Through the Looking Glass by Carroll Lewis - HTML preview

CHAPTER XI

At any other time, Alice would have felt surprised at this, but she was far too much excited to be surprised at anything Waking

now. ‘As for you,’ she repeated, catching hold of the little creature in the very act of jumping over a bottle which had

—and it really was a kitten, after all.

just lighted upon the table, ‘I’ll shake you into a kitten, that I will!’

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Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll at each other. ‘Now, Kitty!’ she cried, clapping her hands CHAPTER XII

triumphantly. ‘Confess that was what you turned into!’

(‘But it wouldn’t look at it,’ she said, when she was explain-Which Dreamed it?

ing the thing afterwards to her sister: ‘it turned away its head, and pretended not to see it: but it looked a little ashamed of

‘Your majesty shouldn’t purr so loud,’ Alice said, rubbing itself, so I think it must have been the Red Queen.’) her eyes, and addressing the kitten, respectfully, yet with

‘Sit up a little more stiffly, dear!’ Alice cried with a merry some severity. ‘You woke me out of oh! such a nice dream!

laugh. ‘And curtsey while you’re thinking what to—what to And you’ve been along with me, Kitty—all through the Look-purr. It saves time, remember!’ And she caught it up and ing-Glass world. Did you know it, dear?’

gave it one little kiss, ‘just in honour of having been a Red It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice had once Queen.’

made the remark) that, whatever you say to them, they al-

‘Snowdrop, my pet!’ she went on, looking over her shoul-ways purr. ‘If them would only purr for “yes” and mew for der at the White Kitten, which was still patiently undergo-

“no,” or any rule of that sort,’ she had said, ‘so that one ing its toilet, ‘when will Dinah have finished with your White could keep up a conversation! But how can you talk with a Majesty, I wonder? That must be the reason you were so person if they always say the same thing?’

untidy in my dream—Dinah! do you know that you’re scrub-On this occasion the kitten only purred: and it was impos-bing a White Queen? Really, it’s most disrespectful of you!

sible to guess whether it meant ‘yes’ or ‘no.’

‘And what did Dinah turn to, I wonder?’ she prattled on, as So Alice hunted among the chessmen on the table till she she settled comfortably down, with one elbow in the rug, had found the Red Queen: then she went down on her knees and her chin in her hand, to watch the kittens. ‘Tell me, on the hearth-rug, and put the kitten and the Queen to look Dinah, did you turn to Humpty Dumpty? I think you did—

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Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll however, you’d better not mention it to your friends just yet, for I’m not sure.

A boat beneath a sunny sky,

‘By the way, Kitty, if only you’d been really with me in my Lingering onward dreamily

dream, there was one thing you would have enjoyed—I had In an evening of July—

such a quantity of poetry said to me, all about fishes! To-morrow morning you shall have a real treat. All the time Children three that nestle near,

you’re eating your breakfast, I’ll repeat “The Walrus and the Eager eye and willing ear,

Carpenter” to you; and then you can make believe it’s oys-Pleased a simple tale to hear—

ters, dear!

‘Now, Kitty, let’s consider who it was that dreamed it all.

Long has paled that sunny sky:

This is a serious question, my dear, and you should not go Echoes fade and memories die.

on licking your paw like that—as if Dinah hadn’t washed Autumn frosts have slain July.

you this morning! You see, Kitty, it must have been either me or the Red King. He was part of my dream, of course—

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,

but then I was part of his dream, too! Was it the Red King, Alice moving under skies

Kitty? You were his wife, my dear, so you ought to know—

Never seen by waking eyes.

Oh, Kitty, do help to settle it! I’m sure your paw can wait!’

But the provoking kitten only began on the other paw, and Children yet, the tale to hear,

pretended it hadn’t heard the question.

Eager eye and willing ear,

Which do you think it was?

Lovingly shall nestle near.

—

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Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll In a Wonderland they lie,

To read more works by Lewis Carroll, Dreaming as the days go by,

be sure to return to PSU’s

Dreaming as the summers die:

Electronic Classics Series Lewis Carroll site:

Ever drifting down the stream—

Lingering in the golden gleam—

Life, what is it but a dream?

http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/

jmanis/carroll.htm.

THE END

To read more classics in English,

return to PSU’s

Electronic Classics Series site:

http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/

jmanis/jimspdf.htm.

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