For instance, the pictures on the wall
next the fire seemed to be all alive, and the very clock on the
chimney-piece (you know you can only see the back of it in the
Looking-glass) had got the face of a little old man, and grinned at her.
- They don't keep this room so tidy as the other, - Alice thought to
herself, as she noticed several of the chessmen down in the hearth among
the cinders: but in another moment, with a little - Oh! - of surprise, she
was down on her hands and knees watching them. The chessmen were walking
about, two and two!
- Here are the Red King and the Red Queen, - Alice said (in a
whisper, for fear of frightening them), - and there are the White King and
the White Queen sitting on the edge of the shovel - and here are two
castles walking arm in arm - I don't think they can hear me, she went on,
as she put her head closer down, - and I'm nearly sure they can't see me.
I feel somehow as if I were invisible
Here something began squeaking on the table behind Alice, and made
her turn her head just in time to see one of the White Pawns roll over and
begin kicking: she watched it with great curiosity to see what would
happen next.
- It is the voice of my child! - the White Queen cried out as she
rushed past the King, so violently that she knocked him over among the
cinders. - My precious Lily! My imperial kitten! - and she began
scrambling wildly up the side of the fender.
- Imperial fiddlestick! - said the King, rubbing his nose, which had
been hurt by the fall. He had a right to be a LITTLE annoyed with the
Queen, for he was covered with ashes from head to foot.
Alice was very anxious to be of use, and, as the poor little Lily was
nearly screaming herself into a fit, she hastily picked up the Queen and
set her on the table by the side of her noisy little daughter.
The Queen gasped, and sat down: the rapid journey through the air had
quite taken away her breath and for a minute or two she could do nothing
but hug the little Lily in silence. As soon as she had recovered her
breath a little, she called out to the White King, who was sitting sulkily
among the ashes, - Mind the volcano!
- What volcano? - said the Kind, looking up anxiously into the fire,
as if he thought that was the most likely place to find one.
- Blew - me - up, - panted the Queen, who was still a little out of
breath. - Mind you come up - the regular way - don't get blown up!
Alice watched the White King as he slowly struggled up from bar to
bar, till at last she said, - Why, you'll be hours and hours getting to
the table, at that rate. I'd far better help you, hadn't I? - But the King
took no notice of the question: it was quite clear that he could neither
hear her nor see her.
So Alice picked him up very gently, and lifted him across more slowly
than she had lifted the Queen, that she mightn't take his breath away:
but, before she put him on the table, she thought she might as well dust
him a little, he was so covered with ashes.
She said afterwards that she had never seen in all her life such a
face as the King made, when he found himself held in the air by an
invisible hand, and being dusted: he was far too much astonished to cry
out, but his eyes and his mouth went on getting larger and larger, and
rounder and rounder, till her hand shook so with laughing that she nearly
let him drop upon the floor.
- Oh! PLEASE don't make such faces, my dear! - she cried out, quite
forgetting that the King couldn't hear her. - You make me laugh so that I
can hardly hold you! And don't keep your mouth so wide open! All the ashes
will get into it - there, now I think you're tidy enough! - she added, as
she smoothed his hair, and set him upon the table near the Queen.
The King immediately fell flat on his back, and lay perfectly still:
and Alice was a little alarmed at what she had done, and went round the
room to see if she could find any water to throw over him. However, she
could find nothing but a bottle of ink, and when she got back with it she
found he had recovered, and he and the Queen were talking together in a
frightened whisper - so low, that Alice could hardly hear what they said.
The King was saying, - I assure, you my dear, I turned cold to the
very ends of my whiskers!
To which the Queen replied, - You haven't got any whiskers. - The
horror of that moment, - the King went on, - I shall never,
NEVER forget!
- You will, though, - the Queen said, - if you don't make a
memorandum of it.
Alice looked on with great interest as the King took an enormous
memorandum-book out of his pocket, and began writing. A sudden thought
struck her, and she took hold of the end of the pencil, which came some
way over his shoulder, and began writing for him.
The poor King look puzzled and unhappy, and struggled with the pencil
for some time without saying anything; but Alice was too strong for him,
and at last he panted out, - My dear! I really MUST get a thinner pencil.
I can't manage this one a bit; it writes all manner of things that I don't
intend
- What manner of things? - said the Queen, looking over the book (in
which Alice had put - THE WHITE KNIGHT IS SLIDING DOWN THE POKER. HE
BALANCES VERY BADLY') - That's not a memorandum of YOUR feelings!
There was a book lying near Alice on the table, and while she sat
watching the White King (for she was still a little anxious about him, and
had the ink all ready to throw over him, in case he fainted again), she
turned over the leaves, to find some part that she could read, - for it's
all in some language I don't know, - she said to herself.
It was like this.

YKCOWREBBAJ

sevot yhtils eht dna ,gillirb sawT
ebaw eht ni elbmig dna eryg diD
,sevogorob eht erew ysmim llA
.ebargtuo shtar emom eht dnA

She puzzled over this for some time, but at last a bright thought
struck her. - Why, it's a Looking-glass book, of course! And if I hold it
up to a glass, the words will all go the right way again."
This was the poem that Alice read.

JABBERWOCKY

- Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

- Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jujub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought
So rested he by the Tumtum gree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wook,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

- And has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Calloh! Callay!
He chortled in his joy.

- Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

- It seems very pretty, - she said when she had finished it, - but
it's RATHER hard to understand! - (You see she didn't like to confess,
ever to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) - Somehow it seems
to fill my head with ideas - only I don't exactly know what they are!
However, SOMEBODY killed SOMETHING: that's clear, at any rate
- But oh! - thought Alice, suddenly jumping up, - if I don't make
haste I shall have to go back through the Looking-glass, before I've seen
what the rest of the house is like! Let's have a look at the garden first!
- She was out of the room in a moment, and ran down stairs or, at least,
it wasn't exactly running, but a new invention of hers for getting down
stairs quickly and easily, as Alice said to herself. She just kept the
tips of her fingers on the hand-rail, and floated gently down without even
touching the stairs with her feet; then she floated on through the hall,
and would have gone straight out at the door in the same way, if she
hadn't caught hold of the door-post. She was getting a little giddy with
so much floating in the air, and was rather glad to find herself walking
again in the natural way.



CHAPTER II

The Garden of Live Flowers

- I should see the garden far better, - said Alice to herself, - if I
could get to the top of that hill: and here's a path that leads straight
to it - at least, no, it doesn't do that - (after going a few yards along
the path, and turning several sharp corners), - but I suppose it will at
last. But how curiously it twists!
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