CHAPTER VII

A Mad Tea-Party



There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house,

and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a

Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two

were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking

over its head. `Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,' thought Alice;

`only, as it's asleep, I suppose it doesn't mind.'



The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded

together at one corner of it: `No room! No room!' they cried

out when they saw Alice coming. `There's PLENTY of room!' said

Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one

end of the table.



`Have some wine,' the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.



Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it

but tea. `I don't see any wine,' she remarked.



`There isn't any,' said the March Hare.



`Then it wasn't very civil of you to offer it,' said Alice angrily.



`It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being

invited,' said the March Hare.



`I didn't know it was YOUR table,' said Alice; `it's laid for a

great many more than three.'



`Your hair wants cutting,' said the Hatter. He had been

looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity, and this was

his first speech.



`You should learn not to make personal remarks,' Alice said

with some severity; `it's very rude.'



The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all

he SAID was, `Why is a raven like a writing-desk?'



`Come, we shall have some fun now!' thought Alice. `I'm glad

they've begun asking riddles.--I believe I can guess that,' she

added aloud.



`Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?'

said the March Hare.



`Exactly so,' said Alice.



`Then you should say what you mean,' the March Hare went on.



`I do,' Alice hastily replied; `at least--at least I mean what

I say--that's the same thing, you know.'



`Not the same thing a bit!' said the Hatter. `You might just

as well say that "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat

what I see"!'



`You might just as well say,' added the March Hare, `that "I

like what I get" is the same thing as "I get what I like"!'



`You might just as well say,' added the Dormouse, who seemed to

be talking in his sleep, `that "I breathe when I sleep" is the

same thing as "I sleep when I breathe"!'



`It IS the same thing with you,' said the Hatter, and here the

conversation dropped, and the party sat silent for a minute,

while Alice thought over all she could remember about ravens and

writing-desks, which wasn't much.



The Hatter was the first to break the silence. `What day of

the month is it?' he said, turning to Alice: he had taken his

watch out of his pocket, and was looking at it uneasily, shaking

it every now and then, and holding it to his ear.



Alice considered a little, and then said `The fourth.'



`Two days wrong!' sighed the Hatter. `I told you butter

wouldn't suit the works!' he added looking angrily at the March Hare.



`It was the BEST butter,' the March Hare meekly replied.



`Yes, but some crumbs must have got in as well,' the Hatter

grumbled: `you shouldn't have put it in with the bread-knife.'



The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then

he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he

could think of nothing better to say than his first remark, `It

was the BEST butter, you know.'



Alice had been looking over his shoulder with some curiosity.

`What a funny watch!' she remarked. `It tells the day of the

month, and doesn't tell what o'clock it is!'



`Why should it?' muttered the Hatter. `Does YOUR watch tell

you what year it is?'



`Of course not,' Alice replied very readily: `but that's

because it stays the same year for such a long time together.'



`Which is just the case with MINE,' said the Hatter.



Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. The Hatter's remark seemed to

have no sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English.

`I don't quite understand you,' she said, as politely as she could.



`The Dormouse is asleep again,' said the Hatter, and he poured

a little hot tea upon its nose.



The Dormouse shook its head impatiently, and said, without

opening its eyes, `Of course, of course; just what I was going to

remark myself.'



`Have you guessed the riddle yet?' the Hatter said, turning to

Alice again.



`No, I give it up,' Alice replied: `what's the answer?'



`I haven't the slightest idea,' said the Hatter.



`Nor I,' said the March Hare.



Alice sighed wearily. `I think you might do something better

with the time,' she said, `than waste it in asking riddles that

have no answers.'



`If you knew Time as well as I do,' said the Hatter, `you

wouldn't talk about wasting IT. It's HIM.'



`I don't know what you mean,' said Alice.



`Of course you don't!' the Hatter said, tossing his head

contemptuously. `I dare say you never even spoke to Time!'



`Perhaps not,' Alice cautiously replied: `but I know I have to

beat time when I learn music.'



`Ah! that accounts for it,' said the Hatter. `He won't stand

beating. Now, if you only kept on good terms with him, he'd do

almost anything you liked with the clock. For instance, suppose

it were nine o'clock in the morning, just time to begin lessons:

you'd only have to whisper a hint to Time, and round goes the

clock in a twinkling! Half-past one, time for dinner!'



(`I only wish it was,' the March Hare said to itself in a whisper.)



`That would be grand, certainly,' said Alice thoughtfully:

`but then--I shouldn't be hungry for it, you know.'



`Not at first, perhaps,' said the Hatter: `but you could keep

it to half-past one as long as you liked.'



`Is that the way YOU manage?' Alice asked.



The Hatter shook his head mournfully. `Not I!' he replied.

`We quarrelled last March--just before HE went mad, you know--'

(pointing with his tea spoon at the March Hare,) `--it was at the

great concert given by the Queen of Hearts, and I had to sing



"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!

How I wonder what you're at!"



You know the song, perhaps?'



`I've heard something like it,' said Alice.



`It goes on, you know,' the Hatter continued, `in this way:--



"Up above the world you fly,

Like a tea-tray in the sky.

Twinkle, twinkle--"'



Here the Dormouse shook itself, and began singing in its sleep

`Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle, twinkle--' and went on so long that

they had to pinch it to make it stop.



`Well, I'd hardly finished the first verse,' said the Hatter,

`when the Queen jumped up and bawled out, "He's murdering the

time! Off with his head!"'



`How dreadfully savage!' exclaimed Alice.



