Looking-Glass house

One thing was certain, that the _white_ kitten had had nothing to dornwith it:—it was the black kitten’s fault entirely. For the white kittenrnhad been having its face washed by the old cat for the last quarter ofrnan hour (and bearing it pretty well, considering); so you see that itrn_couldn’t_ have had any hand in the mischief.rnrnThe way Dinah washed her children’s faces was this: first she held thernpoor thing down by its ear with one paw, and then with the other pawrnshe rubbed its face all over, the wrong way, beginning at the nose: andrnjust now, as I said, she was hard at work on the white kitten, whichrnwas lying quite still and trying to purr—no doubt feeling that it wasrnall meant for its good.rnrnBut the black kitten had been finished with earlier in the afternoon,rnand so, while Alice was sitting curled up in a corner of the greatrnarm-chair, half talking to herself and half asleep, the kitten had beenrnhaving a grand game of romps with the ball of worsted Alice had beenrntrying to wind up, and had been rolling it up and down till it had allrncome undone again; and there it was, spread over the hearth-rug, allrnknots and tangles, with the kitten running after its own tail in thernmiddle.rnrn“Oh, you wicked little thing!” cried Alice, catching up the kitten, andrngiving it a little kiss to make it understand that it was in disgrace.“Really, Dinah ought to have taught you better manners! You _ought_,rnDinah, you know you ought!” she added, looking reproachfully at the oldrncat, and speaking in as cross a voice as she could manage—and then shernscrambled back into the arm-chair, taking the kitten and the worstedrnwith her, and began winding up the ball again. But she didn’t get onrnvery fast, as she was talking all the time, sometimes to the kitten,rnand sometimes to herself. Kitty sat very demurely on her knee,rnpretending to watch the progress of the winding, and now and thenrnputting out one paw and gently touching the ball, as if it would bernglad to help, if it might.rnrn“Do you know what to-morrow is, Kitty?” Alice began. “You’d havernguessed if you’d been up in the window with me—only Dinah was makingrnyou tidy, so you couldn’t. I was watching the boys getting in sticksrnfor the bonfire—and it wants plenty of sticks, Kitty! Only it got sorncold, and it snowed so, they had to leave off. Never mind, Kitty, we’llrngo and see the bonfire to-morrow.” Here Alice wound two or three turnsrnof the worsted round the kitten’s neck, just to see how it would look:rnthis led to a scramble, in which the ball rolled down upon the floor,rnand yards and yards of it got unwound again.rnrn“Do you know, I was so angry, Kitty,” Alice went on as soon as theyrnwere comfortably settled again, “when I saw all the mischief you hadrnbeen doing, I was very nearly opening the window, and putting you outrninto the snow! And you’d have deserved it, you little mischievousrndarling! What have you got to say for yourself? Now don’t interruptrnme!” she went on, holding up one finger. “I’m going to tell you allrnyour faults. Number one: you squeaked twice while Dinah was washingrnyour face this morning. Now you can’t deny it, Kitty: I heard you!rnWhat’s that you say?” (pretending that the kitten was speaking.) “Herrnpaw went into your eye? Well, that’s _your_ fault, for keeping yourrneyes open—if you’d shut them tight up, it wouldn’t have happened. Nowrndon’t make any more excuses, but listen! Number two: you pulledrnSnowdrop away by the tail just as I had put down the saucer of milkrnbefore her! What, you were thirsty, were you? How do you know shernwasn’t thirsty too? Now for number three: you unwound every bit of thernworsted while I wasn’t looking!rnrn“That’s three faults, Kitty, and you’ve not been punished for any ofrnthem yet. You know I’m saving up all your punishments for Wednesdayrnweek—Suppose they had saved up all _my_ punishments!” she went on,rntalking more to herself than the kitten. “What _would_ they do at thernend of a year? I should be sent to prison, I suppose, when the dayrncame. Or—let me see—suppose each punishment was to be going without arndinner: then, when the miserable day came, I should have to go withoutrnfifty dinners at once! Well, I shouldn’t mind _that_ much! I’d farrnrather go without them than eat them!rnrn“Do you hear the snow against the window-panes, Kitty? How nice andrnsoft it sounds! Just as if some one was kissing the window all overrnoutside. I wonder if the snow _loves_ the trees and fields, that itrnkisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, withrna white quilt; and perhaps it says, ‘Go to sleep, darlings, till thernsummer comes again.’ And when they wake up in the summer, Kitty, theyrndress themselves all in green, and dance about—whenever the windrnblows—oh, that’s very pretty!” cried Alice, dropping the ball ofrnworsted to clap her hands. “And I do so _wish_ it was true! I’m surernthe woods look sleepy in the autumn, when the leaves are getting brown.rnrn“Kitty, can you play chess? Now, don’t smile, my dear, I’m asking itrnseriously. Because, when we were playing just now, you watched just asrnif you understood it: and when I said ‘Check!’ you purred! Well, itrn_was_ a nice check, Kitty, and really I might have won, if it hadn’trnbeen for that nasty Knight, that came wiggling down among my pieces.rnKitty, dear, let’s pretend—” And here I wish I could tell you half thernthings Alice used to say, beginning with her favourite phrase “Let’srnpretend.” She had had quite a long argument with her sister only thernday before—all because Alice had begun with “Let’s pretend we’re kingsrnand queens;” and her sister, who liked being very exact, had arguedrnthat they couldn’t, because there were only two of them, and Alice hadrnbeen reduced at last to say, “Well, _you_ can be one of them then, andrn_I’ll_ be all the rest.” And once she had really frightened her oldrnnurse by shouting suddenly in her ear, “Nurse! Do let’s pretend thatrnI’m a hungry hyaena, and you’re a bone.”rnrnBut this is taking us away from Alice’s speech to the kitten. “Let’srnpretend that you’re the Red Queen, Kitty! Do you know, I think if yournsat up and folded your arms, you’d look exactly like her. Now do try,rnthere’s a dear!” And Alice got the Red Queen off the table, and set itrnup before the kitten as a model for it to imitate: however, the thingrndidn’t succeed, principally, Alice said, because the kitten wouldn’trnfold its arms properly. So, to punish it, she held it up to thernLooking-glass, that it might see how sulky it was—“and if you’re notrngood directly,” she added, “I’ll put you through into Looking-glassrnHouse. How would you like _that_?”rnrn“Now, if you’ll only attend, Kitty, and not talk so much, I’ll tell yournall my ideas about Looking-glass House. First, there’s the room you canrnsee through the glass—that’s just the same as our drawing room, onlyrnthe things go the other way. I can see all of it when I get upon arnchair—all but the bit behind the fireplace. Oh! I do so wish I couldrnsee _that_ bit! I want so much to know whether they’ve a fire in thernwinter: you never _can_ tell, you know, unless our fire smokes, andrnthen smoke comes up in that room too—but that may be only pretence,rnjust to make it look as if they had a fire. Well then, the books arernsomething like our books, only the words go the wrong way; I know that,rnbecause I’ve held up one of our books to the glass, and then they holdrnup one in the other room.rnrn“How would you like to live in Looking-glass House, Kitty? I wonder ifrnthey’d give you milk in there? Perhaps Looking-glass milk isn’t good torndrink—But oh, Kitty! now we come to the passage. You can just see arnlittle _peep_ of the passage in Looking-glass House, if you leave therndoor of our drawing-room wide open: and it’s very like our passage asrnfar as you can see, only you know it may be quite different on beyond.rnOh, Kitty! how nice it would be if we could only get through intornLooking-glass House! I’m sure it’s got, oh! such beautiful things inrnit! Let’s pretend there’s a way of getting through into it, somehow,rnKitty. Let’s pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that werncan get through. Why, it’s turning into a sort of mist now, I declare!rnIt’ll be easy enough to get through—” She was up on the chimney-piecernwhile she said this, though she hardly knew how she had got there. Andrncertainly the glass _was_ beginning to melt away, just like a brightrnsilvery mist.rnrnIn another moment Alice was through the glass, and had jumped lightlyrndown into the Looking-glass room. The very first thing she did was tornlook whether there was a fire in the fireplace, and