to bring these in,
as I was not quite through with my tea when I was sent for."

"You ought to have been through," said the King. "When did you be-gin?"

The Hat-ter looked at the March Hare, who had just come in-to court,
arm in arm with the Dor-mouse. "Fourth of March, I think it was," he
said.

"Fifth," said the March Hare.

"Sixth," add-ed the Dor-mouse.

"Write that down," said the King to the ju-ry, and they wrote down all
three dates on their slates, and then added them up and changed the sum
to shil-lings and pence.

"Take off your hat," the King said to the Hat-ter.

"It isn't mine," said the Hat-ter.

"Stole it!" cried the King, as he turned to the jury, who at once wrote
it down.

"I keep them to sell," the Hat-ter added. "I've none of my own. I'm a
hat-ter."

Here the Queen put on her eye-glass-es and stared hard at the Hat-ter,
who turned pale with fright.

"Tell what you know of this case," said the King; "and don't be
nerv-ous, or I'll have your head off on the spot."

This did not seem to calm him at all, he shift-ed from one foot to the
other and looked at the Queen, and in his fright he bit a large piece
out of his tea-cup in place of the bread and but-ter.

Just then Al-ice felt a strange thrill, the cause of which she could not
make out till she saw she had be-gun to grow a-gain.

"I wish you wouldn't squeeze so," said the Dor-mouse. "I haven't room to
breathe."

"I can't help it," said Al-ice; "I'm grow-ing."

"You've no right to grow here," said the Dor-mouse.

"Don't talk such non-sense," said Al-ice. "You know you grow too."

"Yes, but not so fast as to squeeze the breath out of those who sit by
me." He got up and crossed to the oth-er side of the court.

All this time the Queen had not left off star-ing at the Hat-ter, and
just as the Dor-mouse crossed the court, she said to one of the men,
"Bring me the list of those who sang in the last con-cert," on which the
poor Hat-ter trembled so, that he shook both his shoes off.

[Illustration]

"Tell what you know of this case," the King called out a-gain, "or I'll
have your head off, if you do shake."

"I'm a poor man, your ma-jes-ty," the Hat-ter be-gan in a weak voice,
"and I hadn't but just be-gun my tea, not more than a week or so, and
what with the bread and but-ter so thin--and the twink-ling of the
tea--"

"The twink-ling of what?" asked the King.

"It be-gan with the tea," the Hat-ter said.

"Of course twink-