arrived, with a great crowd assembled about them--all sorts of little
birds and beasts, as well as the whole pack of cards: the Knave was
standing before them, in chains, with a soldier on each side to guard
him; and near the King was the White Rabbit, with a trumpet in one
hand, and a scroll of parchment in the other.
In the very middle of the court was a table with a large dish of tarts
upon it: they looked so good, that it made Alice quite hungry to look
at them--"I wish they'd get the trial done," she thought, "and hand
round the refreshments!" But there seemed to be no chance of this; so
she began looking at everything about her to pass away the time.
Alice had never been in a court of justice before, but she had read
about them in books, and she was quite pleased to find that she knew
the name of nearly everything there.
"That's the judge", she said to herself, "because of his great wig."
The judge, by the way, was the King; and, as he wore his crown over
the wig, he did not look at all comfortable, and it was certainly not
becoming.
"And that's the jury-box," thought Alice; "and those twelve creatures"
(she was obliged to say "creatures," you see, because some of them
were animals, and some were birds), "I suppose they are the jurors."
She said this last word two or three times over to herself, being
rather proud of it; for she thought, and rightly too, that very few
little girls of her age knew the meaning of it at all. However,
"jurymen" would have done just as well.
The twelve jurors were all writing very busily on slates.
"What are they doing?" Alice whispered to the Gryphon. "They can't
have anything to put down yet, before the trial's begun."
"They're putting down their names," the Gryphon whispered in reply,
"for fear they should forget them before the end of the trial."
"Stupid things!" Alice began in a loud indignant voice; but she
stopped herself hastily, for the White Rabbit cried out, "Silence in
the court!" and the King put on his spectacles and looked anxiously
round, to make out who was talking.
Alice could see, as well as if she were looking over their shoulders,
that all the jurors were writing down "Stupid things!" on their
slates, and she could even make out that one of them didn't know how
to spell "stupid," and that he had to ask his neighbor to tell him.
"A nice muddle their slates'll be in, before the trial's over!"
thought Alice.
One of the jurors had a pencil that squeaked. This, of course, Alice
could _not_ stand, and she went round the court and got behind him,
and very soon found an opportunity of taking it away. She did it so
quickly that the poor little juror (it was Bill, the Lizard) could not
make out at all what had become of it; so, after hunting all about for
it, he was obliged to write with one finger for the rest of the day;
and this was of very little use as it left no mark on the slate.
"Herald, read the accusation!" said the King.
On this the White Rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet, and then
unrolled the parchment-scroll, and read as follows:
"The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,
All on a summer day:
The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts
And took them quite away!"
"Consider your verdict," the King said to the jury.
"Not yet, not yet!" the Rabbit hastily interrupted. "There's a great
deal to come before that!"
"Call the first witness," said the King; and the White Rabbit blew
three blasts on the trumpet, and called out "First witness!"
The first witness was the Hatter. He came in with a teacup in one hand
and a piece of bread-and-butter in the other.
"I beg pardon, your Majesty," he began, "for bringing these in; but I
hadn't quite finished my tea when I was sent for."
"You ought to have finished," said the King. "When did you begin?"
The Hatter looked at the March Hare, who had followed him into the
court, arm-in-arm with the Dormouse, "Fourteenth of March, I _think_
it was," he said.
"Fifteenth," said the March Hare.
"Sixteenth," said the Dormouse.
"Write that down," the King said to the jury; and the jury eagerly
wrote down all three dates on their slates, and then added them up,
and reduced the answer to shillings and pence.
"Take off your hat," the King said to the Hatter.
"It isn't mine," said the Hatter.
"_Stolen_!" the King exclaimed, turning to the jury, who instantly
made a memorandum of the fact.
"I keep them to sell," the Hatter added as an explanation. "I've none
of my own. I'm a hatter."
Here the Queen put on her spectacles, and began staring hard at the
Hatter, who turned pale and fidgeted.
"Give your evidence," said the King; "and don't be nervous, or I'll
have you executed on the spot."
This did not seem to encourage the witness at all: he kept shifting
from one foot to the other, looking uneasily at the Queen, and in his
confusion he bit a large piece out of his teacup instead of the
bread-and-butter.
Just at this moment Alice felt a very curious sensation, which puzzled
her a good deal until she made out what it was: she was beginning to
grow larger again, and she thought at first she would get up and leave
the court; but on second thoughts she decided to remain where she was
as long as there was room for her.
