do a thing I ask! It's al-ways six o'clock now. "

A bright thought came in-to Al-ice's head. "Is that why so man-y teathings are put out here?" she asked. 

"Yes, that's it, " said the Hat-ter with a sigh: "it's al-ways tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things. "

"Then you keep mov-ing round, I guess, " said Al-ice. 

"Just so, " said the Hat-ter; "as the things get used up. "

"But when you come to the place where you started, what do you do then?"Al-ice dared to ask. 

"I'm tired of this, " yawned the March Hare. "I vote you tell us a tale. "

"_I_ fear I don't know one, " said Al-ice. 

"I want a clean cup, " spoke up the Hat-ter. 

He moved on as he spoke, and the Dor-mouse moved in-to his place; theMarch Hare moved in-to the Dor-mouse's place and Al-ice, none too wellpleased, took the place of the March Hare. The Hat-ter was the on-ly oneto get an-y good from the change; and Al-ice was a good deal worse off, as the March Hare had up-set the milk-jug in-to his plate. 

"Now, for your sto-ry, " the March Hare said to Al-ice. 

"I'm sure I don't know, "--Alice be-gan, "I--I don't think--"

"Then you shouldn't talk, " said the Hat-ter. 

[Illustration]

This was more than Al-ice could stand; so she got up and walked off, andthough she looked back once or twice and half hoped they would callaf-ter her, they didn't seem to know that she was gone. The last timeshe saw them, they were trying to put the poor Dor-mouse head firstin-to the tea-pot. 

"Well, I'll not go there a-gain, " said Al-ice as she picked her waythrough the wood. "It's the dull-est tea-par-ty I was ev-er at in all mylife. "

As Al-ice said this, she saw that one of the trees had a door that ledright in-to it. "That's strange!" she thought; "but I haven't seen athing to-day that isn't strange. I think I may as well go in at once. "And in she went. 

Once more she found her-self in a long hall, and close to the lit-tleglass stand. She took up the lit-tle key and un-locked the door that ledto the gar-den. Then she set to work to eat some of the mush-room whichshe still had with her. When she was a-bout a foot high, she wentthrough the door and walked down the lit-tle hall; _then_--she foundherself, at last, in the love-ly garden, where she had seen the brightblooms and the cool foun-tains. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE QUEEN'S CRO-QUET GROUND. 

A large rose tree stood near the gar-den gate. The blooms on it werewhite, but three men who seemed to be in great haste were paint-ing themred. Al-ice thought this a strange thing to do, so she went near-er towatch them. Just as she came up to them, she heard one of them say, "Look out now, Five! Don't splash paint on me like that!"

"I couldn't help it, " said Five, "Six knocked my arm. "

On which Six looked up and said, "That's right, Five! Don't fail to laythe blame on some one else. "

"You needn't talk, " said Five. "I heard the Queen say your head mustcome off. "

"What for?" asked the one who spoke first. 

"What is that to you, Two?" said Six. 

"It is much to him and I'll tell him, " said Five. "He brought the cooktu-lip roots for on-ions. "

Six flung down the brush and said, "Well, of all the wrong things--"Just then his eyes chanced to fall on Al-ice, who stood and watchedthem, and he checked him-self at once; Five and Two looked round al-so, and all of them bowed low. 

"Would you tell me, please, " said Al-ice, "why you paint those ros-es?"

Five and Six did not speak, but looked at Two, who said in a low voice, "Why, the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to have been a redrose tree, and by mis-take a white one was put in, and if the Queen wasto find it out, we should all have our heads cut off, you know. So yousee, Miss, we are hard at work to get it paint-ed, so that she maynot--" Just then Five, who had stood and watched the gate for some time, called out, "The Queen! the Queen!" and the three men at once threwthem-selves flat up-on their fa-ces. Al-ice heard the tramp of feet andlooked round, glad if at last she could see the Queen. 

[Illustration]

First came ten sol-diers with clubs; these were all shaped like thethree men at the rose tree, long and flat like cards, with their handsand feet at the cor-ners; next came ten men who were trimmed withdi-a-monds and walked two and two like the sol-diers. The ten chil-drenof the King and Queen came next; and the little dears came with a skipand a jump hand in hand by twos. They were trimmed with hearts. 

Next came the guests, most of whom were Kings and Queens. Al-ice sawthe White Rab-bit, with them. He did not seem at ease though he smiledat all that was said. He didn't see Al-ice as he went by. Then came theKnave of Hearts with the King's crown on a red vel-vet cush-ion; andlast of all came The King and Queen of Hearts. 

[Illustration]

At first Al-ice thought it might be right for her to lie down on herface like the three men at the rose tree, "but what would be the use ofsuch a fine show, " she thought, "if all had to lie down so that theycouldn't see it?" So she stood where she was and wait-ed. 

When they came to where she stood, they all stopped and looked at her, and the Queen said in a stern voice, "Who is this?" She spoke to theKnave of Hearts, who bowed and smiled but did not speak. 

"Fool!" said the Queen with a toss of her head; then she turned toAl-ice and asked, "What's your name, child?"