she was quiternpleased to find that there was a real one, blazing away as brightly asrnthe one she had left behind. “So I shall be as warm here as I was inrnthe old room,” thought Alice: “warmer, in fact, because there’ll be nornone here to scold me away from the fire. Oh, what fun it’ll be, whenrnthey see me through the glass in here, and can’t get at me!”rnrnThen she began looking about, and noticed that what could be seen fromrnthe old room was quite common and uninteresting, but that all the restrnwas as different as possible. For instance, the pictures on the wallrnnext the fire seemed to be all alive, and the very clock on thernchimney-piece (you know you can only see the back of it in thernLooking-glass) had got the face of a little old man, and grinned atrnher.rnrn“They don’t keep this room so tidy as the other,” Alice thought tornherself, as she noticed several of the chessmen down in the hearthrnamong the cinders: but in another moment, with a little “Oh!” ofrnsurprise, she was down on her hands and knees watching them. Thernchessmen were walking about, two and two!rnrn“Here are the Red King and the Red Queen,” Alice said (in a whisper,rnfor fear of frightening them), “and there are the White King and thernWhite Queen sitting on the edge of the shovel—and here are two castlesrnwalking arm in arm—I don’t think they can hear me,” she went on, as shernput her head closer down, “and I’m nearly sure they can’t see me. Irnfeel somehow as if I were invisible—”rnrnHere something began squeaking on the table behind Alice, and made herrnturn her head just in time to see one of the White Pawns roll over andrnbegin kicking: she watched it with great curiosity to see what wouldrnhappen next.rnrn“It is the voice of my child!” the White Queen cried out as she rushedrnpast the King, so violently that she knocked him over among therncinders. “My precious Lily! My imperial kitten!” and she beganrnscrambling wildly up the side of the fender.rnrn“Imperial fiddlestick!” said the King, rubbing his nose, which had beenrnhurt by the fall. He had a right to be a _little_ annoyed with thernQueen, for he was covered with ashes from head to foot.rnrnAlice was very anxious to be of use, and, as the poor little Lily wasrnnearly screaming herself into a fit, she hastily picked up the Queenrnand set her on the table by the side of her noisy little daughter.rnrnThe Queen gasped, and sat down: the rapid journey through the air hadrnquite taken away her breath and for a minute or two she could dornnothing but hug the little Lily in silence. As soon as she hadrnrecovered her breath a little, she called out to the White King, whornwas sitting sulkily among the ashes, “Mind the volcano!”rnrn“What volcano?” said the King, looking up anxiously into the fire, asrnif he thought that was the most likely place to find one.rnrn“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!”rnrnAlice watched the White King as he slowly struggled up from bar to bar,rntill at last she said, “Why, you’ll be hours and hours getting to therntable, at that rate. I’d far better help you, hadn’t I?” But the Kingrntook no notice of the question: it was quite clear that he couldrnneither hear her nor see her.rnrnSo Alice picked him up very gently, and lifted him across more slowlyrnthan she had lifted the Queen, that she mightn’t take his breath away:rnbut, before she put him on the table, she thought she might as wellrndust him a little, he was so covered with ashes.rnrnShe said afterwards that she had never seen in all her life such a facernas the King made, when he found himself held in the air by an invisiblernhand, and being dusted: he was far too much astonished to cry out, butrnhis eyes and his mouth went on getting larger and larger, and rounderrnand rounder, till her hand shook so with laughing that she nearly letrnhim drop upon the floor.rnrn“Oh! _please_ don’t make such faces, my dear!” she cried out, quiternforgetting that the King couldn’t hear her. “You make me laugh so thatrnI can hardly hold you! And don’t keep your mouth so wide open! All thernashes will get into it—there, now I think you’re tidy enough!” shernadded, as she smoothed his hair, and set him upon the table near thernQueen.rnrnThe King immediately fell flat on his back, and lay perfectly still:rnand Alice was a little alarmed at what she had done, and went