"I wish you wouldn't squeeze so," said the Dormouse, who was sitting
next to her. "I can hardly breathe."
"I can't help it," said Alice very meekly: "I'm growing."
"You've no right to grow _here_," said the Dormouse.
"Don't talk nonsense," said Alice more boldly: "you know you're
growing too."
"Yes, but _I_ grow at a reasonable pace," said the Dormouse: "not in
that ridiculous fashion." And he got up very sulkily and crossed over
to the other side of the court.
All this time the Queen had never left off staring at the Hatter, and,
just as the Dormouse crossed the court, she said, to one of the
officers of the court, "Bring me the list of the singers in the last
concert!" on which the wretched Hatter trembled so that he shook off
both his shoes.
"Give your evidence," the King repeated angrily, "or I'll have you
executed, whether you're nervous or not."
"I'm a poor man, your Majesty," the Hatter began, in a trembling
voice, "and I hadn't begun my tea--not above a week or so--and what
with the bread-and-butter getting so thin--and the twinkling of the
tea--"
"The twinkling of _what_?" said the King.
"It _began_ with the tea," the Hatter replied.
"Of course twinkling _begins_ with a T!" said the King sharply.
"Do you take me for a dunce? Go on!"
"I'm a poor man," the Hatter went on, "and most things twinkled after
that--only the March Hare said--"
"I didn't!" the March Hare interrupted in a great hurry.
"You did!" said the Hatter.
"I deny it!" said the March Hare.
"He denies it," said the King: "leave out that part."
"Well, at any rate, the Dormouse said--" the Hatter went on, looking
anxiously round to see if he would deny it too; but the Dormouse
denied nothing, being fast asleep.
"After that," continued the Hatter, "I cut some more bread and
butter--"
"But what did the Dormouse say?" one of the jury asked.
"That I can't remember," said the Hatter.
"You _must_ remember," remarked the King, "or I'll have you executed."
The miserable Hatter dropped his teacup and bread-and-butter, and went
down on one knee. "I'm a poor man, your Majesty," he began.
"You're a _very_ poor _speaker_," said the King.
Here one of the guinea-pigs cheered, and was immediately suppressed by
the officers of the court. (As that is rather a hard word, I will just
explain to you how it was done. They had a large canvas bag, which
tied up at the mouth with strings; into this they slipped the
guinea-pig, head first, and then sat upon it.)
"I'm glad I've seen that done," thought Alice "I've so often read in
the newspapers, at the end of trials, 'There was some attempt at
applause, which was immediately suppressed by the officers of the
court,' and I never understood what it meant till now."
"If that's all you know about it, you may stand down," continued the
King.
"I can't go no lower," said the Hatter; "I'm on the floor, as it is."
"Then you may _sit_ down," the King replied.
Here the other guinea-pig cheered, and was suppressed.
"Come, that finishes the guinea-pigs!" thought Alice. "Now we shall go
on better."
"I'd rather finish my tea," said the Hatter, with an anxious look at
the Queen, who was reading the list of singers.
"You may go," said the King, and the Hatter hurriedly left the court,
without even waiting to put his shoes on.
"--and just take his head off outside," the Queen added to one of the
officers; but the Hatter was out of sight before the officer could get
to the door.
"Call the next witness!" said the King.
The next witness was the Duchess's cook. She carried the pepper-box in
her hand, and Alice guessed who it was, even before she got into the
court, by the way the people near the door began sneezing all at once.
"Give your evidence," said the King.
"Shan't," said the cook.
The King looked anxiously at the White Rabbit, who said, in a low
voice, "Your Majesty must cross-examine _this_ witness."
"Well, if I must, I must," the King said with a melancholy air, and,
after folding his arms and frowning at the cook till his eyes were
nearly out of sight, he said, in a deep voice, "What are tarts made
of?"
"Pepper, mostly," said the cook.
"Treacle," said a sleepy voice behind her.
"Collar that Dormouse!" the Queen shrieked out. "Behead that Dormouse!
Turn that Dormouse out of court! Suppress him! Pinch him! Off with his
whiskers!"
For some minutes the whole court was in confusion, getting the
Dormouse turned out, and, by the time they had settled down again, the
cook had disappeared.