"My name is Al-ice, so please your ma-jes-ty, " said Al-ice, but shethought to her-self, "Why they're a mere pack of cards. I need have nofears of them. "

"And who are these?" asked the Queen, as she point-ed to the three menwho still lay round the rose tree; for you see as they all lay on theirfaces and their backs were the same as the rest of the pack, she couldnot tell who they were. 

"How should I know?" said Al-ice, and thought it strange that she shouldspeak to a Queen in that way. 

The Queen turned red with rage, glared at her for a mo-ment like a wildbeast, then screamed, "Off with her head! Off--"

"Non-sense!" said Al-ice, in a loud, firm voice, and the Queen said nomore. 

The King laid his hand on the Queen's arm and said, "Think, my dear, sheis but a child!"

The Queen turned from him with a scowl and said to the Knave, "Turn themo-ver!"

The Knave did so, with one foot. 

"Get up!" said the Queen in a shrill loud voice, and the three menjumped up, at once, and bowed to the King, and Queen and to the wholecrowd. 

"Leave off that!" screamed the Queen; "you make me gid-dy. " Then sheturned to the rose tree and asked, "What have you been do-ing here?"

"May it please your ma-jes-ty, " said Two, and went down on one knee ashe spoke, "we were try-ing--"

"I see!" said the Queen, who in the mean time had seen that some of theros-es were paint-ed red and some were still white. "Off with theirheads!" and the crowd moved on, while three of the sol-diers stayed tocut off the heads of the poor men, who ran to Al-ice for help. 

"They shan't hurt you, " she said, as she hid them in a large flow-er potthat stood near. The three sol-diers walked round and looked for them ashort while, then marched off. 

"Are their heads off?" shout-ed the Queen. 

"Their heads are gone, if it please your ma-jes-ty, " the sol-diersshouted back. 

"That's right!" shouted the Queen. "Can you play cro-quet?" she askedAl-ice. 

"Yes, " shouted Al-ice. 

"Come on then!" roared the Queen, and Al-ice went on with them. 

"It's--it's a fine day!" said a weak voice at her side. It was the WhiteRab-bit who peeped up in-to her face. 

"Yes, " said Al-ice: "where's the Duch-ess?"

"Hush! Hush!" said the Rab-bit, in a low tone. He looked back as hespoke, then raised up on tip-toe, put his mouth close to her ear andwhis-pered, "She's to have her head cut off. "

"What for?" asked Al-ice. 

"Did you say, 'What a pit-y!'?" the Rab-bit asked. 

"No, I didn't, " said Al-ice: "I don't think it's at all a pit-y. I said'What for?'"

[Illustration]

"She boxed the Queen's ears--" the Rab-bit be-gan. Al-ice gave a lit-tlescream of joy. 

"Oh, hush!" the Rab-bit whis-pered in a great fright. "The Queen willhear you! You see she came late, and the Queen said--"

"Each one to his place!" shout-ed the Queen in a loud voice, and peo-pleran this way and that in great haste and soon each one had found hisplace, and the game be-gan. 

Al-ice thought she had nev-er seen such a strange cro-quet ground in allher life: it was all ridges; the balls were live hedge-hogs; themal-lets were live birds, and the sol-diers bent down and stood on theirhands and feet to make the arch-es. 

At first Al-ice found it hard to use a live bird for a mal-let. It was alarge bird with a long neck and long legs. She tucked it un-der her armwith its legs down, but just as she got its neck straight and thoughtnow she could give the ball a good blow with its head, the bird wouldtwist its neck round and give her such a queer look, that she could nothelp laugh-ing; and by the time she had got its head down a-gain, shefound that the hedge-hog had crawled off. Then too there was al-ways aridge or a hole in the way of where she want-ed to send her ball; andshe couldn't find an arch in its place, for the men would get up andwalk off when it pleased them. Al-ice soon made up her mind that it wasa ve-ry hard game to play. 

The Queen was soon in a great rage, and stamped a-bout, shout-ing "Offwith his head!" or "Off with her head!" with each breath. 

Al-ice felt quite ill at ease; to be sure, she had not as yet had causeto feel the wrath of the Queen, but she knew not how soon it might beher turn; "and then, " she thought, "what shall I do?"

As she was look-ing round for some way to get off with-out be-ing seen, she saw a strange thing in the air, which she at last made out to be agrin, and she said to her-self, "It's the Cat; now I shall have some oneto talk to. "

"How do you do?" said the Cat as soon as its whole mouth came out. 

Al-ice wait-ed till she saw the eyes, then nod-ded. "It's no use tospeak to it till its ears have come, or at least one of them. " In ashort time the whole head came in view, then she put down her bird andtold him of the game; glad that she had some one that was pleased tohear her talk. 

"I don't think they are at all fair in the game, " said Al-ice with ascowl; "and they all talk so loud that one can't hear one's selfspeak--and they don't have rules to play by; at least if they have, theydon't mind them--and you don't know how bad it is to have to use livethings to play with. The arch I have to go through next walked off justnow to the far end of the ground--and I should have struck the Queen'shedge-hog, but it ran off when it saw that mine was near!"

"How do you like the Queen?" asked the Cat in a low voice. 

"Not at all, " said Al-ice, "she's so--" Just then she saw that the Queenwas be-hind her and heard what she said; so she went on, "sure to winthat it's not worth while to go on with the game. "

The Queen smiled and passed on. 

