`It's no use talking about it,' Alice said, looking up at the house and pretending it was arguing with her. `I'm not going in again yet. I know I should have to get through the Looking-glass again -- back into the old room -- and there'd be an end of all my adventures!'
'Oh, it's too bad!' she cried. `I never saw such a house for getting in the way! Never!'
However, there was the hill full in sight, so there was nothing to be done but start again. This time she came upon a large flower-bed, with a border of daisies, and a willow-tree growing in the middle.
`We can talk,' said the Tiger-lily: `when there's anybody worth talking to.'
`As well you can,' said the Tiger-lily. `And a great deal louder.'
`It isn't manners for us to begin, you know,' said the Rose, `and I really was wondering when you'd speak! Said I to myself, "Her face has got some sense in it, though it's not a clever one!" Still, you're the right colour, and that goes a long way.'
`There's the tree in the middle,' said the Rose: `what else is it good for?'
`But what could it do, if any danger came?' Alice asked.
`Didn't you know that?' cried another Daisy, and here they all began shouting together, till the air seemed quite full of little shrill voices. `Silence, every one of you!' cried the Tiger-lily, waving itself passionately from side to side, and trembling with excitement. `They know I can't get at them!' it panted, bending its quivering head towards Alice, `or they wouldn't dare to do it!'
`Never mind!' Alice said in a soothing tone, and stooping down to the daisies, who were just beginning again, she whispered, `If you don't hold your tongues, I'll pick you!'
There was silence in a moment, and several of the pink daisies turned white.
`How is it you can all talk so nicely?' Alice said, hoping to get it into a better temper by a compliment. `I've been in many gardens before, but none of the flowers could talk.'
`Put your hand down, and feel the ground,' said the Tiger-lily. `Then you'll know why.'
Alice did so. `It's very hard,' she said, `but I don't see what that has to do with it.'
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.
`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!'
`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.'
`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!
`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.
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.'
`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."'
`That's right,' said the Queen, patting her on the head, which Alice didn't like at all, `though, when you say "garden," -- I've seen gardens, compared with which this would be a wilderness.'
Alice didn't dare to argue the point, but went on: `-- and I thought I'd try and find my way to the top of that hill -- '
`When you say "hill,"' the Queen interrupted, `I could show you hills, in comparison with which you'd call that a valley.'
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.
`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 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.
`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?'
`You should have said,' `"It's extremely kind of you to tell me all this" -- however, we'll suppose it said -- the Seventh Square is all forest -- however, one of the Knights will show you the way -- and in the Eighth Square we shall be Queens together, and it's all feasting and fun!' Alice got up and curtseyed, and sat down again.
At the next peg the Queen turned again, and this time she said, `Speak in French when you can't think of the English for a thing -- turn out your toes as you walk -- and remember who you are!' She did not wait for Alice to curtsey this time, but walked on quickly to the next peg, where she turned for a moment to say `good-bye,' and then hurried on to the last.
How it happened, Alice never knew, but exactly as she came to the last peg, she was gone. Whether she vanished into the air, or whether she ran quickly into the wood (`and she can run very fast!' thought Alice), there was no way of guessing, but she was gone, and Alice began to remember that she was a Pawn, and that it would soon be time for her to move.
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