"Never mind!" said the King, with an air of great relief. "Call the
next witness." And, he added, in an undertone to the Queen, "Really,
my dear, _you_ must cross-examine the next witness. It quite makes my
forehead ache!"
Alice watched the White Rabbit as he fumbled over the list, feeling
very curious to see what the next witness would be like, "--for they
haven't got much evidence _yet_," she said to herself. Imagine
her surprise, when the White Rabbit read out, at the top of his shrill
little voice, the name "Alice!"
ALICE'S EVIDENCE
By Lewis Carroll
"Here!" cried Alice, quite forgetting in the flurry of the moment how
large she had grown in the last few minutes, and she jumped up in such
a hurry that she tipped over the jury-box with the edge of her skirt,
upsetting all the jurymen on to the heads of the crowd below, and
there they lay sprawling about, reminding her very much of a globe of
gold-fish she had accidentally upset the week before.
"Oh, I _beg_ your pardon!" she exclaimed in a tone of great dismay,
and began picking them up again as quickly as she could, for the
accident of the gold-fish kept running in her head, and she had a
vague sort of idea that they must be collected at once and put back
into the jury-box, or they would die.
"The trial cannot proceed," said the King, in a very grave voice,
"until all the jurymen are back in their proper places--_all_," he
repeated with great emphasis, looking hard at Alice as he said so.
Alice looked at the jury-box, and saw that, in her haste, she had put
the Lizard in head downward, and the poor little thing was waving its
tail about in a melancholy way, being quite unable to move.
She soon got it out again, and put it right; "not that it signifies
much," she said to herself; "I should think it would be _quite_ as
much use in the trial one way up as the other."
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 of the
court.
"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: "_Un_important, your Majesty means, of course," he
said, in a very respectful tone, but frowning and making faces at him
as he spoke.
"_Un_important, 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.
Some of the jury wrote it down "important," and some "unimportant."
Alice could see this, as she was near enough to look over their
slates; "but it doesn't matter a bit," she thought to herself.
At this moment the King, who had been for some time busily writing in
his note-book, called out, "Silence!" and 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 note-book hastily.
"Consider your verdict," he said to the jury, in a low trembling
voice.
"There's more evidence to come yet, please your Majesty," said the
White Rabbit, jumping up in a great hurry: "this paper has just been
picked up."
"What's in it?" said the Queen.
"I haven't opened it yet," said the White Rabbit; "but it seems to be
a letter, written by the prisoner to--to somebody."
"It must have been that," said the King, "unless it was written to
nobody, which isn't usual, you know."
"Who is it directed to?" said one of the jurymen.
"It isn't directed at all," said the White Rabbit: "in fact, there's
nothing written on the _outside_." He unfolded the paper as he spoke,
and added, "It isn't a letter, after all: it's a set of verses."
"Are they in the prisoner's handwriting?" asked another of the
jurymen.
"No, they're not," said the White Rabbit, "and that's the queerest
thing about it." (The jury all looked puzzled.)
"He must have imitated somebody else's hand," said the King. (The jury
all brightened up again.)
"Please your Majesty," said the Knave, "I didn't write it, and they
can't prove that I did: there's no name signed at the end."
"If you didn't sign it," said the King, "that only makes the matter
worse. You _must_ have meant some mischief, or else you'd have signed
your name like an honest man."
There was a general clapping of hands at this: it was the first really
clever thing the King had said that day.
"That _proves_ his guilt, of course," said the Queen: "so, off with--"
"It doesn't prove anything of the sort!" said Alice. "Why, you don't
even know what they're about!"
"Read them," said the King.
The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. "Where shall I begin, please
your Majesty?" he asked.
"Begin at the beginning," the King said very gravely, "and go on till
you come to the end: then stop."
There was dead silence in the court, while the White Rabbit read out
these verses:
They told me you had been to her,
And mentioned me to him:
She gave me a good character,
But said I could not swim.
He sent them word I had not gone
(We know it to be true):
If she should push the matter on,
What would become of you?
I gave her one, they gave him two,
You gave us three or more;
They all returned from him to you,
Though they were mine before.
If I or she should chance to be
Involved in this affair,
He trusts to you to set them free,
Exactly as we were.
My notion was that you had been
(Before she had this fit)
An obstacle that came between
Him, and ourselves, and it.
Don't let him know she liked them best,
For this must ever be
A secret, kept from all the rest,
Between yourself and me."
