ir the tiniest feather!
Yet what can one poor voice avail
Against three tongues together?

Imperious Prima flashes forth
Her edict "to begin it"--
In gentler tone Secunda hopes
"There will be nonsense in it!"--
While Tertia interrupts the tale
Not _more_ than once a minute.

Anon, to sudden silence won,
In fancy they pursue
The dream-child moving through a land
Of wonders wild and new,
In friendly chat with bird or beast--
And half believe it true.

And ever, as the story drained
The wells of fancy dry.
And faintly strove that weary one
To put the subject by,
"The rest next time--" "It _is_ next time!"
The happy voices cry.

Thus grew the tale of Wonderland:
Thus slowly, one by one,
Its quaint events were hammered out--
And now the tale is done,
And home we steer, a merry crew,
Beneath the setting sun.

Alice! a childish story take,
And with a gentle hand
Lay it where Childhood's dreams are twined
In Memory's mystic band,
Like pilgrim's wither'd wreath of flowers
Pluck'd in a far-off land.

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE 1

II. THE POOL OF TEARS 13

III. A CAUCUS-RACE AND A LONG TALE 24

IV. THE RABBIT SENDS IN A LITTLE BILL 35

V. ADVICE FROM A CATERPILLAR 49

VI. PIG AND PEPPER 64

VII. A MAD TEA-PARTY 82

VIII. THE QUEEN'S CROQUET-GROUND 96

IX. THE MOCK TURTLE'S STORY 111

X. THE LOBSTER QUADRILLE 126

XI. WHO STOLE THE TARTS? 139

XII. ALICE'S EVIDENCE 150

LIST OF THE PLATES

_To face page_

Alice _Frontispiece_

The Pool of Tears 22

They all crowded round it panting and