n which Alice was walking, she soon
found that it was the best plan not to walk QUITE close to the horse.

'I'm afraid you've not had much practice in riding,' she ventured to
say, as she was helping him up from his fifth tumble.

The Knight looked very much surprised, and a little offended at the
remark. 'What makes you say that?' he asked, as he scrambled back into
the saddle, keeping hold of Alice's hair with one hand, to save himself
from falling over on the other side.

'Because people don't fall off quite so often, when they've had much
practice.'

'I've had plenty of practice,' the Knight said very gravely: 'plenty of
practice!'

Alice could think of nothing better to say than 'Indeed?' but she said
it as heartily as she could. They went on a little way in silence after
this, the Knight with his eyes shut, muttering to himself, and Alice
watching anxiously for the next tumble.

'The great art of riding,' the Knight suddenly began in a loud voice,
waving his right arm as he spoke, 'is to keep--' Here the sentence ended
as suddenly as it had begun, as the Knight fell heavily on the top of
his head exactly in the path where Alice was walking. She was quite
frightened this time, and said in an anxious tone, as she picked him up,
'I hope no bones are broken?'

'None to speak of,' the Knight said, as if he didn't mind breaking two
or three of them. 'The great art of riding, as I was saying, is--to keep
your balance properly. Like this, you know--'

He let go the bridle, and stretched out both his arms to show Alice
what he meant, and this time he fell flat on his back, right under the
horse's feet.

'Plenty of practice!' he went on repeating, all the time that Alice was
getting him on his feet again. 'Plenty of practice!'

'It's too ridiculous!' cried Alice, losing all her patience this time.
'You ought to have a wooden horse on wheels, that you ought!'

'Does that kind go smoothly?' the Knight asked in a tone of great
interest, clasping his arms round the horse's neck as he spoke, just in
time to save himself from tumbling off again.

'Much more smoothly than a live horse,' Alice said, with a little scream
of laughter, in spite of all she could do to prevent it.

'I'll get one,' the Knight said thoughtfully to himself. 'One or
two--several.'

There was a short silence after this, and then the Knight went on again.
'I'm a great hand at inventing things. Now, I daresay you noticed, that
last time you p