There
were a number of tiny little brooks running straight across it from side
to side, and the ground between was divided up into squares by a number of
little green hedges, that reached from brook to brook.
- I declare it's marked out just like a large chessboard! - Alice
said at last. - There ought to be some men moving about somewhere and so
there are! - She added in a tone of delight, and her heart began to beat
quick with excitement as she went on. - It's a great huge game of chess
that's being played - all over the world - if this IS the world at all,
you know. Oh, what fun it is! How I WISH I was one of them! I wouldn't
mind being a Pawn, if only I might join - though of course I should LIKE
to be a Queen, best.
She glanced rather shyly at the real Queen as she said this, but her
companion only smiled pleasantly, and said, - That's easily managed. You
can be the White Queen's Pawn, if you like, as Lily's too young to play;
and you're in the Second Square to began with: when you get to the Eighth
Square you'll be a Queen - Just at this moment, somehow or other, they
began to run.
Alice never could quite make out, in thinking it over afterwards, how
it was that they began: all she remembers is, that they were running hand
in hand, and the Queen went so fast that it was all she could do to keep
up with her: and still the Queen kept crying - Faster! Faster! - but Alice
felt she COULD NOT go faster, thought she had not breath left to say so.
The most curious part of the thing was, that the trees and the other
things round them never changed their places at all: however fast they
went, they never seemed to pass anything. - I wonder if all the things
move along with us? - thought poor puzzled Alice. And the Queen seemed to
guess her thoughts, for she cried, - Faster! Don't try to talk!
Not that Alice had any idea of doing THAT. She felt as if she would
never be able to talk again, she was getting so much out of breath: and
still the Queen cried - Faster! Faster! - and dragged her along. - Are we
nearly there? - Alice managed to pant out at last.
- Nearly there! - the Queen repeated. - Why, we passed it ten minutes
ago! Faster! And they ran on for a time in silence, with the wind
whistling in Alice's ears, and almost blowing her hair off her head, she
fancied.
- Now! Now! - cried the Queen. - Faster! Faster! - And they went so
fast that at last they seemed to skim through the air, hardly touching the
ground with their feet, till suddenly, just as Alice was getting quite
exhausted, they stopped, and she found herself sitting on the ground,
breathless and giddy.
The Queen propped her up against a tree, and said kindly, - You may
rest a little now.
Alice looked round her in great surprise. - Why, I do believe we've
been under this tree the whole time! Everything's just as it was!
- Of course it is, - said the Queen, - what would you have it?
- Well, in OUR country, - said Alice, still panting a little, - you'd
generally get to somewhere else - if you ran very fast for a long time, as
we've been doing.
- A slow sort of country! - said the Queen. - Now, HERE, you see, it
takes all the running YOU can do, to keep in the same place. If you want
to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!
- I'd rather not try, please! - said Alice. - I'm quite content to
stay here - only I AM so hot and thirsty!
- I know what YOU'D like! - the Queen said good-naturedly, taking a
little box out of her pocket. - Have a biscuit?
Alice thought it would not be civil to say - No, - though it wasn't
at all what she wanted. So she took it, and ate it as well as she could:
and it was VERY dry; and she thought she had never been so nearly choked
in all her life.
- While you're refreshing yourself, - said the Queen, - I'll just
take the measurements. - And she took a ribbon out of her pocket, marked
in inches, and began measuring the ground, and sticking little pegs in
here and there.
- At the end of two yards, - she said, putting in a peg to mark the
distance, - I shall give you your directions - have another biscuit?
- No, thank you, - said Alice,:** - one's QUITE enough!
- Thirst quenched, I hope? - said the Queen. Alice did not know what
to say to this, but luckily the Queen did not
wait for an answer, but went on. - At the end of THREE yards I shall
repeat them - for fear of your forgetting them. At then end of FOUR, I
shall say good-bye. And at then end of FIVE, I shall go!
She had got all the pegs put in by this time, and Alice looked on
with great interest as she returned to the tree, and then began slowly
walking down the row.
At the two-yard peg she faced round, and said, - A pawn goes two
squares in its first move, you know. So you'll go VERY quickly through the
Third Square - by railway, I should think - and you'll find yourself in
the Fourth Square in no time. Well, THAT square belongs to Tweedledum and
Tweedledee - the Fifth is mostly water the Sixth belongs to Humpty Dumpty
- But you make no remark?
- I - I didn't know I had to make one - just then, - Alice faltered
out.
- You SHOULD have said, - "It's extremely kind of you to tell me all
this" - however, we'll suppose it said - the Seventh Square is all forest
- however, one of the Knights will show you the way - and in the Eighth
Square we shall be Queens together, and it's all feasting and fun! - Alice
got up and curtseyed, and sat down again.
At the next peg the Queen turned again, and this time she said, -
Speak in French when you can't think of the English for a thing turn out
your toes as you walk - and remember who you are! - She did not wait for
Alice to curtsey this time, but walked on quickly to the next peg, where
she turned for a moment to say - good-bye, - and then hurried on to the
last.
How it happened, Alice never knew, but exactly as she came to the
last peg, she was gone. Whether she vanished into the air, or whether she
ran quickly into the wood ( - and she CAN run very fast! - thought Alice),
there was no way of guessing, but she was gone, and Alice began to
remember that she was a Pawn, and that it would soon be time for her to
move.




