Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There Page 6

  ‘How can she knit with so many?’ the puzzled child thought to herself. ‘She gets more and more like a porcupine every minute!’

  ‘Can you row?’ the Sheep asked, handing her a pair of knitting-needles as she spoke.

  ‘Yes, a little – but not on land – and not with needles –’ Alice was beginning to say, when suddenly the needles turned into oars in her hands, and she found they were in a little boat, gliding along between banks: so there was nothing for it but to do her best.

  ‘Feather!’ cried the Sheep, as she took up another pair of needles.

  This didn’t sound like a remark that needed any answer, so Alice said nothing, but pulled away. There was something very queer about the water, she thought, as every now and then the oars got fast in it, and would hardly come out again.

  ‘Feather! Feather!’ the Sheep cried again, taking more needles. ‘You’ll be catching a crab directly.’

  ‘A dear little crab!’ thought Alice. ‘I should like that.’

  ‘Didn’t you hear me say “Feather”?’ the Sheep cried angrily, taking up quite a bunch of needles.

  ‘Indeed I did,’ said Alice: ‘you’ve said it very often – and very loud. Please, where are the crabs?’

  ‘In the water, of course!’ said the Sheep, sticking some of the needles into her hair, as her hands were full. ‘Feather, I say!’

  ‘Why do you say “Feather” so often?’ Alice asked at last, rather vexed. ‘I’m not a bird!’

  ‘You are,’ said the Sheep: ‘you’re a little goose.’

  This offended Alice a little, so there was no more conversation for a minute or two, while the boat glided gently on, sometimes among beds of weeds (which made the oars stick fast in the water, worse than ever), and sometimes under trees, but always with the same tall river-banks frowning over their heads.

  ‘Oh, please! There are some scented rushes!’ Alice cried in a sudden transport of delight. ‘There really are – and such beauties!’

  ‘You needn’t say “please” to me about ’em,’ the Sheep said, without looking up from her knitting: ‘I didn’t put ’em there, and I’m not going to take ’em away.’

  ‘No, but I meant – please, may we wait and pick some?’ Alice pleaded. ‘If you don’t mind stopping the boat for a minute.’

  ‘How am I to stop it?’ said the Sheep. ‘If you leave off rowing, it’ll stop of itself.’

  So the boat was left to drift down the stream as it would, till it glided gently in among the waving rushes. And then the little sleeves were carefully rolled up, and the little arms were plunged in elbow-deep, to get hold of the rushes a good long way down before breaking them off – and for a while Alice forgot all about the Sheep and the knitting, as she bent over the side of the boat, with just the ends of her tangled hair dipping into the water – while with bright eager eyes she caught at one bunch after another of the darling scented rushes.

  ‘I only hope the boat won’t tipple over!’ she said to herself. ‘Oh, what a lovely one! Only I couldn’t quite reach it.’ And it certainly did seem a little provoking (‘almost as if it happened on purpose,’ she thought) that, though she managed to pick plenty of beautiful rushes as the boat glided by, there was always a more lovely one that she couldn’t reach.

  ‘The prettiest are always further!’ she said at last, with a sigh at the obstinacy of the rushes in growing so far off, as, with flushed cheeks and dripping hair and hands, she scrambled back into her place, and began to arrange her new-found treasures.

  What mattered it to her just then that the rushes had begun to fade, and to lose all their scent and beauty, from the very moment that she picked them? Even real scented rushes, you know, last only a very little while – and these, being dream-rushes, melted away almost like snow, as they lay in heaps at her feet – but Alice hardly noticed this, there were so many other curious things to think about.

  They hadn’t gone much farther before the blade of one of the oars got fast in the water and wouldn’t come out again (so Alice explained it afterwards), and the consequence was that the handle of it caught her under the chin, and, in spite of a series of little shrieks of ‘Oh, oh, oh!’ from poor Alice, it swept her straight off the seat, and down among the heap of rushes.

