--_to watch_," said ALICE,
feeling very glad that she had not to stand up in it.

"You may not have lived much under the Sea" (said the Real Turtle)
("I haven't," said ALICE), "and perhaps you were never introduced to
a Lobster--" (ALICE began to say "I once tasted--" but checked herself
hastily, and said, "No, never"),--"So you can have no idea what a
delightful dance a (Diplomatic) Lobster Quadrille is!"

"I dare say not," said ALICE.

"Stand up and repeat '_'Tis the Voice of the Premier_,'" said the
Griffin.

ALICE got up and began to repeat it, but her head was so full of
Lobsters, Pigs, and Seals, that she hardly knew what she was saying,
and the words came very queer indeed:--

"'Tis the voice of the Premier; I heard him complain
On the Ninth of November all prophecy's vain.
I _must_ make some sort of a speech, I suppose.
Dear DIZZY (who led the whole world by the nose)
Said the world heard, for once, on this day, 'Truth and Sense'
(_I.e._ neatly phrased Make-believe and Pretence),
But when GLADDY's 'tide' rises, and lost seats abound,
One's voice has a cautious and timorous sound."

"I've heard this sort of thing so often before," said the Real Turtle;
"but it sounds uncommon nonsense. Go on with the next verse."

ALICE did not dare disobey, though she felt sure it would all come
wrong, and she went on in a trembling voice:--

"I passed by the Session, and marked, by the way,
How the Lion and Eagles would share Af-ri-ca.
How the peoples, at peace, were not shooting with lead,
But bethumping each other with Tariffs instead,
How the Eight Hours' Bill, on which BURNS was so sweet,
Was (like bye-elections) a snare and a cheat;
How the Lobster, the Pig, and the Seal, I would say
At my sixth Lord Mayor's Banquet--"

"What _is_ the use of repeating all that stuff," the Real Turtle
interrupted, "if you don't explain it as you go on? It's by far the
most confusing thing _I_ ever heard!"

"Yes, I think you'd better leave off," said the Griffin; and ALICE was
only too glad to do so.

* * * * *

GAMES.--It being the season of burglaries, E. WOLF AND SON--("WOLF,"
most appropriate name,--but _Wolf and Moon_ would have been still
better than WOLF AND SON)--take the auspicious time to bring out their
new game of "Burglar and Bobbies." On a sort of draught-board, so
that both Burglar and Bobby play "on the square," which is in itself a
novelty. The