, "Here,
you may nurse it a bit if you like; I must go and get read-y to play
cro-quet with the Queen," and she left the room in great haste. The cook
threw a pan after her as she went, but it just missed her.

Al-ice caught the child, which held out its arms and legs on all sides,
"just like a star-fish," Al-ice thought. The poor thing snort-ed like a
steam en-gine when she caught it, and turned a-bout so much, it was as
much as she could do at first to hold it.

As soon as she found out the right way to nurse it, (which was to twist
it up in a sort of knot, then keep tight hold of its right ear and left
foot), she took it out in the fresh air. "If I don't take this child
with me," thought Al-ice, "they're sure to kill it in a day or two;
wouldn't it be wrong to leave it here?" She said the last words out
loud, and the child grunt-ed (it had left off sneez-ing by this time).
"Don't grunt," said Al-ice, "that is not at all the right way to do."

The child grunt-ed a-gain and Al-ice looked at its face to see what was
wrong with it. There could be no doubt that it had a turn-up nose, much
more like a snout than a child's nose. Its eyes were quite small too; in
fact she did not like the look of the thing at all.

[Illustration]

"Per-haps that was not a grunt, but a sob," and she looked to see if
there were tears in its eyes.

No, there were no tears. "If you're go-ing to turn in-to a pig, my
dear," said Al-ice, "I'll have no more to do with you. Mind now!" The
poor thing sobbed once more (or grunted, Al-ice couldn't say which).

"Now, what am I to do with this thing when I get it home?" thought
Al-ice. Just then it grunt-ed so loud that she looked down at its face
with some fear. This time there could be no doubt a-bout it--it was a
pig!

So she set it down, and felt glad to see it trot off in-to the wood.

As she turned to walk on, she saw the Che-shire Cat on the bough of a
tree a few yards off. The Cat grinned when it saw Al-ice. It looked like
a good cat, she thought; still it had long claws and large teeth, so she
felt she ought to be kind to it.

[Illustration]

"Puss," said Al-ice, "would you please tell me which way I ought to walk
from here?"

"That de-pends a good deal on where you want to go to," said the Cat.

"I don't much care where--" said Al-ice.

"Then you need not care which way you walk," said the Cat.

"--so long as I get somewhere," Al-ice add-ed.

"Oh, you're sure to do that if yo