ent was, that you couldn't cut off a head unless
there was a body to cut it off from: that he had never had to do such a
thing before, and he wasn't going to begin at _his_ time of life.

The King's argument was, that anything that had a head could be
beheaded, and that you weren't to talk nonsense.

The Queen's argument was, that if something wasn't done about it in less
than no time, she'd have everybody executed all round. (It was this last
remark that had made the whole party look so grave and anxious.)

Alice could think of nothing else to say but "It belongs to the Duchess:
you'd better ask _her_ about it."

"She's in prison," the Queen said to the executioner; "fetch her here."
And the executioner went off like an arrow.

The Cat's head began fading away the moment he was gone, and by the time
he had come back with the Duchess, it had entirely disappeared; so the
King and the executioner ran wildly up and down looking for it, while
the rest of the party went back to the game.

CHAPTER IX

[Sidenote: _The Mock Turtle's Story_]

"YOU can't think how glad I am to see you again, you
dear old thing!" said the Duchess, as she tucked her arm affectionately
into Alice's, and they walked off together.

Alice was very glad to find her in such a pleasant temper, and thought
to herself that perhaps it was only the pepper that had made her so
savage when they met in the kitchen.

"When _I'm_ a Duchess," she said to herself (not in a very hopeful tone
though), "I won't have any pepper in my kitchen _at all_. Soup does very
well without--Maybe it's always pepper that makes people hot-tempered,"
she went on, very much pleased at having found out a new kind of rule,
"and vinegar that makes them sour--and camomile that makes them
bitter--and--barley-sugar and such things that make children
sweet-tempered. I only wish people knew _that_: then they wouldn't be
so stingy about it, you know----"

She had quite forgotten the Duchess by this time, and was a little
startled when she heard her voice close to her ear. "You're thinking
about something, my dear, and that makes you forget to talk. I can't
tell you just now what the moral of that is, but I shall remember it in
a bit."

"Perhaps it hasn't one," Alice ventured to remark.

"Tut, tut, child!" said the Duchess. "Every thing's got a moral, if only
you can find it." And she squeezed herself up closer to Alice's side as
she spoke.

Alice did not much like her