d on.

"Who are you talk-ing to?" said the King, as he came up to Al-ice and
stared at the Cat's head as if it were a strange sight.

"It's a friend of mine--a Che-shire Cat," said Al-ice.

"I don't like the look of it at all," said the King; "it may kiss my
hand if it likes."

"I don't want to," said the Cat.

"Don't be rude; and don't look at me like that," said the King.

"A cat may look at a king," said Al-ice. "I've read that in some book,
but I can't tell where."

"Well, it must get off from here," said the King in a firm voice, and he
called to the Queen, who was near, "My dear! I wish you would see that
this cat leaves here at once!"

The Queen had but one cure for all ills, great or small. "Off with his
head," she said, and did not so much as look round.

"I'll fetch the sol-dier my-self," said the King, and rushed off.

Al-ice thought she might as well go back, and see how the game went on.
She heard the Queen's voice in the dis-tance, as she screamed with rage,
"Off with his head! He has missed his turn!" Al-ice did not like the
look of things at all, for the game was so mixed she could not tell when
her turn came; so she went off to find her hedge-hog.

She came up with two hedge-hogs in a fierce fight, and thought now was a
good time to strike one of them, but her mal-let was gone to the oth-er
side of the ground, and she saw it in a weak sort of way as it tried to
fly up in-to a tree.

By the time she had caught the bird and brought it back, the fight was
o-ver, and both hedge-hogs were out of sight. "I don't care much,"
thought Al-ice, "for there is not an arch on this side the ground." So
she went back to have some more talk with her friend.

When she reached the place, she found quite a crowd round the Cat. The
King and the Queen and the sol-dier who had come with the axe, to cut
off the Cat's head, were all talking at once, while all the rest stood
with closed lips and looked quite grave.

As soon as they saw Al-ice, they want-ed her to say which one was right,
but as all three spoke at once, she found it hard to make out what they
said.

[Illustration]

The sol-dier said that you couldn't cut off a head unless there was a
bod-y to cut it off from; that he had nev-er had to do such a thing, and
he wouldn't be-gin it now, at his time of life.

The King said that all heads could be cut off, and that you weren't to
talk non-sense.

The Queen said, if some-thing wasn't done in less t