The Garden of Live Flowers

I should see the garden far better,” said Alice to herself, “if Irncould get to the top of that hill: and here’s a path that leadsrnstraight to it—at least, no, it doesn’t do that—” (after going a fewrnyards along the path, and turning several sharp corners), “but Irnsuppose it will at last. But how curiously it twists! It’s more like arncorkscrew than a path! Well, _this_ turn goes to the hill, Irnsuppose—no, it doesn’t! This goes straight back to the house! Wellrnthen, I’ll try it the other way.”rnrnAnd so she did: wandering up and down, and trying turn after turn, butrnalways coming back to the house, do what she would. Indeed, once, whenrnshe turned a corner rather more quickly than usual, she ran against itrnbefore she could stop herself.rnrn“It’s no use talking about it,” Alice said, looking up at the house andrnpretending it was arguing with her. “I’m _not_ going in again yet. Irnknow I should have to get through the Looking-glass again—back into thernold room—and there’d be an end of all my adventures!”rnrnSo, resolutely turning her back upon the house, she set out once morerndown the path, determined to keep straight on till she got to the hill.rnFor a few minutes all went on well, and she was just saying, “I reallyrn_shall_ do it this time—” when the path gave a sudden twist and shookrnitself (as she described it afterwards), and the next moment she foundrnherself actually walking in at the door.rnrn“Oh, it’s too bad!” she cried. “I never saw such a house for getting inrnthe way! Never!”rnrnHowever, there was the hill full in sight, so there was nothing to berndone but start again. This time she came upon a large flower-bed, withrna border of daisies, and a willow-tree growing in the middle.rnrn“O Tiger-lily,” said Alice, addressing herself to one that was wavingrngracefully about in the wind, “I _wish_ you could talk!”rnrn“We _can_ talk,” said the Tiger-lily: “when there’s anybody worthrntalking to.”rnrnAlice was so astonished that she could not speak for a minute: it quiternseemed to take her breath away. At length, as the Tiger-lily only wentrnon waving about, she spoke again, in a timid voice—almost in a whisper.“And can _all_ the flowers talk?”rnrn“As well as _you_ can,” said the Tiger-lily. “And a great deal louder.”rnrn“It isn’t manners for us to begin, you know,” said the Rose, “and Irnreally was wondering when you’d speak! Said I to myself, ‘Her face hasrngot _some_ sense in it, though it’s not a clever one!’ Still, you’rernthe right colour, and that goes a long way.”rnrn“I don’t care about the colour,” the Tiger-lily remarked. “If only herrnpetals curled up a little more, she’d be all right.”rnrnAlice didn’t like being criticised, so she began asking questions.“Aren’t you sometimes frightened at being planted out here, with nobodyrnto take care of you?”rnrn“There’s the tree in the middle,” said the Rose: “what else is it goodrnfor?”rnrn“But what could it do, if any danger came?” Alice asked.rnrn“It says ‘Bough-wough!’” cried a Daisy: “that’s why its branches arerncalled boughs!”rnrn“Didn’t you know _that_?” cried another Daisy, and here they all beganrnshouting together, till the air seemed quite full of little shrillrnvoices. “Silence, every one of you!” cried the Tiger-lily, wavingrnitself passionately from side to side, and trembling with excitement.“They know I can’t get at them!” it panted, bending its quivering headrntowards Alice, “or they wouldn’t dare to do it!”rnrn“Never mind!” Alice said in a soothing tone, and stooping down to therndaisies, who were just beginning again, she whispered, “If you don’trnhold your tongues, I’ll pick you!”rnrnThere was silence in a moment, and several of the pink daisies turnedrnwhite.rnrn“That’s right!” said the Tiger-lily. “The daisies are worst of all.rnWhen one speaks, they all begin together, and it’s enough to make onernwither to hear the way they go on!”rnrn“How is it you can all talk so nicely?” Alice said, hoping to get itrninto a better temper by a compliment. “I’ve been in many gardensrnbefore, but none of the flowers could talk.”rnrn“Put your hand down, and feel the ground,” said the Tiger-lily. “Thenrnyou’ll know why.”rnrnAlice did so. “It’s very hard,” she said, “but I don’t see what thatrnhas to do with it.”rnrn“In most gardens,” the Tiger-lily said, “they make the beds too soft—sornthat the flowers are always asleep.”rnrnThis sounded a very good reason, and Alice was quite pleased to knowrnit. “I never thought of that before!” she said.rnrn“It’s _my_ opinion that you never think _at all_,” the Rose said in arnrather severe tone.rnrn“I never saw anybody that looked stupider,” a Violet said, so suddenly,rnthat Alice quite jumped; for it hadn’t spoken before.rnrn“Hold _your_ tongue!” cried the Tiger-lily. “As if _you_ ever sawrnanybody! You keep your head under the leaves, and snore away there,rntill you know no more what’s going on in the world, than if you were arnbud!”rnrn“Are there any more people in the garden besides me?” Alice said, notrnchoosing to notice the Rose’s last remark.rnrn“There’s one other flower in the garden that can move about like you,”rnsaid the Rose. “I wonder how you do it—” (“You’re always wondering,”rnsaid the Tiger-lily), “but she’s