pleased so far," thought Alice, and she went on. "Would you
tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.

"I don't much care where----" said Alice.

"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

"---- so long as I get _somewhere_," Alice added as an explanation.

"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long
enough."

Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question.
"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."

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you ca'n't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad.
You're mad."

"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on. "And how
do you know that you're mad?"

"To begin with," said the Cat, "a dog's not mad. You grant that?"

"I suppose so," said Alice.

"Well, then," the Cat went on, "you see a dog growls when it's angry,
and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now _I_ growl when I'm pleased, and
wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad."

"_I_ call it purring, not growling," said Alice.

"Call it what you like," said the Cat. "Do you play croquet with the
Queen to-day?"

"I should like it very much," said Alice, "but I haven't been invited
yet."

"You'll see me there," said the Cat and vanished.

Alice was not much surprised at this, she was getting so used to queer
things happening. While she was looking at the place where it had been,
it suddenly appeared again.

"By-the-bye, what became of the baby?" said the Cat. "I'd nearly
forgotten to ask."

"It turned into a pig," Alice quietly said, just as if it had come back
in a natural way.

"I thought it would," said the Cat, and vanished again.

Alice waited a little, half expecting to see it again, but it did not
appear, and after a minute or two she walked on in the direction in
which the March Hare was said to live. "I've seen hatters before," she
said to herself; "the March Hare will be much the most interesting, and
perhaps as this is May, it won't be raving mad--at least not so mad as
it was in March." As she said