  However, she wasn’t a bit hurt, and was soon up again: the Sheep went on with her knitting all the while, just as if nothing had happened. ‘That was a nice crab you caught!’ she remarked, as Alice got back into her place, very much relieved to find herself still in the boat.

  ‘Was it? I didn’t see it,’ said Alice, peeping cautiously over the side of the boat into the dark water. ‘I wish it hadn’t let go – I should so like a little crab to take home with me!’ But the Sheep only laughed scornfully, and went on with her knitting.

  ‘Are there many crabs here?’ said Alice.

  ‘Crabs, and all sorts of things,’ said the Sheep: ‘plenty of choice, only make up your mind. Now, what do you want to buy?’

  ‘To buy!’ Alice echoed in a tone that was half astonished and half frightened – for the oars, and the boat, and the river, had vanished all in a moment, and she was back again in the little dark shop.

  ‘I should like to buy an egg, please,’ she said timidly. ‘How do you sell them?’

  ‘Fivepence farthing for one – twopence for two,’ the Sheep replied.

  ‘Then two are cheaper than one?’ Alice said in a surprised tone, taking out her purse.

  ‘Only you must eat them both, if you buy two,’ said the Sheep.

  ‘Then I’ll have one, please,’ said Alice, as she put the money down on the counter. For she thought to herself, ‘They mightn’t be at all nice, you know.’

  The Sheep took the money, and put it away in a box: then she said, ‘I never put things into people’s hands – that would never do – you must get it for yourself.’ And so saying, she went off to the other end of the shop, and set the egg upright on a shelf.

  ‘I wonder why it wouldn’t do?’ thought Alice, as she groped her way among the tables and chairs, for the shop was very dark towards the end. ‘The egg seems to get further away the more I walk towards it. Let me see, is this a chair? Why, it’s got branches, I declare! How very odd to find trees growing here! And actually here’s a little brook! Well, this is the very queerest shop I ever saw!’

  So she went on, wondering more and more at every step, as everything turned into a tree the moment she came up to it, and she quite expected the egg to do the same.

  6

  Humpty Dumpty

  However, the egg only got larger and larger, and more and more human: when she had come within a few yards of it, she saw that it had eyes and a nose and mouth; and when she had come close to it, she saw clearly that it was HUMPTY DUMPTY himself. ‘It can’t be anybody else!’ she said to herself. ‘I’m as certain of it, as if his name were written all over his face.’

  It might have been written a hundred times, easily, on that enormous face. Humpty Dumpty was sitting with his legs crossed, like a Turk, on the top of a high wall – such a narrow one that Alice quite wondered how he could keep his balance – and, as his eyes were steadily fixed in the opposite direction, and he didn’t take the least notice of her, she thought he must be a stuffed figure after all.

  ‘And how exactly like an egg he is!’ she said aloud, standing with her hands ready to catch him, for she was every moment expecting him to fall.

  ‘It’s very provoking,’ Humpty Dumpty said after a long silence, looking away from Alice as he spoke, ‘to be called an egg – very!’

  ‘I said you looked like an egg, Sir,’ Alice gently explained. ‘And some eggs are very pretty, you know,’ she added, hoping to turn her remark into a sort of compliment.

  ‘Some people,’ said Humpty Dumpty, looking away from her as usual, ‘have no more sense than a baby!’

  Alice didn’t know what to say to this: it wasn’t at all like conversation, she thought, as he never said anything to her; in fact, his last remark was evident
ly addressed to a tree – so she stood and softly repeated to herself:

  ‘Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall:

  Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

  All the King’s horses and all the King’s men

  Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty in his place again.’

  ‘That last line is much too long for the poetry,’ she added, almost out loud, forgetting that Humpty Dumpty would hear her.

  ‘Don’t stand chattering to yourself like that,’ Humpty Dumpty said, looking at her for the first time, ‘but tell me your name and your business.’

  ‘My name is Alice, but –’

  ‘It’s a stupid name enough!’ Humpty Dumpty interrupted impatiently. ‘What does it mean?’