"Who are you talk-ing to?" said the King, as he came up to Al-ice andstared at the Cat's head as if it were a strange sight. 

"It's a friend of mine--a Che-shire Cat, " said Al-ice. 

"I don't like the look of it at all, " said the King; "it may kiss myhand if it likes. "

"I don't want to, " said the Cat. 

"Don't be rude; and don't look at me like that, " said the King. 

"A cat may look at a king, " said Al-ice. "I've read that in some book, but I can't tell where. "

"Well, it must get off from here, " said the King in a firm voice, and hecalled to the Queen, who was near, "My dear! I wish you would see thatthis cat leaves here at once!"

The Queen had but one cure for all ills, great or small. "Off with hishead, " she said, and did not so much as look round. 

"I'll fetch the sol-dier my-self, " said the King, and rushed off. 

Al-ice thought she might as well go back, and see how the game went on. She heard the Queen's voice in the dis-tance, as she screamed with rage, "Off with his head! He has missed his turn!" Al-ice did not like thelook of things at all, for the game was so mixed she could not tell whenher turn came; so she went off to find her hedge-hog. 

She came up with two hedge-hogs in a fierce fight, and thought now was agood time to strike one of them, but her mal-let was gone to the oth-erside of the ground, and she saw it in a weak sort of way as it tried tofly up in-to a tree. 

By the time she had caught the bird and brought it back, the fight waso-ver, and both hedge-hogs were out of sight. "I don't care much, "thought Al-ice, "for there is not an arch on this side the ground. " Soshe went back to have some more talk with her friend. 

When she reached the place, she found quite a crowd round the Cat. TheKing and the Queen and the sol-dier who had come with the axe, to cutoff the Cat's head, were all talking at once, while all the rest stoodwith closed lips and looked quite grave. 

As soon as they saw Al-ice, they want-ed her to say which one was right, but as all three spoke at once, she found it hard to make out what theysaid. 

[Illustration]

The sol-dier said that you couldn't cut off a head unless there was abod-y to cut it off from; that he had nev-er had to do such a thing, andhe wouldn't be-gin it now, at his time of life. 

The King said that all heads could be cut off, and that you weren't totalk non-sense. 

The Queen said, if some-thing wasn't done in less than no time, headsshould come off all round. (It was this last threat that had made thewhole crowd look so grave as Al-ice came up. )

Al-ice could think of nothing else to say but, "Ask the Duch-ess, it isher Cat. "

"Fetch her here, " the Queen said to the sol-dier, and he went off likean ar-row. 

The Cat's head start-ed to fade out of sight as soon as he was gone, andby the time he had come back with the Duch-ess, it could not be seen atall; so the King and the man ran up and down look-ing for it, while therest went back to the game. 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE MOCK TUR-TLE. 

"You can't think how glad I am to see you once more, you dear oldthing!" said the Duch-ess as she took Al-ice's arm, and they walked offside by side. 

Al-ice was glad to see her in such a fine mood, and thought to her-selfthat the Duch-ess might not be so bad as she had seemed to be when theyfirst met. 

Then Al-ice fell in-to a long train of thought as to what she would doif she were a Duch-ess. 

She quite lost sight of the Duch-ess by her side, and was star-tled whenshe heard her voice close to her ear. 

"You have some-thing on your mind, my dear, and that makes you for-getto talk. I can't tell you just now what the mor-al of that is, but Ishall think of it in a bit. "

"Are you sure it has one?" asked Al-ice. 

"Tut, tut, child!" said the Duch-ess; "all things have a mor-al if youcan but find it. " And she squeezed up close to Al-ice's side as shespoke. 

Al-ice did not much like to have the Duch-ess keep so close, but shedidn't like to be rude, so she bore it as well as she could. 

"The game is not so bad now, " Al-ice said, think-ing she ought to fillin the time with talk of some kind. 

"'Tis so, " said the Duch-ess, "and the mor-al of that is--'Oh, 'tislove, 'tis love, that makes the world go round!'"

"Some one said, it's done by each one mind-ing his own work, " saidAl-ice. 

"Ah! well, it means much the same thing, " said the Duch-ess, thenadd-ed, "and the mor-al of that is--'Take care of the sense and thesounds will take care of themselves. '"

[Illustration]

"How she likes to find mor-als in things, " said Al-ice. 

"Why don't you talk more and not think so long?" asked the Duch-ess. 

"I've a right to think, " said Al-ice in a sharp tone, for she was tiredand vexed. 

"Just as much right, " said the Duch-ess, "as pigs have to fly; and themor--"

But here the voice of the Duch-ess died out in the midst of her petword, "mor-al, " and Al-ice felt the arm that was linked in hers shake asif with fright. Al-ice looked up and there stood the Queen in front ofthem with her arms fold-ed, and a dark frown up-on her face. 

"A fine day, your ma-jes-ty!" the Duch-ess be-gan in a weak voice. 

"Now, I warn you in time, " shout-ed the Queen, with a stamp on theground as she spoke; "ei-ther you or your head must be off, and that ina-bout half no time! Take your choice!"

The Duch-ess took her choice and was gone in a mo-ment. 

"Let's go on with the game, " the Queen said to Al-ice; and Al-ice was intoo great a fright to speak, but went with her, back to the cro-quetground. 

