at first she would get up and leave
the court; but on second thoughts she decided to remain where she was as
long as there was room for her.

"I'm a poor man, your Majesty," the Hatter began in a trembling voice,
"and I hadn't but just begun my tea--not above a week or so--and what
with the bread-and-butter getting so thin--and the twinkling of the
tea----"

"The twinkling of _what_?" said the King.

"It _began_ with the tea," said the Hatter.

"Of course, twinkling begins with a T!" said the King sharply. "Do you
take me for a dunce? Go on!"

"I'm a poor man," the Hatter went on, "and most things twinkled after
that--only the March Hare said----"

"I didn't!" the March Hare interrupted in a great hurry.

"You did!" said the Hatter.

"I deny it!" said the March Hare.

"He denies it," said the King; "leave out that part. And if that's all
you know about it, you may go," said the King; and the Hatter hurriedly
left the court, without even waiting to put on his shoes. "--and just
take his head off outside," the Queen added to one of the officers; but
the Hatter was out of sight before the officer could get to the door.

"Call the next witness!" said the King.

Alice watched the White Rabbit as he fumbled over the list, feeling very
curious to see what the next witness would be like, "for they haven't
got much evidence _yet_," she said to herself. Imagine her surprise when
the White Rabbit read out, at the top of his shrill little voice, the
name "Alice!"

"Here!" cried Alice, quite forgetting in the flurry of the moment how
large she had grown in the last few minutes, and she jumped up in such a
hurry that she tipped over the jury-box with the edge of her skirt,
upsetting all the jurymen on to the heads of the crowd below, and there
they lay sprawling about, reminding her very much of a globe of
gold-fish she had accidentally upset the week before.

"Oh, I _beg_ your pardon!" she exclaimed in a tone of great dismay, and
began picking them up again as quickly as she could.

As soon as the jury had a little recovered from the shock of being
upset, and their slates and pencils had been found and handed back to
them, they set to work very diligently to write out a history of the
accident, all except the Lizard, who seemed too much overcome to do
anything but sit with its mouth open, gazing up into the roof.

"What do you know about this business?" the King said to Alice.

"Nothing," said Alice.

"Nothing