more bushy than you are.”rnrn“Is she like me?” Alice asked eagerly, for the thought crossed herrnmind, “There’s another little girl in the garden, somewhere!”rnrn“Well, she has the same awkward shape as you,” the Rose said, “butrnshe’s redder—and her petals are shorter, I think.”rnrn“Her petals are done up close, almost like a dahlia,” the Tiger-lilyrninterrupted: “not tumbled about anyhow, like yours.”rnrn“But that’s not _your_ fault,” the Rose added kindly: “you’re beginningrnto fade, you know—and then one can’t help one’s petals getting a littlernuntidy.”rnrnAlice didn’t like this idea at all: so, to change the subject, shernasked “Does she ever come out here?”rnrn“I daresay you’ll see her soon,” said the Rose. “She’s one of thernthorny kind.”rnrn“Where does she wear the thorns?” Alice asked with some curiosity.rnrn“Why all round her head, of course,” the Rose replied. “I was wonderingrn_you_ hadn’t got some too. I thought it was the regular rule.”rnrn“She’s coming!” cried the Larkspur. “I hear her footstep, thump, thump,rnthump, along the gravel-walk!”rnrnAlice looked round eagerly, and found that it was the Red Queen. “She’srngrown a good deal!” was her first remark. She had indeed: when Alicernfirst found her in the ashes, she had been only three inches high—andrnhere she was, half a head taller than Alice herself!rnrn“It’s the fresh air that does it,” said the Rose: “wonderfully fine airrnit is, out here.”rnrn“I think I’ll go and meet her,” said Alice, for, though the flowersrnwere interesting enough, she felt that it would be far grander to haverna talk with a real Queen.rnrn“You can’t possibly do that,” said the Rose: “_I_ should advise you tornwalk the other way.”rnrnThis sounded nonsense to Alice, so she said nothing, but set off atrnonce towards the Red Queen. To her surprise, she lost sight of her in arnmoment, and found herself walking in at the front-door again.rnrnA little provoked, she drew back, and after looking everywhere for thernqueen (whom she spied out at last, a long way off), she thought shernwould try the plan, this time, of walking in the opposite direction.rnrnIt succeeded beautifully. She had not been walking a minute before shernfound herself face to face with the Red Queen, and full in sight of thernhill she had been so long aiming at.rnrn“Where do you come from?” said the Red Queen. “And where are you going?rnLook up, speak nicely, and don’t twiddle your fingers all the time.”rnrnAlice attended to all these directions, and explained, as well as sherncould, that she had lost her way.rnrn“I don’t know what you mean by _your_ way,” said the Queen: “all thernways about here belong to _me_—but why did you come out here at all?”rnshe added in a kinder tone. “Curtsey while you’re thinking what to say,rnit saves time.”rnrnAlice wondered a little at this, but she was too much in awe of thernQueen to disbelieve it. “I’ll try it when I go home,” she thought tornherself, “the next time I’m a little late for dinner.”rnrn“It’s time for you to answer now,” the Queen said, looking at herrnwatch: “open your mouth a _little_ wider when you speak, and always sayrn‘your Majesty.’”rnrn“I only wanted to see what the garden was like, your Majesty—”rnrn“That’s right,” said the Queen, patting her on the head, which Alicerndidn’t like at all, “though, when you say ‘garden,’—_I’ve_ seenrngardens, compared with which this would be a wilderness.”rnrnAlice didn’t dare to argue the point, but went on: “—and I thought I’drntry and find my way to the top of that hill—”rnrn“When you say ‘hill,’” the Queen interrupted, “_I_ could show yournhills, in comparison with which you’d call that a valley.”rnrn“No, I shouldn’t,” said Alice, surprised into contradicting her atrnlast: “a hill _can’t_ be a valley, you know. That would be nonsense—”rnrnThe Red Queen shook her head, “You may call it ‘nonsense’ if you like,”rnshe said, “but _I’ve_ heard nonsense, compared with which that would bernas sensible as a dictionary!”rnrnAlice curtseyed again, as she was afraid from the Queen’s tone that shernwas a _little_ offended: and they walked on in silence till they got tornthe top of the little hill.rnrnFor some minutes Alice stood without speaking, looking out in allrndirections over the country—and a most curious country it was. Therernwere a number of tiny little brooks running straight across it fromrnside to side, and the ground between was divided up into squares by arnnumber of little green hedges, that reached from brook to brook.rnrn“I declare it’s marked out just like a large chessboard!” Alice said atrnlast. “There ought to be some men moving about somewhere—and so therernare!” She added in a tone of delight, and her heart began to beat quickrnwith excitement as she went on. “It’s a great huge game of chess that’srnbeing played—all over the world—if this _is_ the world at all, yournknow. Oh, what fun it is! How I _wish_ I was one of them! I wouldn’trnmind being a Pawn, if only I might join—though of course I shouldrn_like_ to be a Queen, best.”rnrnShe glanced rather shyly at the real Queen as she said this, but herrncompanion only smiled pleasantly, and said, “That’s easily managed. Yourncan be the White Queen’s Pawn, if you like, as Lily’s too young tornplay; and you’re