The guests had all sat down in the shade to rest while the Queen wasa-way, but as soon as they saw her they rushed back to the game; whilethe Queen said if they were not in their pla-ces at once, it would costthem their lives. 

All the time the game went on the Queen kept shout-ing, "Off with hishead!" or "Off with her head!" so that by the end of half an hour therewas no one left on the grounds but the King, the Queen, and Al-ice. 

Then the Queen left off, quite out of breath, and said to Al-ice, "Haveyou seen the Mock Tur-tle yet?"

"No, " said Al-ice, "I don't know what a Mock-tur-tle is. "

"It is a thing Mock Tur-tle Soup is made from, " the Queen said. 

"I've nev-er seen or heard of one, " Alice said. 

"Come on then, and he shall tell you his sto-ry, " said the Queen. 

As they walked off, Al-ice heard the King say in a low tone to thosewhom the Queen had doomed to death, "You may all go free!" "Come, that'sa good thing, " thought Al-ice, for she felt ver-y sad that all those menmust have their heads cut off. 

[Illustration]

They soon came to where a Gry-phon lay fast a-sleep in the sun. (If youdon't know what it is like, look at the pic-ture. ) "Up, dull thing!"said the Queen, "and take this young la-dy to see the Mock Tur-tle. Imust go back now;" and she walked a-way and left Al-ice with theGry-phon. Al-ice was by no means pleased with its looks, but she thoughtshe would be quite as safe with it as she would be with the Queen; soshe wait-ed. 

The Gry-phon sat up and rubbed its eyes; then watched the Queen till shewas out of sight; then it laughed. "What fun!" it said, half to it-self, half to Alice. 

"What is the fun?" she asked. 

"Why, _she_, " it said. "It's all a whim of hers; they nev-er cut offthose heads, you know. Come on. "

Soon they saw the Mock Tur-tle sitting sad and lone on a ledge of rock, and as they came near, Al-ice could hear him sigh as if his heart wouldbreak. "What makes him so sad?" Al-ice asked. 

"It's all a whim of his, " said the Gry-phon; "he hasn't got no grief, you know. Come on!"

[Illustration]

So they went up to the Mock Tur-tle, who looked at them with large eyesfull of tears, but did not speak. 

"This here young la-dy, " said the Gry-phon, "she wants for to knowa-bout your past life, she do. "

"I'll tell it to her, " said the Mock Tur-tle in a deep, sad tone: "sitdown both of you and don't speak a word till I get through. "

So they sat down, and no one spoke for some time. 

"Once, " said the Mock Tur-tle at last, with a deep sigh, "I was a re-alTur-tle. When we were young we went to school in the sea. We were taughtby an old Tur-tle--we used to call him Tor-toise--"

"Why did you call him Tor-toise, if he wasn't one?" Al-ice asked. 

"He taught us, that's why, " said the Mock Tur-tle: "you are quite dullnot to know that!"

"Shame on you to ask such a sim-ple thing, " add-ed the Gry-phon; thenthey both sat and looked at poor Al-ice, who felt as if she could sinkinto the earth. 

At last the Gry-phon said to the Mock Tur-tle, "Drive on, old fellow!Don't be all day a-bout it!" and he went on in these words:

"Yes, we went to school in the sea, though you mayn't think it's true--"

"I didn't say I did not!" said Al-ice. 

"You did, " said the Mock Tur-tle. 

"Hold your tongue, " add-ed the Gry-phon. 

The Mock Tur-tle went on:

"We were well taught--in fact we went to school each day--"

"I've been to a day school too, " said Alice; "you needn't be so proud asall that. "

"Were you taught wash-ing?" asked the Mock Tur-tle. 

"Of course not, " said Al-ice. 

"Ah! then yours wasn't a good school, " said the Mock Tur-tle. "Now at_ours_ they had at the end of the bill, 'French, mu-sic, andwash-ing--ex-tra. '"

"You couldn't have need-ed it much in the sea, " said Al-ice. 

"I didn't learn it, " said the Mock Tur-tle, with a sigh. "I just tookthe first course. "

"What was that?" asked Al-ice. 

"Reel-ing and Writh-ing, of course, at first, " the Mock Tur-tle said. "An old eel used to come once a week. He taught us to drawl, to stretchand to faint in coils. "

"What was that like?" Al-ice asked. 

"Well, I can't show you, my-self, " he said: "I'm too stiff. And theGry-phon didn't learn it. "

"How man-y hours a day did you do les-sons?" asked Al-ice. 

"Ten hours the first day, " said the Mock Tur-tle; "nine the next and soon. "

"What a strange plan!" said Al-ice. 

"That's why they're called les-sons, " said the Gry-phon: "they les-senfrom day to day. "

This was such a new thing to Al-ice that she sat still a good while anddidn't speak. "Then there would be a day when you would have no school, "she said. 

"Of course there would, " said the Mock Tur-tle. 

"What did you do then?" asked Al-ice. 

"I'm tired of this, " said the Gry-phon: "tell her now of the games weplayed. "

CHAPTER X. 

THE LOB-STER DANCE. 

