one thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing todo with it:--it was the black kitten's fault entirely. for the white kittenhad been having its face washed by the old cat for the last quarter of anhour (and bearing it pretty well, considering); so you see that itcouldn't have had any hand in the mischief.
the way dinah washed her children's faces was this: first she heldthe poor thing down by its ear with one paw, and then with the other pawshe rubbed its face all over, the wrong way, beginning at the nose: andjust now, as i said, she was hard at work on the white kitten, which waslying quite still and trying to purr--no doubt feeling that it was all meantfor its good.
but the black kitten had been finished with earlier in the afternoon,and so, while alice was sitting curled up in a corner of the great arm-chair,half talking to herself and half asleep, the kitten had been having a grandgame of romps with the ball of worsted alice had been trying to wind up,and had been rolling it up and down till it had all come undone again; andthere it was, spread over the hearth-rug, all knots and tangles, with thekitten running after its own tail in the middle.
`oh, you wicked little thing!' cried alice, catching up the kitten, andgiving it a little kiss to make it understand that it was in disgrace. `really,dinah ought to have taught you better manners! you ought, dinah,you know you ought!' she added, looking reproachfully at the old cat, andspeaking in as cross a voice as she could manage--and then she scrambledback into the arm-chair, taking the kitten and the worsted with her, andbegan winding up the ball again. but she didn't get on very fast, as shewas talking all the time, sometimes to the kitten, and sometimes to herself.
kitty sat very demurely on her knee, pretending to watch the progress ofthe winding, and now and then putting out one paw and gently touchingthe ball, as if it would be glad to help, if it might.
`do you know what to-morrow is, kitty?' alice began. `you'dhave guessed if you'd been up in the window with me--only dinah was making you tidy, so you couldn't. i was watching the boys getting insticks for the bonfire--and it wants plenty of sticks, kitty! only it got socold, and it snowed so, they had to leave off. never mind, kitty, we'll goand see the bonfire to-morrow.' here alice wound two or three turns ofthe worsted round the kitten's neck, just to see how it would look: thisled to a scramble, in which the ball rolled down upon the floor, and yardsand yards of it got unwound again.
`do you know, i was so angry, kitty,' alice went on as soon as theywere comfortably settled again, `when i saw all the mischief you had beendoing, i was very nearly opening the window, and putting you out into thesnow! and you'd have deserved it, you little mischievous darling!
what have you got to say for yourself? now don't interrupt me!' shewent on, holding up one finger. `i'm going to tell you all your faults.
number one: you squeaked twice while dinah was washing your face thismorning. now you can't deny it, kitty: i heard you! what that yousay?' (pretending that the kitten was speaking.) `her paw went into youreye? well, that's your fault, for keeping your eyes open--if you'd shutthem tight up, it wouldn't have happened. now don't make any moreexcuses, but listen! number two: you pulled snowdrop away by thetail just as i had put down the saucer of milk before her! what, you werethirsty, were you?
how do you know she wasn't thirsty too? now for number three: youunwound every bit of the worsted while i wasn't looking!
`that's three faults, kitty, and you've not been punished for any ofthem yet. you know i'm saving up all your punishments for wednesdayweek--suppose they had saved up all my punishments!' she went on,talking more to herself than the kitten. `what would they do at theend of a year? i should be sent to prison, i suppose, when the day came.
or--let me see--suppose each punishment was to be going without a dinner:
then, when the miserable day came, i should have to go without fiftydinners at once! well, i shouldn't mind that much! i'd far rather gowithout them than eat them!
`do you hear the snow against the window-panes, kitty? hownice and soft it sounds! just as if some one was kissing the window all over outside. i wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that itkisses them so gently? and then it covers them up snug, you know, witha white quilt; and perhaps it says, "go to sleep, darlings, till the summercomes again." and when they wake up in the summer, kitty, they dressthemselves all in green, and dance about--whenever the wind blows--oh,that's very pretty!' cried alice, dropping the ball of worsted to clap herhands. `and i do so wish it was true! i'm sure the woods look sleepyin the autumn, when the leaves are getting brown.
