- Put your hand down, and feel the ground, - said the Tiger-lily. -
Then you'll know why.
Alice did so. - It's very hard, - she said, - but I don't see what
that has to do with it.
- In most gardens, - the Tiger-lily said, - they make the beds too
soft - so that the flowers are always asleep.
This sounded a very good reason, and Alice was quite pleased to know
it. - I never thought of that before! - she said.
- It's MY opinion that you never think AT ALL, - the Rose said in a
rather severe tone.
- I never say anybody that looked stupider, - a Violet said, so
suddenly, that Alice quite jumped; for it hadn't spoken before.
- Hold YOUR tongue! - cried the Tiger-lily. - As if YOU ever saw
anybody! You keep your head under the leaves, and snore away there, till
you know no more what's going on in the world, that if you were a bud!
- Are there any more people in the garden besides me? - Alice said,
not choosing to notice the Rose's last remark.
- There's one other flower in the garden that can move about like
you, - said the Rose. - I wonder how you do it - ( - You're always
wondering, - said the Tiger-lily), - but she's more bushy than you are.
- Is she like me? - Alice asked eagerly, for the thought crossed her
mind, - There's another little girl in the garden, somewhere!
- Well, she has the same awkward shape as you, - the Rose said, - but
she's redder - and her petals are shorter, I think.
- Her petals are done up close, almost like a dahlia, - the
Tiger-lily interrupted: - not tumbled about anyhow, like yours.
- But that's not YOUR fault, - the Rose added kindly: - you're
beginning to fade, you know - and then one can't help one's petals getting
a little untidy.
Alice didn't like this idea at all: so, to change the subject, she
asked - Does she ever come out here?
- I daresay you'll see her soon, - said the Rose. - She's one of the
thorny kind.
- Where does she wear the thorns? - Alice asked with some curiosity.
- Why all round her head, of course, - the Rose replied. - I was
wondering YOU hadn't got some too. I thought it was the regular rule.
- She's coming! - cried the Larkspur. - I hear her footstep, thump,
thump, thump, along the gravel-walk!
Alice looked round eagerly, and found that it was the Red Queen. -
She's grown a good deal! - was her first remark. She had indeed: when
Alice first found her in the ashes, she had been only three inches high -
and here she was, half a head taller than Alice herself!
- It's the fresh air that does it, - said the Rose: - wonderfully
fine air it is, out here.
"I think I'll go and meet her, - said Alice, for, though the flowers
were interesting enough, she felt that it would be far grander to have a
talk with a real Queen.
- You can't possibly do that, - said the Rose: - _I_ should advise
you to walk the other way.
This sounded nonsense to Alice, so she said nothing, but set off at
once towards the Red Queen. To her surprise, she lost sight of her in a
moment, and found herself walking in at the front-door again.
A little provoked, she drew back, and after looking everywhere for
the queen (whom she spied out at last, a long way off), she thought she
would try the plan, this time, of walking in the opposite direction.
It succeeded beautifully. She had not been walking a minute before
she found herself face to face with the Red Queen, and full in sight of
the hill she had been so long aiming at.
- Where do you come from? - said the Red Queen. - And where are you
going? Look up, speak nicely, and don't twiddle your fingers all the time.
Alice attended to all these directions, and explained, as well as she
could, that she had lost her way.
- I don't know what you mean by YOUR way, - said the Queen: - all the
ways about here belong to ME - but why did you come out here at all? - she
added in a kinder tone. - Curtsey while you - re thinking what to say, it
saves time.
Alice wondered a little at this, but she was too much in awe of the
Queen to disbelieve it. - I'll try it when I go home, - she thought to
herself. - the next time I'm a little late for dinner.
- It's time for you to answer now, - the Queen said, looking at her
watch: - open your mouth a LITTLE wider when you speak, and always say
"your Majesty."
- I only wanted to see what the garden was like, your Majesty
- That's right, - said the Queen, patting her on the head, which
Alice didn't like at all, - though, when you say "garden," - I'VE seen
gardens, compare with which this would be a wilderness.
Alice didn't dare to argue the point, but went on: - and I thought
I'd try and find my way to the top of that hill
- When you say "hill," - the Queen interrupted, - _I_ could show you
hills, in comparison with which you'd call that a valley.
- No, I shouldn't, - said Alice, surprised into contradicting her at
last: - a hill CAN'T be a valley, you know. That would be nonsense
The Red Queen shook her head, - You may call it "nonsense" if you
like, - she said, - but I'VE heard nonsense, compared with which that
would be as sensible as a dictionary!
Alice curtseyed again, as she was afraid from the Queen's tone that
she was a LITTLE offended: and they walked on in silence till they got to
the top of the little hill.
For some minutes Alice stood without speaking, looking out in all
directions over the country - and a most curious country it was. There
were a number of tiny little brooks running straight across it from side
to side, and the ground between was divided up into squares by a number of
little green hedges, that reached from brook to brook.