The Mock Tur-tle sighed, looked at Al-ice and tried to speak, but for amin-ute or two sobs choked his voice. "Same as if he had a bone in histhroat, " said the Gry-phon, and set to work to shake him and punch himin the back. At last the Mock Tur-tle found his voice and with tearsrun-ning down his cheeks, he went on:

[Illustration]

"You may not have lived much in the sea"--("I have-n't, " said Al-ice)"so you can not know what a fine thing a Lob-ster Dance is!"

"No, " said Al-ice. "What sort of a dance is it?"

"Why, " said the Gry-phon, "you first form in a line on the sea-shore--"

"Two lines!" cried the Mock Tur-tle. "Seals, tur-tles, and so on; thenwhen you've cleared all the small fish out of the way--"

"That takes some time, " put in the Gry-phon. 

"You move to the front twice--"

"Each with a lob-ster by his side!" cried the Gry-phon. 

"Of course, " the Mock Tur-tle said: "move to the front twice--"

"Change and come back in same way, " said the Gry-phon. 

"Then, you know, " the Mock Tur-tle went on, "you throw the--"

"The lob-sters!" shout-ed the Gry-phon, with a bound in-to the air. 

"As far out to sea as you can--"

"Swim out for them, " screamed the Gry-phon. 

"Turn heels o-ver head in the sea!" cried the Mock Tur-tle. 

"Change a-gain!" yelled the Gry-phon at the top of his voice. 

"Then back to land, and--that's all the first part, " said the MockTur-tle. 

Both the Gry-phon and the Mock Tur-tle had jumped a-bout like mad thingsall this time. Now they sat down quite sad and still, and looked atAl-ice. 

"It must be a pret-ty dance, " said Al-ice. 

"Would you like to see some of it?" asked the Mock Tur-tle. 

"Oh, yes, " she said. 

"Come, let's try the first part!" said the Mock Tur-tle to the Gry-phon. "We can do it without lob-sters, you know. Which shall sing?"

"Oh, _you_ sing, " said the Gry-phon. "I don't know the words. "

So they danced round and round Al-ice, now and then tread-ing on hertoes when they passed too close. They waved their fore paws to mark thetime, while the Mock Tur-tle sang a queer kind of song, each verse ofwhich end-ed with these words:

 "'Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?

 Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?'"

"Thank you, it's a fine dance to watch, " said Al-ice, glad that it waso-ver at last. 

"Now, " said the Gry-phon, "tell us a-bout what you have seen and done inyour life. "

"I could tell you of the strange things I have seen to-day, " saidAl-ice, with some doubt as to their wish-ing to hear it. 

"All right, go on, " they both cried. 

So Al-ice told them what she had been through that day, from the timewhen she first saw the White Rab-bit. They came up quite close to her, one on each side, and sat still till she got to the part where she triedto say, "You are old, Fath-er Wil-liam, " and the words all came wrong. Then the Mock Tur-tle drew a long breath and said, "That's quitestrange!"

"It's all as strange as it can be, " said the Gry-phon. 

"It all came wrong!" the Mock Tur-tle said, while he seemed to be indeep thought. "I should like to hear her try to say some-thing now. Tellher to be-gin. " He looked at the Gry-phon as if he thought it had theright to make Al-ice do as it pleased. 

[Illustration]

"Stand up and say, 'Tis the voice of the Slug-gard, '" said the Gry-phon. 

"How they do try to make one do things!" thought Al-ice. "I might justas well be at school at once. " She stood up and tried to re-peat it, buther head was so full of the Lob-ster Dance, that she didn't know whatshe was say-ing, and the words all came ver-y queer, in-deed:

 "'Tis the voice of the lob-ster; I heard him de-clare, 'You have baked me too brown, I must su-gar my hair. ' As a duck with its eye-lids, so he with his nose Trims his belt and his but-tons, and turns out his toes. "

"That's not the way I used to say it when I was a child, " said theGry-phon. 

"Well, I never heard it before, " said the Mock Tur-tle, "but there's nosense in it at all. "

Al-ice did not speak; she sat down with her face in her hands, andthought, "Will things nev-er be as they used to an-y more?"

"I should like you to tell what it means, " said the Mock Tur-tle. 

"She can't do that, " said the Gry-phon. "Go on with the next verse. "

"But his toes?" the Mock Tur-tle went on. "How could he turn them outwith his nose, you know?"

"Go on with the next verse, " the Gry-phon said once more; "it begins 'Ipassed by his gar-den. '"

Al-ice thought she must do as she was told, though she felt sure itwould all come wrong, and she went on:

 "I passed by his gar-den and marked with one eye, How the owl and the oys-ter were shar-ing the pie. "

"What _is_ the use of say-ing all that stuff!" the Mock Tur-tle brokein, "if you don't tell what it means as you go on? I tell you it is allnon-sense. "

"Yes, I think you might as well leave off, " said the Gry-phon, andAl-ice was but too glad to do so. 

"Shall we try the Lob-ster dance once more?" the Gry-phon went on, "orwould you like the Mock Tur-tle to sing you a song?"

"Oh, a song please, if the Mock Tur-tle would be so kind, " Al-ice saidwith so much zest that the Gry-phon threw back his head and said, "Hm!Well, each one to his own taste. Sing her 'Tur-tle Soup, ' will you, oldfel-low?"

