give a hint to Time, and round goes the clock! Half-past one,
time for lunch."

"I wish it was," the March Hare said to it-self.

[Illustration]

"That would be grand, I'm sure," said Al-ice: "but then--I shouldn't be
hun-gry for it, you know."

"Not at first, per-haps, but you could keep it to half-past one as long
as you liked," said the Hat-ter.

"Is that the way you do?" asked Al-ice.

The Hat-ter shook his head and sighed. "Not I," he said. "Time and I
fell out last March. It was at the great con-cert giv-en by the Queen of
Hearts and I had to sing:

'Twin-kle, twin-kle, lit-tle bat!
How I wonder what you're at!'

You know the song, per-haps?"

"I've heard some-thing like it," said Alice.

"It goes on, you know," the Hat-ter said, "in this way:

'Up a-bove the world you fly,
Like a tea-tray in the sky,
Twin-kle, twin-kle----'"

Here the Dor-mouse shook it-self and sang in its sleep, "twin-kle,
twin-kle, twin-kle, twin-kle----" and went on so long that they had to
pinch it to make it stop.

"Well, while I sang the first verse," the Hat-ter went on, "the Queen
bawled out 'See how he mur-ders the time! Off with his head!' And ev-er
since that, he won't do a thing I ask! It's al-ways six o'clock now."

A bright thought came in-to Al-ice's head. "Is that why so man-y tea
things are put out here?" she asked.

"Yes, that's it," said the Hat-ter with a sigh: "it's al-ways tea-time,
and we've no time to wash the things."

"Then you keep mov-ing round, I guess," said Al-ice.

"Just so," said the Hat-ter; "as the things get used up."

"But when you come to the place where you started, what do you do then?"
Al-ice dared to ask.

"I'm tired of this," yawned the March Hare. "I vote you tell us a tale."

"_I_ fear I don't know one," said Al-ice.

"I want a clean cup," spoke up the Hat-ter.

He moved on as he spoke, and the Dor-mouse moved in-to his place; the
March Hare moved in-to the Dor-mouse's place and Al-ice, none too well
pleased, took the place of the March Hare. The Hat-ter was the on-ly one
to get an-y good from the change; and Al-ice was a good deal worse off,
as the March Hare had up-set the milk-jug in-to his plate.

"Now, for your sto-ry," the March Hare said to Al-ice.

"I'm sure I don't know,"--Alice be-gan, "I--I don't think--"

"Then you shouldn't talk," said the Hat-ter.

[Illustration]

This was more than Al-ice could stand; so she got up and walked off,