A large rose-tree stood near the en-
trance of the garden; the roses grow-
ing on it were white, but there were
three gardeners at it, busily painting
them red. Alice thought this a very
curious thing, and she went nearer
to watch them, and just as she came
up to them she heard one of them
say, ‘Look out now, Five! Don’t go
splashing paint over me like that!’
‘I couldn’t help it,’ said Five, in
a sulky tone, ‘Seven jogged my el-
bow.’
On which Seven looked up and
said, ‘That’s right, Five! Always lay
the blame on others!’
‘You’d better not talk!’ said Five,
‘I heard the Queen say only yesterday
you deserved to be beheaded!’
‘What for?’ said the one who had
spoken first.
‘That’s none of your business, Two!’ said Seven.
‘Yes, it is his business!’ said Five, ‘and I’ll tell him – it was for bringing the
cook tulip-roots instead of onions.’
Seven flung down his brush, and had just begun, ‘Well, of all the unjust
things – ’ when his eye chanced to fall upon Alice, as she stood watching them
and he checked himself suddenly; the others looked round also, and all of them
bowed low.
‘Would you tell me,’ said Alice, a little timidly, ‘why you are painting those
roses?’
Five and Seven said nothing, but looked at Two. Two began in a low voice,
‘Why the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to have been a red rose-tree, and
we put a white one in by mistake; and if the Queen was to find it out, we should all
have our heads cut off, you know. So you see, Miss, we’re doing our best, afore
she comes, to – ’ At this moment Five, who had been anxiously looking across
the garden, called out ‘The Queen! The Queen!’ and the three gardeners instantly
threw themselves flat upon their faces. There was a sound of many footsteps and
Alice looked round eager to see the Queen.
First came ten soldiers carrying clubs; these were all shaped like the three
gardeners, oblong and flat, with their hands and feet at the corners; next the ten
courtiers; these were ornamented all over with diamonds and walked two and two,
as the soldiers did. After these came the royal children; there were ten of them
and the little dears came jumping merrily along hand in hand in couples; they
were all ornamented with hearts. Next came the guests, mostly Kings and Queens,
and among them Alice recognised the White Rabbit; it was talking in a hurried
nervous manner, smiling at everything that was said, and went by without noticing
her. Then followed the Knave of Hearts, carrying the King’s crown on a crimson
velvet cushion; and, last of all this grand procession, came the King and Queen of
Hearts.
Alice was rather doubtful whether she ought not to lie down on her face like
the three gardeners, but she could not remember ever having heard of such a rule
at processions; ‘and besides, what would be the use of a procession,’ thought she,
‘if people had all to lie down upon their faces, so that they couldn’t see it?’ So she
stood still where she was, and waited.
When the procession came opposite to Alice, they all stopped and looked at
her, and the Queen said severely ‘Who is this?’ she said it to the Knave of Hearts,
who only bowed and smiled in reply.
‘Idiot!’ said the Queen, tossing her head impatiently; and, turning to Alice,
she went on, ‘What’s your name, child?’
‘My name is Alice, so please your Majesty,’ said Alice very politely; but she
added, to herself, ‘Why, they’re only a pack of cards, after all. I needn’t be afraid
of them!’
‘And who are these?’ said the Queen, pointing to the three gardeners who
were lying round the rose-tree; for, you see, as they were lying on their faces
and the pattern on their backs was the same as the rest of the pack, she could not
tell whether they were gardeners, or soldiers, or courtiers, or three of her own
children.
‘How should I know?’ said Alice, surprised at her own courage, ‘It’s no busi-
ness of mine.’The Queen turned crimson with
fury, and, after glaring at her for a mo-
ment like a wild beast, screamed ‘Off
with her head! Off – ’
‘Nonsense!’ said Alice, very
loudly and decidedly, and the Queen
was silent.
The King laid his hand upon her
arm and timidly said ‘Consider, my
dear: she is only a child!’
The Queen turned angrily away
from him and said to the Knave ‘Turn
them over!’
The Knave did so, very carefully,
with one foot.
‘Get up!’ said the Queen, in
a shrill, loud voice, and the three gar-
deners instantly jumped up and began
bowing to the King, the Queen, the royal children and everybody else.
‘Leave off that!’ screamed the Queen, ‘You make me giddy.’ And then, turn-
ing to the rose-tree, she went on, ‘What have you been doing here?’