CHAPTER III

Looking-Glass Insects

Of course the first thing to do was to make a grand survey of the
country she was going to travel through. - It's something very like
learning geography, - thought Alice, as she stood on tiptoe in hopes of
being able to see a little further. - Principal rivers - there ARE none.
Principal mountains - I'm on the only one, but I don't think it's got any
name. Principal towns - why, what ARE those creatures, making honey down
there? They can't be bees - nobody ever saw bees a mile off, you know -
and for some time she stood silent, watching one of them that was bustling
about among the flowers, poking its proboscis into them, - just as if it
was a regular bee, - thought Alice.
However, this was anything but a regular bee: in fact it was an
elephant - as Alice soon found out, though the idea quite took her breath
away at first. - And what enormous flowers they must be! - was her next
idea. - Something like cottages with the roofs taken off, and stalks put
to them - and what quantities of honey they must make! I think I'll go
down and - no, I won't JUST yet, - she went on, checking herself just as
she was beginning to run down the hill, and trying to find some excuse for
turning shy so suddenly. - It'll never do to go down among them without a
good long branch to brush them away - and what fun it'll be when they ask
me how I like my walk. I shall say -"Oh, I like it well enough - " - (here
came the favourite little toss of the head), - "only it was so dusty and
hot, and the elephants did tease so!"
- I think I'll go down the other way, - she said after a pause: - and
perhaps I may visit the elephants later on. Besides, I do so want to get
into the Third Square!
So with this excuse she ran down the hill and jumped over the first
of the six little brooks.

* * * * * * *
* * * * * *
* * * * * * *

- Tickets, please! - said the Guard, putting his head in at the
window. In a moment everybody was holding out a ticket: they were about
the same size as the people, and quite seemed to fill the carriage.
- Now then! Show your ticket, child! - the Guard went on, looking
angrily at Alice. And a great many voices all said together ( - like the
chorus of a song, - thought Alice), - Don't keep him waiting, child! Why,
his time is worth a thousand pounds a minute!
- I'm afraid I haven't got one, - Alice said in a frightened tone: -
there wasn't a ticket-office where I came from." And again the chorus of
voices went on. - There wasn't room for one where she came from. The land
there is worth a thousand pounds an inch!
- Don't make excuses, - said the Guard: - you should have bought one
from the engine-driver. - And once more the chorus of voices went on with
- The man that drives the engine. Why, the smoke alone is worth a thousand
pounds a puff!
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