  ‘Must a name mean something?’ Alice asked doubtfully.

  ‘Of course it must,’ Humpty Dumpty said with a short laugh: ‘my name means the shape I am – and a good handsome shape it is, too. With a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost.’

  ‘Why do you sit out here all alone?’ said Alice, not wishing to begin an argument.

  ‘Why, because there’s nobody with me!’ cried Humpty Dumpty. ‘Did you think I didn’t know the answer to that? Ask another.’

  ‘Don’t you think you’d be safer down on the ground?’ Alice went on, not with any idea of making another riddle, but simply in her good-natured anxiety for the queer creature. ‘That wall is so very narrow!’

  ‘What tremendously easy riddles you ask!’ Humpty Dumpty growled out. ‘Of course I don’t think so! Why, if ever I did fall off – which there’s no chance of – but if I did –’ Here he pursed up his lips and looked so solemn and grand that Alice could hardly help laughing. ‘If I did fall,’ he went on, ‘the King has promised me – ah, you may turn pale, if you like! You didn’t think I was going to say that, did you? The King has promised me – with his very own mouth – to – to –’

  ‘To send all his horses and all his men,’ Alice interrupted, rather unwisely.

  ‘Now I declare that’s too bad!’ Humpty Dumpty cried, breaking into a sudden passion. ‘You’ve been listening at doors – and behind trees – and down chimneys – or you couldn’t have know it!’

  ‘I haven’t, indeed!’ Alice said very gently. ‘It’s in a book.’

  ‘Ah, well! They may write such things in a book,’ Humpty Dumpty said in a calmer tone. ‘That’s what you call a History of England, that is. Now, take a good look at me! I’m one that has spoken to a King, I am: mayhap you’ll never see such another: and to show you I’m not proud, you may shake hands with me!’ And he grinned almost from ear to ear, as he leant forwards (and as nearly as possible fell off the wall in doing so) and offered Alice his hand. She watched him a little anxiously as she took it. ‘If he smiled much more, the ends of his mouth might meet behind,’ she thought: ‘and then I don’t know what would happen to his head! I’m afraid it would come off!’

  ‘Yes, all his horses and all his men,’ Humpty Dumpty went on. ‘They’d pick me up again in a minute, they would! However, this conversation is going on a little too fast: let’s go back to the last remark but one.’

  ‘I’m afraid I can’t quite remember it,’ Alice said very politely.

  ‘In that case we start afresh,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘and it’s my turn to choose a subject –’ (‘He talks about it just as if it was a game!’ thought Alice.) ‘So here’s a question for you. How old did you say you were?’

  Alice made a short calculation, and said, ‘Seven years and six months.’

  ‘Wrong!’ Humpty Dumpty exclaimed triumphantly. ‘You never said a word like it!’

  ‘I thought you meant “How old are you?”’ Alice explained.

  ‘If I’d meant that, I’d have said it,’ said Humpty Dumpty.

  Alice didn’t want to begin another argument, so she said nothing.

  ‘Seven years and six months!’ Humpty Dumpty repeated thoughtfully. ‘An uncomfortable sort of age. Now if you’d asked my advice, I’d have said “Leave off at seven” – but it’s too late now.’

  ‘I never ask advice about growing,’ Alice said indignantly.

  ‘Too proud?’ the other inquired.

  Alice felt even more indignant at this suggestion. ‘I mean,’ she said, ‘that one can’t help growing older.’

  ‘One can’t, perhaps,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘but two can. With proper assistance, you might have left off at seven.’

  ‘What a beautiful belt you’ve got on!’ Alice suddenly remarked. (They had had quite enough of the subject of age, she thought: and if they really were to take turns in choosing subjects, it was her turn now.) ‘At least,’ she corrected herself on second thoughts, ‘a beautiful cravat, I should have said – no, a belt, I mean – I beg your pardon!’ she added in dismay, for Humpty Dumpty looked thoroughly offended, and she began to wish she hadn’t chosen that subject. ‘If only I knew,’ she thought to herself, ‘which was neck and which was waist!’