The Mock Tur-tle heaved a deep sigh, and in a voice choked with sobs, be-gan his song, but just then the cry of "The tri-al is on!" was hearda long way off. 

"Come on, " cried the Gry-phon. He took her by the hand, ran off, and didnot wait to hear the song. 

"What trial is it?" Al-ice pant-ed as she ran, but the Gry-phon on-lysaid, "Come on!" and still ran as fast as he could. 

CHAPTER XI. 

WHO STOLE THE TARTS?

The King and Queen of Hearts were seat-ed on their throne when Al-iceand the Gry-phon came up, with a great crowd a-bout them. There were allsorts of small birds and beasts, as well as the whole pack of cards. TheKnave stood in front of them in chains, with a sol-dier on each side toguard him; and near the King was the White Rab-bit, with a trum-pet inone hand and a roll of pa-per in the other. In the mid-dle of the courtwas a ta-ble with a large dish of tarts on it. They looked so good thatit made Al-ice feel as if she would like to eat some of them. "I wishthey'd get the tri-al done, " she thought, "and hand round the pies!" Butthere seemed no chance of this, so to pass the time a-way she lookedround at the strange things a-bout her. 

This was the first time Al-ice had been in a court of this kind, and shewas quite pleased to find that she knew the names of most things she sawthere. "That's the judge, " she thought, "I know him by his great wig. "

The judge, by the way, was the King, and as he wore his crown on top ofhis wig, he looked quite ill at ease. 

"And that's the ju-ry box, " thought Al-ice, "and those twelve things"(she had to say "things, " you see, for some of them were beasts and somewere birds), "I guess are the ju-rors. " She said this last word two orthree times as she was proud that she knew it; for she was right whenshe thought that few girls of her age would have known what it allmeant. 

The twelve ju-rors all wrote on slates. 

"What can they have to write now?" Al-ice asked the Gry-phon, in a lowtone. "The tri-al has not be-gun yet. "

"They're put-ting down their names, " the Gry-phon said, "for fear theyshould for-get them. "

"Stu-pid things!" Al-ice said in a loud voice, but stopped at once, forthe White Rab-bit cried out, "Si-lence in court!" and the King lookedround to make out who spoke. 

Al-ice could see quite well that the ju-rors all wrote down "stu-pidthings!" on their slates, she could e-ven make out that one of themdidn't know how to spell "stu-pid" and that he asked the one by his sideto tell him, "A nice mud-dle their slates will be in by the time thetri-al's ended, " thought Al-ice. 

One of the ju-rors had a pen-cil that squeaked as he wrote. This, ofcourse, Al-ice could _not_ stand, so she went round near him, and soonfound a chance to get it from him. This she did in such a way that thepoor ju-ror (it was Bill, the Liz-ard) could not make out at all whereit was, so he wrote with one fin-ger for the rest of the day. Of course, this was of no use, as it left no mark on the slate. 

"Read the charge!" said the King. 

On this the White Rab-bit blew three blasts on the trum-pet, and thenfrom the pa-per in his hand read:

 "The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, All on a sum-mer day: The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts, And took them quite a-way!"

"The ju-ry will now take the case, " said the King. 

"Not yet, not yet!" the Rab-bit said in haste. "There is a great dealelse to come first. "

[Illustration]

"Call the first wit-ness, " said the King, and the White Rab-bit blewthree blasts on the trum-pet, and called out, "First wit-ness. "

The first to come was the Hat-ter. He came in with a tea cup in one handand a piece of bread and but-ter in the oth-er. 

"I beg par-don, your ma-jes-ty, " he said, "but I had to bring these in, as I was not quite through with my tea when I was sent for. "

"You ought to have been through, " said the King. "When did you be-gin?"

The Hat-ter looked at the March Hare, who had just come in-to court, arm in arm with the Dor-mouse. "Fourth of March, I think it was, " hesaid. 

"Fifth, " said the March Hare. 

"Sixth, " add-ed the Dor-mouse. 

"Write that down, " said the King to the ju-ry, and they wrote down allthree dates on their slates, and then added them up and changed the sumto shil-lings and pence. 

"Take off your hat, " the King said to the Hat-ter. 

"It isn't mine, " said the Hat-ter. 

"Stole it!" cried the King, as he turned to the jury, who at once wroteit down. 

"I keep them to sell, " the Hat-ter added. "I've none of my own. I'm ahat-ter. "

Here the Queen put on her eye-glass-es and stared hard at the Hat-ter, who turned pale with fright. 

"Tell what you know of this case, " said the King; "and don't benerv-ous, or I'll have your head off on the spot. "

This did not seem to calm him at all, he shift-ed from one foot to theother and looked at the Queen, and in his fright he bit a large pieceout of his tea-cup in place of the bread and but-ter. 

Just then Al-ice felt a strange thrill, the cause of which she could notmake out till she saw she had be-gun to grow a-gain. 

"I wish you wouldn't squeeze so, " said the Dor-mouse. "I haven't room tobreathe. "

"I can't help it, " said Al-ice; "I'm grow-ing. "

"You've no right to grow here, " said the Dor-mouse. 

