Part 9 (1/2)
'Tis the voice of the lobster, I heard him declare, ”You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair.”
As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose Trims his belt and his b.u.t.tons, and turns out his toes.
The whole time she was in Wonderland she never by any chance recited anything correctly, and through all of her wanderings she never met anything in the shape of a little boy, except the infant son of the _d.u.c.h.ess_, who after all turned out to be a pig and vanished in the woods.
The ”roundabouts” played no parts in ”Alice in Wonderland,” and yet--to a man--they love it to this day.
When at last _Alice_ bade farewell to the _Mock Turtle_, she left it sobbing of course, and singing with much emotion the following song, ent.i.tled:
TURTLE SOUP.
Beautiful Soup, so rich and green, Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Beau--ootiful Soo--oop!
Beau--ootiful Soo--oop!
Soo--oop of the e--e--evening, Beautiful, beautiful Soup!
Beautiful Soup! Who cares for fish, Game, or any other dish Who would not give all else for two pennyworth only of beautiful Soup?
Beau--ootiful Soo--oop!
Beau--ootiful Soo--oop!
Soo--oop of the e--e--evening, Beautiful, beauti--FUL SOUP!
We might spend a whole chapter over the great trial scene of the _Knave of Hearts_. We all know that the wretched fellow stole some tarts upon a summer's day, and that he was brought in chains before the _King_ and _Queen_, to face the charges. What we did not know was that it was the fourth of July, and that _Alice_ was one of the witnesses.
This, in a certain way, is the cleverest chapter in the book, for all the characters in Wonderland take part in the proceedings, which are so like, and yet so comically unlike, a real court. We forget, as _Alice_ did, that all these royalties are but a pack of cards, and follow all the evidence with the greatest interest, including the piece of paper which the _White Rabbit_ had just found and presented to the Court. It contained the following 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.
This truly clear explanation touches the _Queen of Hearts_ so closely that the outsider is led to believe that she is indirectly responsible for the theft, that the poor knave is but the tool of her Majesty, whose fondness for tarts led her into temptation. Lewis Carroll had a keen eye for the dramatic climax--the packed court room, the rambling evidence, the mystifying sc.r.a.p of paper, and _Alice's_ defiance of the _King_ and _Queen_.
”'Off with her head!' the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. n.o.body 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 in the air and came flying down upon her; she gave a little scream, half of fright, 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 brus.h.i.+ng away some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees on to her face....”