kisses myself, am I? Indeed I won't take the trouble to do
anything of the sort! But I'll tell _you_ how to do it.
First, you must take _four_ of the kisses, and--and
that reminds me of a very curious thing that happened to me
at half-past four yesterday. Three visitors came knocking at
my door, begging me to let them in. And when I opened the
door, who do you think they were? You'll never guess. Why,
they were three cats! Wasn't it curious? However, they all
looked so cross and disagreeable that I took up the first
thing I could lay my hand on (which happened to be the
rolling-pin) and knocked them all down as flat as pan-cakes!
"If _you_ come knocking at _my_ door," I said,
"_I_ shall come knocking at _your_ heads." "That
was fair, wasn't it?"

Yours affectionately,

Lewis Carroll.

My dear Agnes,--About the cats, you know. Of course I didn't
leave them lying flat on the ground like dried flowers: no,
I picked them up, and I was as kind as I could be to them. I
lent them the portfolio for a bed--they wouldn't have been
comfortable in a real bed, you know: they were too thin--but
they were _quite_ happy between the sheets of
blotting-paper--and each of them had a pen-wiper for a
pillow. Well, then I went to bed: but first I lent them the
three dinner-bells, to ring if they wanted anything in the
night.

You know I have _three_ dinner-bells--the first (which
is the largest) is rung when dinner is _nearly_ ready;
the second (which is rather larger) is rung when it is quite
ready; and the third (which is as large as the other two put
together) is rung all the time I am at dinner. Well, I told
them they might ring if they happened to want anything--and,
as they rang _all_ the bells _all_ night, I
suppose they did want something or other, only I was too
sleepy to attend to them.

In the morning I gave them some rat-tail jelly and buttered
mice for breakfast, and they were as discontented as they
could be. They wanted some boiled pelican, but of course I
knew it wouldn't be good _for_ them. So all I said was
"Go to Number Two, Finborough Road, and ask for Agnes
Hughes, and if it's _really_ good for you, she'll give
you some." Then I shook hands with them all, and wished them
all goodbye, and drove them up the chimney. They seemed very
so