"Don't talk such non-sense, " said Al-ice. "You know you grow too. "

"Yes, but not so fast as to squeeze the breath out of those who sit byme. " He got up and crossed to the oth-er side of the court. 

All this time the Queen had not left off star-ing at the Hat-ter, andjust as the Dor-mouse crossed the court, she said to one of the men, "Bring me the list of those who sang in the last con-cert, " on which thepoor Hat-ter trembled so, that he shook both his shoes off. 

[Illustration]

"Tell what you know of this case, " the King called out a-gain, "or I'llhave your head off, if you do shake. "

"I'm a poor man, your ma-jes-ty, " the Hat-ter be-gan in a weak voice, "and I hadn't but just be-gun my tea, not more than a week or so, andwhat with the bread and but-ter so thin--and the twink-ling of thetea--"

"The twink-ling of what?" asked the King. 

"It be-gan with the tea, " the Hat-ter said. 

"Of course twink-ling be-gins with a T!" said the King. "Do you take mefor a dunce? Go on!"

"I'm a poor man, " the Hat-ter went on, "and most things twink-led af-terthat--but the March Hare said--"

"I didn't, " said the March Hare in great haste. 

"You did, " said the Hat-ter. 

"I de-ny it, " said the March Hare. 

"He de-nies it, " said the King: "leave out that part. "

"Well, I'm sure the Dor-mouse said--" the Hat-ter went on, with a lookat the Dor-mouse to see if he would de-ny it too, but he was fasta-sleep. 

"Then I cut some more bread and--"

"But what did the Dor-mouse say?" asked one of the ju-ry. 

"That I can't tell, " said the Hat-ter. 

"You must tell or I'll have your head off, " said the King. 

The wretch-ed Hat-ter dropped his cup and bread, and went down on oneknee. 

"I'm a poor man, " he be-gan. 

"You're a poor speak-er, " said the King. 

Here one of the guin-ea pigs cheered, and one of the men seized him, thrust him in-to a bag which tied up with strings, and then sat up-onit. 

"If that's all you know, you may stand down, " the King said. 

"I'm as low as I can get now, " said the Hat-ter; "I'm on the floor as itis. "

"Then you may sit down, " the King said. 

"I'd like to get through with my tea first, " said the Hat-ter with alook at the Queen who still read the list in her hand. 

"You may go, " said the King, and the Hat-ter left the court in suchhaste that he did not e-ven wait to put his shoes on. 

"And just take his head off out-side, " the Queen add-ed to one of thesol-diers, but the Hat-ter was out of sight be-fore the man could get tothe door. 

"Call the next wit-ness, " said the King. 

The next to come was the Duch-ess' cook, and Al-ice guessed who it wasby the way the peo-ple near the door sneezed all at once. 

[Illustration]

"Tell what you know of this case, " said the King. 

"Shan't, " said the cook. 

The King looked at the White Rab-bit, who said in a low voice, "Yourma-jes-ty must make her tell. "

"Well, if I must, I must, " said the King with a sad look. He fold-ed hisarms and frowned at the cook till his eyes were al-most out of sight, then asked in a stern voice, "What are tarts made of?"

"Pep-per, most-ly, " said the cook. 

"Sug-ar, " said a weak voice near her. 

"Catch that Dor-mouse, " the Queen shrieked out. "Off with his head! Turnhim out of court! Pinch him! Off with his head!"

The whole court ran here and there, get-ting the Dor-mouse turned out, and by the time this was done, the cook had gone. 

"That's all right, " said the King, as if he were glad to be rid of her. "Call the next, " and he add-ed in a low tone to the Queen, "Now, mydear, you must take the next wit-ness in hand; it quite makes my headache!"

Al-ice watched the White Rab-bit as he looked o-ver the list. Shethought to her-self, "I want to see what the next witness will be like, for they haven't found out much yet. "

Think, if you can, how she felt when the White Rab-bit read out, at thetop of his shrill lit-tle voice, the name "Al-ice!"

CHAPTER XII. 

AL-ICE ON THE STAND. 

"Here!" cried Al-ice, but she quite for-got how large she had grown inthe last few min-utes, and jumped up in such haste that the edge of herskirt tipped the ju-ry box and turned them all out on the heads of thecrowd be-low; and there they lay sprawl-ing a-bout, which made her thinkof a globe of gold-fish which she had up-set the week be-fore. 

[Illustration]

"Oh, I beg your par-don!" she said, and picked them up and put thembacked in the ju-ry box as fast as she could. 

"The tri-al can not go on, " said the King in a grave voice, "till allthe men are back in place--all, " he said with great force and lookedhard at Al-ice. 

She looked at the ju-ry box and saw that in her haste she had put theLiz-ard in head first and the poor thing was wav-ing its tail in theair, but could not move. She soon got it out and put it right; "not thatit mat-ters much, " she thought; "I should think it would be quite asmuch use in the tri-al one way up as the oth-er. "

[Illustration]

As soon as their slates and pen-cils had been hand-ed back to them, theju-ry set to work to write out an ac-count of their fall, all but theLiz-ard, who seem-ed too weak to write, but sat and gazed up in-to theroof of the court. 

"What do you know of this case?" the King asked Al-ice. 

"Not one thing, " said Al-ice. 

"Not one thing, at all?" asked the King. 

