ld speak.

"Are you to get in at all?" he said. "That's the first thing, you know."

It was, no doubt; but Al-ice didn't like to be told so.

The Foot-man seemed to think this a good time to say a-gain, "I shall
sit here on and off, for days and days."

"But what am I to do?" said Al-ice.

"Do what you like," he said.

"Oh, there's no use to try to talk to him," said Al-ice; "he has no
sense at all." And she o-pened the door and went in.

The door led right in-to a large room that was full of smoke from end to
end: the Duch-ess sat on a stool and held a child in her arms; the cook
stood near the fire and stirred a large pot which seemed to be full of
soup.

"There's too much pep-per in that soup!" Al-ice said to her-self as well
as she could for sneez-ing. There was too much of it in the air, for the
Duch-ess sneezed now and then; and as for the child, it sneezed and
howled all the time.

A large cat sat on the hearth grin-ning from ear to ear.

"Please, would you tell me," said Al-ice, not quite sure that it was
right for her to speak first, "why your cat grins like that?"

"It's a Che-shire cat," said the Duch-ess, "and that's why. Pig!"

She said the last word so loud that Al-ice jumped; but she soon saw that
the Duch-ess spoke to the child and not to her, so she went on:

"I didn't know that Che-shire cats grinned; in fact, I didn't know that
cats could grin."

"They all can," said the Duch-ess; "and most of 'em do."

"I don't know of an-y that do," Al-ice said, quite pleased to have some
one to talk with.

"You don't know much," said the Duch-ess; "and that's a fact."

Al-ice did not at all like the tone in which this was said, and thought
it would be as well to speak of some-thing else. While she tried to
think of what to say, the cook took the pot from the fire, and at once
set to work throw-ing things at the Duch-ess and the child--the tongs
came first, then pots, pans, plates and cups flew thick and fast through
the air. The Duch-ess did not seem to see them, e-ven when they hit her;
and the child had howled so loud all the while, that one could not tell
if the blows hurt it or not.

"Oh, please mind what you do!" cried Al-ice, as she jumped up and down
in great fear, lest she should be struck.

"Hold your tongue," said the Duch-ess; then she be-gan a sort of song to
the child, giv-ing it a hard shake at the end of each line.

At the end of the song she threw the child at Al-ice and said