og-footmen with invitations
from the Queen to the Duchess, asking her to play croquet. The Duchess
lived in the house, and a terrible noise was going on inside, and when
the door was opened a plate came crashing out. But Alice got in at last,
and found a strange state of things. The Duchess and her cook were
quarrelling because there was too much pepper in the soup. The cook
threw everything she could lay hands on at the Duchess, and nearly
knocked the baby's nose off with a saucepan.

The Duchess had the baby in her lap, and tossed it about ridiculously,
finally throwing it in the most heartless way to Alice. She took it out
of doors, and behold, it turned into a little pig, jumped out of her
arms, and ran away into the wood.

"If it had grown up," she said, "it would have made a dreadfully ugly
child; but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think."

She was a little startled now by seeing the Cheshire Cat--which she had
first seen in the house of the Duchess--sitting on a bough of a tree.
The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she
thought; still it had _very_ long claws and a great many teeth, so she
felt that it ought to be treated with respect.

"Cheshire Puss," she said, "what sort of people live about here?"

"In _that_ direction," the Cat said, waving its right paw round, "lives
a Hatter; and in _that_ direction"--waving the other paw--"lives a March
Hare. Visit either you like; they're both mad."

She had not gone very far before she came in sight of the house of the
March Hare. She thought it must be the right house, because the chimneys
were shaped like ears and the roof was thatched with fur. It was so
large a house that she did not like to go nearer till she had nibbled
some more of the left-hand bit of mushroom, and raised herself to about
two feet high; even then she walked up towards it rather timidly, saying
to herself, "Suppose it should be raving mad after all. I almost wish
I'd gone to see the Hatter instead."

_IV.--Alice at the 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.

The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at
one corner.

"No room! No room!" they cried out when they saw Alice coming.

"There'