`kitty, can you play chess? now, don't smile, my dear, i'm askingit seriously. because, when we were playing just now, you watched justas if you understood it: and when i said "check!" you purred! well, itwas a nice check, kitty, and really i might have won, if it hadn't been forthat nasty knight, that came wiggling down among my pieces. kitty,dear, let's pretend--' and here i wish i could tell you half the things aliceused to say, beginning with her favourite phrase `let's pretend.' she hadhad quite a long argument with her sister only the day before --all becausealice had begun with `let's pretend we're kings and queens;' and her sister,who liked being very exact, had argued that they couldn't, because therewere only two of them, and alice had been reduced at last to say, `well,you can be one of them then, and i'll be all the rest.' and once shehad really frightened her old nurse by shouting suddenly in her ear, `nurse!
do let's pretend that i'm a hungry hyaena, and you're a bone.'
but this is taking us away from alice's speech to the kitten. `let'spretend that you're the red queen, kitty! do you know, i think if yousat up and folded your arms, you'd look exactly like her. now do try,there's a dear!' and alice got the red queen off the table, and set it upbefore the kitten as a model for it to imitate: however, the thing didn'tsucceed, principally, alice said, because the kitten wouldn't fold its armsproperly. so, to punish it, she held it up to the looking-glass, that it mightsee how sulky it was--`and if you're not good directly,' she added, `i'll putyou through into looking-glass house. how would you like that?'
`now, if you'll only attend, kitty, and not talk so much, i'll tell youall my ideas about looking-glass house. first, there's the room you cansee through the glass--that's just the same as our drawing room, only the things go the other way. i can see all of it when i get upon a chair--allbut the bit behind the fireplace. oh! i do so wish i could see that bit!
i want so much to know whether they've a fire in the winter: you nevercan tell, you know, unless our fire smokes, and then smoke comes up inthat room too--but that may be only pretence, just to make it look as ifthey had a fire. well then, the books are something like our books, onlythe words go the wrong way; i know that, because i've held up one of ourbooks to the glass, and then they hold up one in the other room.
`how would you like to live in looking-glass house, kitty? iwonder if they'd give you milk in there? perhaps looking-glass milkisn't good to drink--but oh, kitty! now we come to the passage. you canjust see a little peep of the passage in looking-glass house, if you leavethe door of our drawing-room wide open: and it's very like our passageas far as you can see, only you know it may be quite different on beyond.
oh, kitty! how nice it would be if we could only get through intolooking- glass house! i'm sure it's got, oh! such beautiful things in it!
let's pretend there's a way of getting through into it, somehow, kitty.
let's pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can getthrough. why, it's turning into a sort of mist now, i declare! it'll beeasy enough to get through--' she was up on the chimney-piece whileshe said this, though she hardly knew how she had got there. andcertainly the glass was beginning to melt away, just like a bright silverymist.
in another moment alice was through the glass, and had jumpedlightly down into the looking-glass room. the very first thing she didwas to look whether there was a fire in the fireplace, and she was quitepleased to find that there was a real one, blazing away as brightly as theone she had left behind. `so i shall be as warm here as i was in the oldroom,' thought alice: `warmer, in fact, because there'll be no one here toscold me away from the fire. oh, what fun it'll be, when they see methrough the glass in here, and can't get at me!'
then she began looking about, and noticed that what could be seenfrom the old room was quite common and uninteresting, but that all therest was a different as possible. for instance, the pictures on the wall next the fire seemed to be all alive, and the very clock on the chimney-piece (you know you can only see the back of it in the looking-glass) hadgot the face of a little old man, and grinned at her.
`they don't keep this room so tidy as the other,' alice thought toherself, as she noticed several of the chessmen down in the hearth amongthe cinders: but in another moment, with a little `oh!' of surprise, shewas down on her hands and knees watching them. the chessmen werewalking about, two and two!
`here are the red king and the red queen,' alice said (in a whisper,for fear of frightening them), `and there are the white king and the whitequeen sitting on the edge of the shovel--and here are two castles walkingarm in arm--i don't think they can hear me,' she went on, as she put herhead closer down, `and i'm nearly sure they can't see me. i feel somehowas if i were invisible--'
here something began squeaking on the table behind alice, andmade her turn her head just in time to see one of the white pawns roll overand begin kicking: she watched it with great curiosity to see what wouldhappen next.
`it is the voice of my child!' the white queen cried out as sherushed past the king, so violently that she knocked him over among thecinders. `my precious lily! my imperial kitten!' and she beganscrambling wildly up the side of the fender.
`imperial fiddlestick!' said the king, rubbing his nose, which hadbeen hurt by the fall. he had a right to be a little annoyed with thequeen, for he was covered with ashes from head to foot.
alice was very anxious to be of use, and, as the poor little lily wasnearly screaming herself into a fit, she hastily picked up the queen and sether on the table by the side of her noisy little daughter.
the queen gasped, and sat down: the rapid journey through the airhad quite taken away her breath and for a minute or two she could donothing but hug the little lily in silence. as soon as she had recoveredher breath a little, she called out to the white king, who was sitting sulkilyamong the ashes, `mind the volcano!'
`what volcano?' said the king, looking up anxiously into the fire, as if he thought that was the most likely place to find one.
