“Oh, I beg your pardon!” she exclaimed in a tone of great dismay, and began picking them up again as quickly as she could.

As soon as the jury had a little recovered from the shock of being upset, and their slates and pencils had been found and handed back to them, they set to work very diligently to write out a history of the accident, all except the Lizard, who seemed too much overcome to do anything but sit with its mouth open, gazing up into the roof.

“What do you know about this business?” the King said to Alice.

“Nothing,” said Alice.

“Nothing whatever?” persisted the King.

“Nothing whatever,” said Alice.

“That’s very important,” the King said, turning to the jury.  They were just beginning to write this down on their slates, when the White Rabbit interrupted.

“Unimportant, your Majesty means, of course,” he said, in a very respectful tone, but frowning and making faces at him.

“Unnimportant, of course, I meant,” the King hastily said, and went on to himself in an undertone, “important—­unimportant—­unimportant—­ important——­” as if he were trying which word sounded best.

Presently the King, who had been for some time busily writing in his notebook, called out “Silence!” and he read out from his book, “Rule Forty-two. All persons more than a mile high to leave the court.”

Everybody looked at Alice.

“I’m not a mile high,” said Alice.

“You are,” said the King.

“Nearly two miles high,” added the Queen.

“Well, I shan’t go, at any rate,” said Alice.  “Besides, that’s not a regular rule; you invented it just now.”

“It’s the oldest rule in the book,” said the King.

“Then it ought to be Number One,” said Alice.

The King turned pale, and shut his notebook hastily.  “Consider your verdict,” he said to the jury, in a low, trembling voice.

“No, no!” said the Queen.  “Sentence first—­verdict afterwards.”

“Stuff and nonsense!” said Alice loudly.  “The idea of having the sentence first!”

“Hold your tongue!” said the Queen.

“I won’t!” said Alice.

“Off with her head!” the Queen shouted at the top of her voice.  Nobody moved.

“Who cares for you?” said Alice (she had grown to her full size by this time).  “You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”

At this the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon her; she gave a little scream, and tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her head in the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing away some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees on her face.

“Wake up, Alice dear!” said her sister.  “Why, what a long sleep you’ve had!”

“Oh, I’ve had such a curious dream!” said Alice; and she told her sister, as well as she could remember them, all her strange adventures; and when she had finished, her sister kissed her, and said, “It was a curious dream, dear, certainly.  But now run in to your tea; it’s getting late.”