‘May it please your Majesty,’ said Two, in a very humble tone, going down on
one knee as he spoke, ‘we were trying – ’
‘I see!’ said the Queen, who had meanwhile been examining the roses, ‘Off
with their heads!’ and the procession moved on, three of the soldiers remaining
behind to execute the unfortunate gardeners, who ran to Alice for protection.
‘You shan’t be beheaded!’ said Alice, and she put them into a large flower-pot
that stood near. The three soldiers wandered about for a minute or two, looking
for them, and then quietly marched off after the others.
‘Are their heads off?’ shouted the Queen.
‘Their heads are gone, if it please your Majesty!’ the soldiers shouted in reply.
‘That’s right!’ shouted the Queen, ‘Can you play croquet?’
The soldiers were silent, and looked at Alice, as the question was evidently
meant for her.
‘Yes!’ shouted Alice.
‘Come on, then!’ roared the Queen, and Alice joined the procession wonder-
ing very much what would happen next.
‘It’s – it’s a very fine day!’ said a timid voice at her side. She was walking
by the White Rabbit, who was peeping anxiously into her face.
‘Very,’ said Alice, ‘ – where’s the Duchess?’
‘Hush! Hush!’ said the Rabbit in a low, hurried tone. He looked anxiously
over his shoulder as he spoke, and then raised himself upon tiptoe, put his mouth
close to her ear and whispered ‘She’s under sentence of execution.’
‘What for?’ said Alice.
‘Did you say “What a pity!”?’ the Rabbit asked.
‘No, I didn’t,’ said Alice, ‘I don’t think it’s at all a pity. I said “What for?” ’
‘She boxed the Queen’s ears – ’ the Rabbit began. Alice gave a little scream
of laughter. ‘Oh, hush!’ the Rabbit whispered in a frightened tone, ‘The Queen
will hear you! You see, she came rather late, and the Queen said – ’
‘Get to your places!’ shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder, and people
began running about in all directions, tumbling up against each other; however,
they got settled down in a minute or two and the game began. Alice thought
she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges
and furrows; the balls were live hedge-
hogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the
soldiers had to double themselves up and
to stand on their hands and feet, to make
the arches.
The chief difficulty Alice found at
first was in managing her flamingo; she
succeeded in getting its body tucked
away, comfortably enough, under her
arm, with its legs hanging down, but
generally, just as she had got its neck
nicely straightened out, and was going
to give the hedgehog a blow with its
head, it would twist itself round and look
up in her face, with such a puzzled ex-
pression that she could not help burst-
ing out laughing; and when she had got
its head down and was going to begin
again, it was very provoking to find that
the hedgehog had unrolled itself and was
in the act of crawling away; besides all this, there was generally a ridge or furrow
in the way wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up
soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice
soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed.
The players all played at once without waiting for turns, quarrelling all the
while and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short time the Queen was in
a furious passion and went stamping about and shouting ‘Off with his head!’ or
‘Off with her head!’ about once in a minute.
Alice began to feel very uneasy; to be sure, she had not as yet had any dispute
with the Queen, but she knew that it might happen any minute, ‘And then,’ thought
she, ‘what would become of me? They’re dreadfully fond of beheading people
here; the great wonder is, that there’s any one left alive!’
She was looking about for some way of escape and wondering whether she
could get away without being seen, when she noticed a curious appearance in the
air; it puzzled her very much at first, but, after watching it a minute or two, she
made it out to be a grin and she said to herself ‘It’s the Cheshire Cat; now I shall
have somebody to talk to.’
‘How are you getting on?’ said the Cat, as soon as there was mouth enough
for it to speak with.
Alice waited till the eyes appeared, and then nodded. ‘It’s no use speaking
to it,’ she thought, ‘till its ears have come, or at least one of them.’ In another
minute the whole head appeared, and then Alice put down her flamingo, and be-
gan an account of the game, feeling very glad she had someone to listen to her.
The Cat seemed to think that there was enough of it now in sight, and no more of
it appeared.
‘I don’t think they play at all fairly,’ Alice began, in rather a complaining
tone, ‘and they all quarrel so dreadfully one can’t hear oneself speak – and they
don’t seem to have any rules in particular; at least, if there are, nobody attends
to them – and you’ve no idea how confusing it is all the things being alive; for
instance, there’s the arch I’ve got to go through next walking about at the other
end of the ground – and I should have croqueted the Queen’s hedgehog just now,
only it ran away when it saw mine coming!’
‘How do you like the Queen?’ said the Cat in a low voice.
‘Not at all,’ sai