`blew--me--up,' panted the queen, who was still a little out ofbreath. `mind you come up--the regular way--don't get blown up!'
alice watched the white king as he slowly struggled up from bar tobar, till at last she said, `why, you'll be hours and hours getting to the table,at that rate. i'd far better help you, hadn't i?' but the king took nonotice of the question: it was quite clear that he could neither hear hernor see her.
so alice picked him up very gently, and lifted him across moreslowly than she had lifted the queen, that she mightn't take his breathaway: but, before she put him on the table, she thought she might as welldust him a little, he was so covered with ashes.
she said afterwards that she had never seen in all her life such a faceas the king made, when he found himself held in the air by an invisiblehand, and being dusted: he was far too much astonished to cry out, buthis eyes and his mouth went on getting larger and larger, and rounder androunder, till her hand shook so with laughing that she nearly let him dropupon the floor.
`oh! please don't make such faces, my dear!' she cried out, quiteforgetting that the king couldn't hear her. `you make me laugh so that ican hardly hold you! and don't keep your mouth so wide open! all theashes will get into it--there, now i think you're tidy enough!' she added, asshe smoothed his hair, and set him upon the table near the queen.
the king immediately fell flat on his back, and lay perfectly still:
and alice was a little alarmed at what she had done, and went round theroom to see if she could find any water to throw over him. however, shecould find nothing but a bottle of ink, and when she got back with it shefound he had recovered, and he and the queen were talking together in afrightened whisper--so low, that alice could hardly hear what they said.
the king was saying, `i assure, you my dear, i turned cold to thevery ends of my whiskers!'
to which the queen replied, `you haven't got any whiskers.'
`the horror of that moment,' the king went on, `i shall never,never forget!'
`you will, though,' the queen said, `if you don't make amemorandum of it.'
alice looked on with great interest as the king took an enormousmemorandum-book out of his pocket, and began writing. a suddenthought struck her, and she took hold of the end of the pencil, which camesome way over his shoulder, and began writing for him.
the poor king look puzzled and unhappy, and struggled with thepencil for some time without saying anything; but alice was too strong forhim, and at last he panted out, `my dear! i really must get a thinnerpencil. i can't manage this one a bit; it writes all manner of things that idon't intend--'
`what manner of things?' said the queen, looking over the book (inwhich alice had put `the white knight is sliding down thepoker. he balances very badly') `that's not amemorandum of your feelings!'
there was a book lying near alice on the table, and while she satwatching the white king (for she was still a little anxious about him, andhad the ink all ready to throw over him, in case he fainted again), sheturned over the leaves, to find some part that she could read, `--for it's allin some language i don't know,' she said to herself.
it was like this.
ykcowrebbajsevot yhtils eht dna ,gillirb sawt`ebaw eht ni elbmig dna eryg did ,sevogorob ehterew ysmim lla .ebargtuo shtar emom eht dnashe puzzled over this for some time, but at last a bright thoughtstruck her. `why, it's a looking-glass book, of course! and if i hold it upto a glass, the words will all go the right way again.'
this was the poem that alice read.
jabberwocky'twas brillig, and the slithy toves didgyre and gimble in the wabe; all mimsy were theborogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe.
`beware the jabberwock, my son!
the jaws that bite, the claws that catch! beware the jujubbird, and shun the frumious bandersnatch!'
he took his vorpal sword in hand:
long time the manxome foe he sought-- so rested he bythe tumtum tree, and stood awhile in thought.
and as in uffish thought he stood,the jabberwock, with eyes of flame, came whifflingthrough the tulgey wood, and burbled as it came!
one, two! one, two! and through and throughthe vorpal blade went snicker-snack! he left it dead, andwith its head he went galumphing back.
`and has thou slain the jabberwock?
come to my arms, my beamish boy! o frabjous day!
calloh! callay!' he chortled in his joy.
'twas brillig, and the slithy toves didgyre and gimble in the wabe; all mimsy were theborogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe.
`it seems very pretty,' she said when she had finished it, `but it'srather hard to understand!' (you see she didn't like to confess, ever toherself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) `somehow it seems to fill myhead with ideas--only i don't exactly know what they are! however,somebody killed something: that's clear, at any rate--'
`but oh!' thought alice, suddenly jumping up, `if i don't make haste ishall have to go back through the looking-glass, before i've seen what therest of the house is like! let's have a look at the garden first!' she wasout of the room in a moment, and ran down stairs--or, at least, it wasn'texactly running, but a new invention of hers for getting down stairsquickly and easily, as alice said to herself. she just kept the tips of herfingers on the hand-rail, and floated gently down without even touchingthe stairs with her feet; then she floated on through the hall, and wouldhave gone straight out at the door in the same way, if she hadn't caughthold of the door-post. she was getting a little giddy with so muchfloating in the air, and was rather glad to find herself walking again in thenatural way.