  Evidently Humpty Dumpty was very angry, though he said nothing for a minute or two. When he did speak again, it was in a deep growl.

  ‘It is a – most – provoking – thing,’ he said at last, ‘when a person doesn’t know a cravat from a belt!’

  ‘I know it’s very ignorant of me,’ Alice said, in so humble a tone that Humpty Dumpty relented.

  ‘It’s a cravat, child, and a beautiful one, as you say. It’s a present from the White King and Queen. There now!’

  ‘Is it really?’ said Alice, quite pleased to find that she had chosen a good subject, after all.

  ‘They gave it me,’ Humpty Dumpty continued thoughtfully, as he crossed one knee over the other and clasped his hands round it, ‘they gave it me – for an un-birthday present.’

  ‘I beg your pardon?’ Alice said with a puzzled air.

  ‘I’m not offended,’ said Humpty Dumpty.

  ‘I mean, what is an un-birthday present?’

  ‘A present given when it isn’t your birthday, of course.’

  Alice considered a little. ‘I like birthday presents best,’ she said at last.

  ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about!’ cried Humpty Dumpty. ‘How many days are there in a year?’

  ‘Three hundred and sixty-five,’ said Alice.

  ‘And how many birthdays have you?’

  ‘One.’

  ‘And if you take one from three hundred and sixty-five, what remains?’

  ‘Three hundred and sixty-four, of course.’

  Humpty Dumpty looked doubtful. ‘I’d rather see that done on paper,’ he said.

  Alice couldn’t help smiling as she took out her memorandum-book, and worked the sum for him:

  Humpty Dumpty took the book, and looked at it carefully. ‘That seems to be done right –’ he began.

  ‘You’re holding it upside down!’ Alice interrupted.

  ‘To be sure I was!’ Humpty Dumpty said gaily, as she turned it round for him. ‘I thought it looked a little queer. As I was saying, that seems to be done right – though I haven’t time to look it over thoroughly just now – and that shows that there are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents –’

  ‘Certainly,’ said Alice.

  ‘And only one for birthday presents, you know. There’s glory for you!’

  ‘I don’t know what you mean by “glory,”’ Alice said.

  Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. ‘Of course you don’t – till I tell you. I meant “there’s a nice knockdown argument for you!”’

  ‘But “glory” doesn’t mean “a nice knock-down argument,”’ Alice objected.

  ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.’

  ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

  ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master – that’s all.’

  Alice was too much puzzled to sa
y anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. ‘They’ve a temper, some of them – particularly verbs, they’re the proudest – adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs – however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That’s what I say!’

  ‘Would you tell me, please,’ said Alice, ‘what that means?’

  ‘Now you talk like a reasonable child,’ said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. ‘I meant by “impenetrability” that we’ve had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you’d mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don’t mean to stop here all the rest of your life.’

  ‘That’s a great deal to make one word mean,’ Alice said in a thoughtful tone.

  ‘When I make a word do a lot of work like that,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘I always pay it extra.’

  ‘Oh!’ said Alice. She was too much puzzled to make any other remark.

  ‘Ah, you should see ’em come round me of a Saturday night,’ Humpty Dumpty went on, wagging his head gravely from side to side: ‘for to get their wages, you know.’

  (Alice didn’t venture to ask what he paid them with; and so you see I can’t tell you.)

  ‘You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir,’ said Alice. ‘Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem called “Jabberwocky”?’

  ‘Let’s hear it,’ said Humpty Dumpty. ‘I can explain all the poems that ever were invented – and a good many that haven’t been invented just yet.’

  This sounded very hopeful, so Alice repeated the first verse:

  ‘’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

  All mimsy were the borogoves,

  And the mome raths outgrabe.’

  ‘That’s enough to begin with,’ Humpty Dumpty interrupted: ‘there are plenty of hard words there. “Brillig” means four o’clock in the afternoon – the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.’