Alice, the Duke of Albany, Honorable Mabel Palmer, Lady
Victoria Manners, and Lord Haddon], telling them "Bruno's
Picnic" and folding a fishing-boat for them. I got the
Duchess's leave to send the little Alice a copy of the
"Nursery Alice," and mean to send it with "Alice
Underground" for herself.

Towards the end of the year Lewis Carroll had tremendously hard work,
completing "Sylvie and Bruno." For several days on end he worked from
breakfast until nearly ten in the evening without a rest. At last it
was off his hands, and for a month or so he was (comparatively) an
idle man. Some notes from his Diary, written during this period,
follow:--

_Nov. 17th._--Met, for first time, an actual believer
in the "craze" that buying and selling are wrong (!) (he is
rather 'out of his mind'). The most curious thing was his
declaration that he himself _lives_ on that theory, and
never buys anything, and has no money! I thought of railway
travelling, and ventured to ask how he got from London to
Oxford? "On a bicycle!" And how he got the bicycle? "It was
given him!" So I was floored, and there was no time to think
of any other instances. The whole thing was so new to me
that, when he declared it to be _un-Christian_, I quite
forgot the text, "He that hath no sword, let him sell his
garment, and buy one."

_Dec. 19th._--Went over to Birmingham to see a
performance of "Alice" (Mrs. Freiligrath Kroeker's version)
at the High School. I rashly offered to tell "Bruno's
Picnic" afterwards to the little children, thinking I should
have an audience of 40 or 50, mostly children, instead of
which I had to tell it from the stage to an audience of
about 280, mostly older girls and grown-up people! However,
I got some of the children to come on the stage with me, and
the little Alice (Muriel Howard-Smith, aet. 11) stood by me,
which made it less awful. The evening began with some of
"Julius Caesar" in German. This and "Alice" were really
capitally acted, the White Queen being quite the best I have
seen (Miss B. Lloyd Owen). I was introduced to Alice and a
few more, and was quite sorry to hear afterwards that the
other performers wanted to shake hands.

The publication of "Sylvie and Bruno" marks an epoch in its author's
life, for it was the publication of all the ideals and sentiments
which he held most dear.