- I declare it's marked out just like a large chessboard! - Alice
said at last. - There ought to be some men moving about somewhere and so
there are! - She added in a tone of delight, and her heart began to beat
quick with excitement as she went on. - It's a great huge game of chess
that's being played - all over the world - if this IS the world at all,
you know. Oh, what fun it is! How I WISH I was one of them! I wouldn't
mind being a Pawn, if only I might join - though of course I should LIKE
to be a Queen, best.
She glanced rather shyly at the real Queen as she said this, but her
companion only smiled pleasantly, and said, - That's easily managed. You
can be the White Queen's Pawn, if you like, as Lily's too young to play;
and you're in the Second Square to began with: when you get to the Eighth
Square you'll be a Queen - Just at this moment, somehow or other, they
began to run.
Alice never could quite make out, in thinking it over afterwards, how
it was that they began: all she remembers is, that they were running hand
in hand, and the Queen went so fast that it was all she could do to keep
up with her: and still the Queen kept crying - Faster! Faster! - but Alice
felt she COULD NOT go faster, thought she had not breath left to say so.
The most curious part of the thing was, that the trees and the other
things round them never changed their places at all: however fast they
went, they never seemed to pass anything. - I wonder if all the things
move along with us? - thought poor puzzled Alice. And the Queen seemed to
guess her thoughts, for she cried, - Faster! Don't try to talk!
Not that Alice had any idea of doing THAT. She felt as if she would
never be able to talk again, she was getting so much out of breath: and
still the Queen cried - Faster! Faster! - and dragged her along. - Are we
nearly there? - Alice managed to pant out at last.
- Nearly there! - the Queen repeated. - Why, we passed it ten minutes
ago! Faster! And they ran on for a time in silence, with the wind
whistling in Alice's ears, and almost blowing her hair off her head, she
fancied.
- Now! Now! - cried the Queen. - Faster! Faster! - And they went so
fast that at last they seemed to skim through the air, hardly touching the
ground with their feet, till suddenly, just as Alice was getting quite
exhausted, they stopped, and she found herself sitting on the ground,
breathless and giddy.
The Queen propped her up against a tree, and said kindly, - You may
rest a little now.
Alice looked round her in great surprise. - Why, I do believe we've
been under this tree the whole time! Everything's just as it was!
- Of course it is, - said the Queen, - what would you have it?
- Well, in OUR country, - said Alice, still panting a little, - you'd
generally get to somewhere else - if you ran very fast for a long time, as
we've been doing.
- A slow sort of country! - said the Queen. - Now, HERE, you see, it
takes all the running YOU can do, to keep in the same place. If you want
to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!
- I'd rather not try, please! - said Alice. - I'm quite content to
stay here - only I AM so hot and thirsty!
- I know what YOU'D like! - the Queen said good-naturedly, taking a
little box out of her pocket. - Have a biscuit?
Alice thought it would not be civil to say - No, - though it wasn't
at all what she wanted. So she took it, and ate it as well as she could:
and it was VERY dry; and she thought she had never been so nearly choked
in all her life.
- While you're refreshing yourself, - said the Queen, - I'll just
take the measurements. - And she took a ribbon out of her pocket, marked
in inches, and began measuring the ground, and sticking little pegs in
here and there.
- At the end of two yards, - she said, putting in a peg to mark the
distance, - I shall give you your directions - have another biscuit?
- No, thank you, - said Alice,:** - one's QUITE enough!
- Thirst quenched, I hope? - said the Queen. Alice did not know what
to say to this, but luckily the Queen did not
wait for an answer, but went on. - At the end of THREE yards I shall
repeat them - for fear of your forgetting them. At then end of FOUR, I
shall say good-bye. And at then end of FIVE, I shall go!
She had got all the pegs put in by this time, and Alice looked on
with great interest as she returned to the tree, and then began slowly
walking down the row.
At the two-yard peg she faced round, and said, - A pawn goes two
squares in its first move, you know. So you'll go VERY quickly through the
Third Square - by railway, I should think - and you'll find yourself in
the Fourth Square in no time. Well, THAT square belongs to Tweedledum and
Tweedledee - the Fifth is mostly water the Sixth belongs to Humpty Dumpty
- But you make no remark?
- I - I didn't know I had to make one - just then, - Alice faltered
out.
- You SHOULD have said, - "It's extremely kind of you to tell me all
this" - however, we'll suppose it said - the Seventh Square is all forest
- however, one of the Knights will show you the way - and in the Eighth
Square we shall be Queens together, and it's all feasting and fun! - Alice
got up and curtseyed, and sat down again.
At the next peg the Queen turned again, and this time she said, -
Speak in French when you can't think of the English for a thing turn out
your toes as you walk - and remember who you are!
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