in the Second Square to begin with: when you get tornthe Eighth Square you’ll be a Queen—” Just at this moment, somehow orrnother, they began to run.rnrnAlice never could quite make out, in thinking it over afterwards, howrnit was that they began: all she remembers is, that they were runningrnhand in hand, and the Queen went so fast that it was all she could dornto keep up with her: and still the Queen kept crying “Faster! Faster!”rnbut Alice felt she _could not_ go faster, though she had not breathrnleft to say so.rnrnThe most curious part of the thing was, that the trees and the otherrnthings round them never changed their places at all: however fast theyrnwent, they never seemed to pass anything. “I wonder if all the thingsrnmove along with us?” thought poor puzzled Alice. And the Queen seemedrnto guess her thoughts, for she cried, “Faster! Don’t try to talk!”rnrnNot that Alice had any idea of doing _that_. She felt as if she wouldrnnever be able to talk again, she was getting so much out of breath: andrnstill the Queen cried “Faster! Faster!” and dragged her along. “Are wernnearly there?” Alice managed to pant out at last.rnrn“Nearly there!” the Queen repeated. “Why, we passed it ten minutes ago!rnFaster!” And they ran on for a time in silence, with the wind whistlingrnin Alice’s ears, and almost blowing her hair off her head, she fancied.rnrn“Now! Now!” cried the Queen. “Faster! Faster!” And they went so fastrnthat at last they seemed to skim through the air, hardly touching thernground with their feet, till suddenly, just as Alice was getting quiternexhausted, they stopped, and she found herself sitting on the ground,rnbreathless and giddy.rnrnThe Queen propped her up against a tree, and said kindly, “You may restrna little now.”rnrnAlice looked round her in great surprise. “Why, I do believe we’ve beenrnunder this tree the whole time! Everything’s just as it was!”rnrn“Of course it is,” said the Queen, “what would you have it?”rnrn“Well, in _our_ country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’drngenerally get to somewhere else—if you ran very fast for a long time,rnas we’ve been doing.”rnrn“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, _here_, you see, itrntakes all the running _you_ can do, to keep in the same place. If yournwant to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast asrnthat!”rnrn“I’d rather not try, please!” said Alice. “I’m quite content to stayrnhere—only I _am_ so hot and thirsty!”rnrn“I know what _you’d_ like!” the Queen said good-naturedly, taking arnlittle box out of her pocket. “Have a biscuit?”rnrnAlice thought it would not be civil to say “No,” though it wasn’t atrnall what she wanted. So she took it, and ate it as well as she could:rnand it was _very_ dry; and she thought she had never been so nearlyrnchoked in all her life.rnrn“While you’re refreshing yourself,” said the Queen, “I’ll just take thernmeasurements.” And she took a ribbon out of her pocket, marked inrninches, and began measuring the ground, and sticking little pegs inrnhere and there.rnrn“At the end of two yards,” she said, putting in a peg to mark therndistance, “I shall give you your directions—have another biscuit?”rnrn“No, thank you,” said Alice: “one’s _quite_ enough!”rnrn“Thirst quenched, I hope?” said the Queen.rnrnAlice did not know what to say to this, but luckily the Queen did notrnwait for an answer, but went on. “At the end of _three_ yards I shallrnrepeat them—for fear of your forgetting them. At the end of _four_, Irnshall say good-bye. And at the end of _five_, I shall go!”rnrnShe had got all the pegs put in by this time, and Alice looked on withrngreat interest as she returned to the tree, and then began slowlyrnwalking down the row.rnrnAt the two-yard peg she faced round, and said, “A pawn goes two squaresrnin its first move, you know. So you’ll go _very_ quickly through thernThird Square—by railway, I should think—and you’ll find yourself in thernFourth Square in no time. Well, _that_ square belongs to Tweedledum andrnTweedledee—the Fifth is mostly water—the Sixth belongs to HumptyrnDumpty—But you make no remark?”rnrn“I—I didn’t know I had to make one—just then,” Alice faltered out.rnrn“You _should_ have said, ‘It’s extremely kind of you to tell me allrnthis’—however, we’ll suppose it said—the Seventh Square is allrnforest—however, one of the Knights will show you the way—and in thernEighth Square we shall be Queens together, and it’s all feasting andrnfun!” Alice got up and curtseyed, and sat down again.rnrnAt the next peg the Queen turned again, and this time she said, “Speakrnin French when you can’t think of the English for a thing—turn out yourrntoes as you walk—and remember who you are!” She did not wait for Alicernto curtsey this time, but walked on quickly to the next peg, where shernturned for a moment to say “good-bye,” and then hurried on to the last.rnrnHow it happened, Alice never knew, but exactly as she came to the lastrnpeg, she was gone. Whether she vanished into the air, or whether shernran quickly into the wood (“and she _can_ run very fast!” thoughtrnAlice), there was no way of guessing, but she was gone, and Alice beganrnto remember that she was a Pawn, and that it would soon be time for herrnto move.