`And ever since that,' the Hatter went on in a mournful tone,

`he won't do a thing I ask! It's always six o'clock now.'



A bright idea came into Alice's head. `Is that the reason so

many tea-things are put out here?' she asked.



`Yes, that's it,' said the Hatter with a sigh: `it's always

tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things between whiles.'



`Then you keep moving round, I suppose?' said Alice.



`Exactly so,' said the Hatter: `as the things get used up.'



`But what happens when you come to the beginning again?' Alice

ventured to ask.



`Suppose we change the subject,' the March Hare interrupted,

yawning. `I'm getting tired of this. I vote the young lady

tells us a story.'



`I'm afraid I don't know one,' said Alice, rather alarmed at the proposal.



`Then the Dormouse shall!' they both cried. `Wake up,

Dormouse!' And they pinched it on both sides at once.



The Dormouse slowly opened his eyes. `I wasn't asleep,' he

said in a hoarse, feeble voice: `I heard every word you fellows

were saying.'



`Tell us a story!' said the March Hare.



`Yes, please do!' pleaded Alice.



`And be quick about it,' added the Hatter, `or you'll be asleep

again before it's done.'



`Once upon a time there were three little sisters,' the

Dormouse began in a great hurry; `and their names were Elsie,

Lacie, and Tillie; and they lived at the bottom of a well--'



`What did they live on?' said Alice, who always took a great

interest in questions of eating and drinking.



`They lived on treacle,' said the Dormouse, after thinking a

minute or two.



`They couldn't have done that, you know,' Alice gently

remarked; `they'd have been ill.'



`So they were,' said the Dormouse; `VERY ill.'



Alice tried to fancy to herself what such an extraordinary ways

of living would be like, but it puzzled her too much, so she went

on: `But why did they live at the bottom of a well?'



`Take some more tea,' the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.



`I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone, `so

I can't take more.'



`You mean you can't take LESS,' said the Hatter: `it's very

easy to take MORE than nothing.'



`Nobody asked YOUR opinion,' said Alice.



`Who's making personal remarks now?' the Hatter asked triumphantly.



Alice did not quite know what to say to this: so she helped

herself to some tea and bread-and-butter, and then turned to the

Dormouse, and repeated her question. `Why did they live at the

bottom of a well?'



The Dormouse again took a minute or two to think about it, and

then said, `It was a treacle-well.'



`There's no such thing!' Alice was beginning very angrily, but

the Hatter and the March Hare went `Sh! sh!' and the Dormouse

sulkily remarked, `If you can't be civil, you'd better finish the

story for yourself.'



`No, please go on!' Alice said very humbly; `I won't interrupt

again. I dare say there may be ONE.'



`One, indeed!' said the Dormouse indignantly. However, he

consented to go on. `And so these three little sisters--they

were learning to draw, you know--'



`What did they draw?' said Alice, quite forgetting her promise.



`Treacle,' said the Dormouse, without considering at all this time.



`I want a clean cup,' interrupted the Hatter: `let's all move one place on.'



He moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him: the

March Hare moved into the Dormouse's place, and Alice rather

unwillingly took the place of the March Hare. The Hatter was the

only one who got any advantage from the change: and Alice was a

good deal worse off than before, as the March Hare had just upset

the milk-jug into his plate.



Alice did not wish to offend the Dormouse again, so she began

very cautiously: `But I don't understand. Where did they draw

the treacle from?'



`You can draw water out of a water-well,' said the Hatter; `so

I should think you could draw treacle out of a treacle-well--eh, stupid?'



`But they were IN the well,' Alice said to the Dormouse, not

choosing to notice this last remark.



`Of course they were', said the Dormouse; `--well in.'



This answer so confused poor Alice, that she let the Dormouse

go on for some time without interrupting it.



`They were learning to draw,' the Dormouse went on, yawning and

rubbing its eyes, for it was getting very sleepy; `and they drew

all manner of things--everything that begins with an M--'



`Why with an M?' said Alice.



`Why not?' said the March Hare.



Alice was silent.



The Dormouse had closed its eyes by this time, and was going

off into a doze; but, on being pinched by the Hatter, it woke up

again with a little shriek, and went on: `--that begins with an

M, such as mouse-traps, and the moon, and memory, and muchness--

you know you say things are "much of a muchness"--did you ever

see such a thing as a drawing of a muchness?'



`Really, now you ask me,' said Alice, very much confused, `I don't think--'



`Then you shouldn't talk,' said the Hatter.



This piece of rudeness was more than Alice could bear: she got

up in great disgust, and walked off; the Dormouse fell asleep

instantly, and neither of the others took the least notice of her

going, though she looked back once or twice, half hoping that

they would call after her: the last time she saw them, they were

trying to put the Dormouse into the teapot.



`At any rate I'll never go THERE again!' said Alice as she

picked her way through the wood. `It's the stupidest tea-party I

ever was at in all my life!'



Just as she said this, she noticed that one of the trees had a

door leading right into it. `That's very curious!' she thought.

`But everything's curious today. I think I may as well go in at once.'

And in she went.



Once more she found herself in the long hall, and close to the

little glass table. `Now, I'll manage better this time,'

she said to herself, and began by taking the little golden key,

and unlocking the door that led into the garden. Then she went

to work nibbling at the mushroom (she had kept a piece of it

in her pocket) till she was about a foot high: then she walked down

the little passage: and THEN--she found herself at last in the

beautiful garden, among the bright flower-beds and the cool fountains.

****

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