`A knot!’ said Alice, always ready to make
herself useful, and looking anxiously about her.
`Oh, do let me help to undo it!’
`I shall do nothing of the sort,’ said the
Mouse, getting up and walking away. `You insult me
by talking such nonsense!’
`I didn’t mean it!’ pleaded poor Alice.
`But you’re so easily offended, you know!’
The Mouse only growled in reply.
`Please come back and finish your story!’
Alice called after it; and the others all joined in
chorus, `Yes, please do!’ but the Mouse only
shook its head impatiently, and walked a little quicker.
`What a pity it wouldn’t stay!’ sighed
the Lory, as soon as it was quite out of sight; and
an old Crab took the opportunity of saying to her
daughter `Ah, my dear! Let this be a lesson to
you never to lose your temper!’ `Hold
your tongue, Ma!’ said the young Crab, a little
snappishly. `You’re enough to try the patience
of an oyster!’
`I wish I had our Dinah here, I know I do!’
said Alice aloud, addressing nobody in particular.
`She’d soon fetch it back!’
`And who is Dinah, if I might venture to ask the
question?’ said the Lory.
Alice replied eagerly, for she was always ready
to talk about her pet: `Dinah’s our cat.
And she’s such a capital one for catching mice
you can’t think! And oh, I wish you could
see her after the birds! Why, she’ll eat
a little bird as soon as look at it!’
This speech caused a remarkable sensation among
the party. Some of the birds hurried off at once:
one old Magpie began wrapping itself up very carefully,
remarking, `I really must be getting home; the night-air
doesn’t suit my throat!’ and a Canary
called out in a trembling voice to its children, `Come
away, my dears! It’s high time you were
all in bed!’ On various pretexts they all moved
off, and Alice was soon left alone.
`I wish I hadn’t mentioned Dinah!’ she
said to herself in a melancholy tone. `Nobody seems
to like her, down here, and I’m sure she’s
the best cat in the world! Oh, my dear Dinah!
I wonder if I shall ever see you any more!’
And here poor Alice began to cry again, for she felt
very lonely and low-spirited. In a little while,
however, she again heard a little pattering of footsteps
in the distance, and she looked up eagerly, half hoping
that the Mouse had changed his mind, and was coming
back to finish his story.
The Rabbit Sends in
a Little Bill
It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again,
and looking anxiously about as it went, as if it had
lost something; and she heard it muttering to itself
`The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh my dear paws!
Oh my fur and whiskers! She’ll get me
executed, as sure as ferrets are ferrets! Where
can I have dropped them, I wonder?’ Alice
guessed in a moment that it was looking for the fan
and the pair of white kid gloves, and she very good-naturedly
began hunting about for them, but they were nowhere
to be seen—everything seemed to have changed
since her swim in the pool, and the great hall, with
the glass table and the little door, had vanished
completely.