"That's the most important piece of evidence we've heard yet," said
the King, rubbing his hands; "so now let the jury--"
"If any one of them can explain it," said Alice (she had grown so
large in the last few minutes that she wasn't a bit afraid of
interrupting him), "I'll give him sixpence. _I_ don't believe there's
an atom of meaning in it."
The jury all wrote down, on their slates, "_She_ doesn't believe
there's an atom of meaning in it," but none of them attempted to
explain the paper.
"If there's no meaning in it," said the King, "that saves a world of
trouble, you know, as we needn't try to find any. And yet I don't
know," he went on, spreading out the verses on his knee, and looking
at them with one eye; "I seem to see some meaning in them, after all.
'--_said I could not swim_--' you can't swim, can you?" he added,
turning to the Knave.
The Knave shook his head sadly.
"Do I look like it?" he said. (Which he certainly did _not_, being
made entirely of cardboard.)
"All right, so far," said the King; and he went on muttering over the
verses to himself: "'_We know it to be true_'--that's the jury,
of course--'_If she should push the matter on_'--that must be the
Queen--'_What would become of you_?'--What indeed!--'_I gave
her one, they gave him two_'--why, that must be what he did with
the tarts, you know--"
"But it goes on '_they all returned from him to you_,'" said
Alice.
"Why, there they are!" said the King triumphantly, pointing to the
tarts on the table. "Nothing can be clearer than _that_. Then
again--'_before she had this fit_'--you never had _fits_, my dear,
I think?" he said to the Queen.
"Never!" said the Queen, furiously, throwing an inkstand at the Lizard
as she spoke. (The unfortunate little Bill had left off writing on his
slate with one finger, as he found it made no mark; but he now hastily
began again, using the ink, that was trickling down his face, as long
as it lasted.)
"Then the words don't _fit_ you," said the King; looking round
the court with a smile. There was a dead silence.
"It's a pun!" the King added in an angry tone, and everybody laughed.
"Let the jury consider their verdict," the King said, for about the
twentieth time that day.
"No, no!" said the Queen. "Sentence first--verdict afterward."
"Stuff and nonsense!" said Alice loudly. "The idea of having the
sentence first!"
"Hold your tongue!" said the Queen, turning purple.
"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, half of fright and half of anger, 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 upon 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 these strange
adventures of hers that you have just been reading about; 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."
So Alice got up and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well she
might, what a wonderful dream it had been.
* * * * *
But her sister sat still just as she left her, leaning her head on her
hand, watching the setting sun, and thinking of little Alice and all
her wonderful Adventures, till she too began dreaming after a fashion,
and this was her dream:
First, she dreamed about little Alice herself: once again the tiny
hands were clasped upon her knee, and the bright eager eyes were
looking into hers--she could hear the very tones of her voice, and see
that queer little toss of her head to keep back the wandering hair
that _would_ always get into her eyes--and still as she listened, or
seemed to listen, the whole place around her became alive with the
strange creatures of her little sister's dream.
The long grass rustled at her feet as the White Rabbit hurried by--the
frightened Mouse splashed his way through the neighboring pool--she
could hear the rattle of the teacups as the March Hare and his friends
shared their never-ending meal, and the shrill voice of the Queen
ordering off her unfortunate guests to execution--once more the
pig-baby was sneezing on the Duchess' knee, while plates and dishes
crashed around it--once more the shriek of the Gryphon, the squeaking
of the Lizard's slate-pencil, and the choking of the suppressed
guinea-pigs, filled the air, mixed up with the distant sob of the
miserable Mock Turtle.
So she sat on, with closed eyes, and half believed herself in
Wonderland, though she knew she had but to open them again, and all
would change to dull reality--the grass would be only rustling in the
wind, and the pool rippling to the waving of the reeds--the rattling
teacups would change to tinkling sheep bells, and the Queen's shrill
cries to the voice of the shepherd-boy--and the sneeze of the baby,
the shriek of the Gryphon, and all the other queer noises, would
change (she knew) to the confused clamor of the busy farm-yard--while
the lowing of the cattle in the distance would take the place of the
Mock Turtle's heavy sobs.
Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers
would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would
keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her
childhood; and how she would gather about her other little children,
and make _their_ eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale,
perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago; and how she
would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all
their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy
summer days.