round thernroom to see if she could find any water to throw over him. However, sherncould find nothing but a bottle of ink, and when she got back with itrnshe found he had recovered, and he and the Queen were talking togetherrnin a frightened whisper—so low, that Alice could hardly hear what theyrnsaid.rnrnThe King was saying, “I assure, you my dear, I turned cold to the veryrnends of my whiskers!”rnrnTo which the Queen replied, “You haven’t got any whiskers.”rnrn“The horror of that moment,” the King went on, “I shall never, _never_rnforget!”rnrn“You will, though,” the Queen said, “if you don’t make a memorandum ofrnit.”rnrnAlice looked on with great interest as the King took an enormousrnmemorandum-book out of his pocket, and began writing. A sudden thoughtrnstruck her, and she took hold of the end of the pencil, which came somernway over his shoulder, and began writing for him.rnrnThe poor King looked puzzled and unhappy, and struggled with the pencilrnfor some time without saying anything; but Alice was too strong forrnhim, and at last he panted out, “My dear! I really _must_ get a thinnerrnpencil. I can’t manage this one a bit; it writes all manner of thingsrnthat I don’t intend—”rnrn“What manner of things?” said the Queen, looking over the book (inrnwhich Alice had put “_The White Knight is sliding down the poker. Hernbalances very badly_”) “That’s not a memorandum of _your_ feelings!”rnrnThere was a book lying near Alice on the table, and while she satrnwatching the White King (for she was still a little anxious about him,rnand had the ink all ready to throw over him, in case he fainted again),rnshe 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.rnrnIt was like this.rnrn.YKCOWREBBAJrnrnsevot yhtils eht dna, gillirb sawT’rnebaw eht ni elbmig dna eryg diDrn ,sevogorob eht erew ysmim llArn.ebargtuo shtar emom eht dnArnrnrnrnShe puzzled over this for some time, but at last a bright thoughtrnstruck her. “Why, it’s a Looking-glass book, of course! And if I holdrnit up to a glass, the words will all go the right way again.”rnrnThis was the poem that Alice read.rnrnJABBERWOCKY.rnrn’Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesrn Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;rnAll mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.rnrn“Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!rnBeware the Jubjub bird, and shunrn The frumious Bandersnatch!”rnrnHe took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought—rnSo rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought.rnrnAnd as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,rnCame whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came!rnrnOne, two! One, two! And through and throughrn The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!rnHe left it dead, and with its headrn He went galumphing back.rnrn“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy!rnO frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” He chortled in his joy.rnrn’Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesrn Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;rnAll mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.rnrnrn“It seems very pretty,” she said when she had finished it, “but it’srn_rather_ hard to understand!” (You see she didn’t like to confess, evenrnto herself, that she couldn’t make it out at all.) “Somehow it seems tornfill my head with ideas—only I don’t exactly know what they are!rnHowever, _somebody_ killed _something_: that’s clear, at any rate—”rnrn“But oh!” thought Alice, suddenly jumping up, “if I don’t make haste Irnshall have to go back through the Looking-glass, before I’ve seen whatrnthe rest of the house is like! Let’s have a look at the garden first!”rnShe was out of the room in a moment, and ran down stairs—or, at least,rnit wasn’t exactly running, but a new invention of hers for getting downrnstairs quickly and easily, as Alice said to herself. She just kept therntips of her fingers on the hand-rail, and floated gently down withoutrneven touching the stairs with her feet; then she floated on through thernhall, and would have gone straight out at the door in the same way, ifrnshe hadn’t caught hold of the door-post. She was getting a little giddyrnwith so much floating in the air, and was rather glad to find herselfrnwalking again in the natural way.