ck Tur-tle.

"She can't do that," said the Gry-phon. "Go on with the next verse."

"But his toes?" the Mock Tur-tle went on. "How could he turn them out
with his nose, you know?"

"Go on with the next verse," the Gry-phon said once more; "it begins 'I
passed by his gar-den.'"

Al-ice thought she must do as she was told, though she felt sure it
would all come wrong, and she went on:

"I passed by his gar-den and marked with one eye,
How the owl and the oys-ter were shar-ing the pie."

"What _is_ the use of say-ing all that stuff!" the Mock Tur-tle broke
in, "if you don't tell what it means as you go on? I tell you it is all
non-sense."

"Yes, I think you might as well leave off," said the Gry-phon, and
Al-ice was but too glad to do so.

"Shall we try the Lob-ster dance once more?" the Gry-phon went on, "or
would you like the Mock Tur-tle to sing you a song?"

"Oh, a song please, if the Mock Tur-tle would be so kind," Al-ice said
with so much zest that the Gry-phon threw back his head and said, "Hm!
Well, each one to his own taste. Sing her 'Tur-tle Soup,' will you, old
fel-low?"

The Mock Tur-tle heaved a deep sigh, and in a voice choked with sobs,
be-gan his song, but just then the cry of "The tri-al is on!" was heard
a long way off.

"Come on," cried the Gry-phon. He took her by the hand, ran off, and did
not wait to hear the song.

"What trial is it?" Al-ice pant-ed as she ran, but the Gry-phon on-ly
said, "Come on!" and still ran as fast as he could.

CHAPTER XI.

WHO STOLE THE TARTS?

The King and Queen of Hearts were seat-ed on their throne when Al-ice
and the Gry-phon came up, with a great crowd a-bout them. There were all
sorts of small birds and beasts, as well as the whole pack of cards. The
Knave stood in front of them in chains, with a sol-dier on each side to
guard him; and near the King was the White Rab-bit, with a trum-pet in
one hand and a roll of pa-per in the other. In the mid-dle of the court
was a ta-ble with a large dish of tarts on it. They looked so good that
it made Al-ice feel as if she would like to eat some of them. "I wish
they'd get the tri-al done," she thought, "and hand round the pies!" But
there seemed no chance of this, so to pass the time a-way she looked
round at the strange things a-bout her.

This was the first time Al-ice had been in a court of this kind, and she
was quite pleased to find that she knew the names of most things she saw
there. "T