"Not one thing, at all, " said Al-ice. 

"Write that down, " the King said to the ju-ry. 

The King sat for some time and wrote in his note-book, then he calledout, "Si-lence!" and read from his book, "Rule For-ty-two. Each one morethan a mile high to leave the court. "

All looked at Al-ice. 

"I'm not a mile high, " said Al-ice. 

"You are, " said the King. 

"Not far from two miles high, " add-ed the Queen. 

"Well, I shan't go, " said Al-ice, "for I know that's a new rule you havejust made. "

"It's the first rule in the book, " said the King. 

"Then it ought to be Rule One, " said Al-ice. 

The King turned pale and shut his note-book at once. 

"The ju-ry can now take the case, " he said in a weak voice. 

"There's more to come yet, please your ma-jes-ty, " said the WhiteRab-bit, as he jumped up; "this thing has just been picked up. "

"What's in it?" asked the Queen. 

"I haven't read it yet, " said the White Rab-bit, "but it seems to be anote from the Knave of Hearts to some one. "

"Whose name is on it?" said one of the ju-rors. 

"There's no name on it, " said the White Rab-bit; he looked at it withmore care as he spoke, and add-ed, "it isn't a note at all; it's a setof rhymes. "

"Please your ma-jes-ty, " said the Knave, "I didn't write it, and theycan't prove that I did; there's no name signed at the end. "

"If you didn't sign it, " said the King, "that makes your case worse. Youmust have meant some harm or you'd have signed your name like an hon-estman. "

All clapped their hands at this as it was the first smart thing the Kinghad said that day. 

"That proves his guilt, " said the Queen. 

"It does not prove a thing, " said Al-ice, "Why you don't so much as knowwhat the rhymes are. "

"Read them, " said the King. 

"Where shall I be-gin, your ma-jes-ty?" the White Rab-bit asked. 

"Why at the first verse, of course, " the King said look-ing quite grave, "and go on till you come to the end; then stop. "

The White Rab-bit read:

 "They told me you had been to her, And spoke of me to him: She gave me a good name, in-deed, But said I could not swim. 

 "He sent them word that I had gone (We know it to be true): If she should push the mat-ter on What would be-come of you?

 "I gave her one, they gave him two, You gave us three, or more; They all came back from him to you, Though they were mine be-fore. 

 "My no-tion was, she liked him best, (Be-fore she had this fit) This must be kept from all the rest But him and you and it. "

"That's the best thing we've heard yet, " said the King, rub-bing hishands as if much pleased; "so now let the ju-ry--"

"If one of you can tell what it means, " said Al-ice (she had grown solarge by this time that she had no fear of the King) "I should be gladto hear it. I don't think there's a grain of sense in it. "

The ju-ry all wrote down on their slates, "She doesn't think there's agrain of sense in it. " But no one tried to tell what it meant. 

"If there's no sense in it, " said the King, "that saves a world of work, you know, as we needn't try to find it. And yet I don't know, " he wenton, as he spread out the rhymes on his knee, and looked at them with oneeye: "I seem to find some sense in them--'said I could not swim'--youcan't swim, can you?" he added, turn-ing to the Knave. 

The Knave shook his head with a sigh. "Do I look like it?" he said. (Which it was plain he did not, as he was made of card board. )

"All right, so far, " said the King, and he went on: "'We know it to betrue'--that's the ju-ry, of course--'I gave her one, they gave himtwo'--that must be what he did with the tarts, you know--"

"But it goes on, 'they all came back from him to you, '" said Al-ice. 

"Why, there they are, " said the King, point-ing to the tarts. "Isn'tthat as clear as can be? Then it goes on, 'before she had this fit'--youdon't have fits, my dear, I think?" he said to the Queen. 

[Illustration]

"No! no!" said the Queen in a great rage, throw-ing an ink-stand at theLiz-ard as she spoke. 

"Then the words don't fit you, " he said, and looked round the court witha smile. But no one spoke. "It's a pun, " he added in a fierce tone, thenall the court laughed. 

"Let the ju-ry now bring in their verdict, " the King said. 

"No! no!" said the Queen. "Sen-tence first--then the ver-dict. "

"Such stuff!" said Al-ice out loud. "Of course the ju-ry must make--"

"Hold your tongue!" screamed the Queen. 

"I won't!" said Al-ice. 

"Off with her head!" shout-ed the Queen at the top of her voice. No onemoved. 

"Who cares for you?" said Al-ice. (She had grown to her full size bythis time. ) "You are noth-ing but a pack of cards!"

At this the whole pack rose up in the air and flew down up-on her; shegave a lit-tle scream and tried to beat them off--and found her-selfly-ing on the bank with her head in the lap of her sis-ter, who wasbrush-ing a-way some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the treeson to her face. 

"Wake up, Al-ice dear, " said her sis-ter; "why what a long sleep youhave had!"

"Oh, I've had such a strange dream!" said Al-ice, and then she told hersis-ter as well as she could all these strange things that you have justread a-bout; and when she came to the end of it, her sis-ter kissed herand said: "It was a strange dream, dear, I'm sure; but run now in toyour tea; it's get-ting late. "

So Al-ice got up and ran off, think-ing while she ran, as well shemight, what a won-der-ful dream it had been. 

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