`Here!' cried Alice, quite forgetting in the flurryof the
moment how large she had grown in the last few minutes,and she
jumped up in such a hurry that she tipped over the jury-boxwith
the edge of her skirt, upsetting all the jurymen on tothe heads
of the crowd below, and there they lay sprawling about,reminding
her very much of a globe of goldfish she had accidentallyupset
the week before.

  `Oh, I BEG your pardon!' she exclaimed in a toneof great
dismay, and began picking them up again as quickly asshe could,
for the accident of the goldfish kept running in herhead, and
she had a vague sort of idea that they must be collectedat once
and put back into the jury-box, or they would die.

  `The trial cannot proceed,' said the King in avery grave
voice, `until all the jurymen are back in their properplaces--
ALL,' he repeated with great emphasis, looking hard atAlice as
he said do.

  Alice looked at the jury-box, and saw that, inher haste, she
had put the Lizard in head downwards, and the poor littlething
was waving its tail about in a melancholy way, beingquite unable
to move.  She soon got it out again, and put itright; `not that
it signifies much,' she said to herself; `I should thinkit
would be QUITE as much use in the trial one way up asthe other.'

  As soon as the jury had a little recovered fromthe shock of
being upset, and their slates and pencils had been foundand
handed back to them, they set to work very diligentlyto write
out a history of the accident, all except the Lizard,who seemed
too much overcome to do anything but sit with its mouthopen,
gazing up into the roof of the court.

  `What do you know about this business?' the Kingsaid to
Alice.

  `Nothing,' said Alice.

  `Nothing WHATEVER?' persisted the King.

  `Nothing whatever,' said Alice.

  `That's very important,' the King said, turningto the jury.
They were just beginning to write this down on theirslates, when
the White Rabbit interrupted:  `UNimportant, yourMajesty means,
of course,' he said in a very respectful tone, but frowningand
making faces at him as he spoke.

  `UNimportant, of course, I meant,' the King hastilysaid, and
went on to himself in an undertone, `important--unimportant--
unimportant--important--' as if he were trying whichword
sounded best.

  Some of the jury wrote it down `important,' andsome
`unimportant.'  Alice could see this, as she wasnear enough to
look over their slates; `but it doesn't matter a bit,'she
thought to herself.

  At this moment the King, who had been for sometime busily
writing in his note-book, cackled out `Silence!' andread out
from his book, `Rule Forty-two.  ALL PERSONS MORETHAN A MILE
HIGH TO LEAVE THE COURT.'

  Everybody looked at Alice.

  `I'M not a mile high,' said Alice.

  `You are,' said the King.

  `Nearly two miles high,' added the Queen.

  `Well, I shan't go, at any rate,' said Alice: `besides,
that's not a regular rule:  you invented it justnow.'

  `It's the oldest rule in the book,' said the King.

  `Then it ought to be Number One,' said Alice.

  The King turned pale, and shut his note-book hastily.
`Consider your verdict,' he said to the jury, in a low,trembling
voice.

  `There's more evidence to come yet, please yourMajesty,' said
the White Rabbit, jumping up in a great hurry; `thispaper has
just been picked up.'

  `What's in it?' said the Queen.

  `I haven't opened it yet,' said the White Rabbit,`but it seems
to be a letter, written by the prisoner to--to somebody.'

  `It must have been that,' said the King, `unlessit was
written to nobody, which isn't usual, you know.'

  `Who is it directed to?' said one of the jurymen.

  `It isn't directed at all,' said the White Rabbit;`in fact,
there's nothing written on the OUTSIDE.'  He unfoldedthe paper
as he spoke, and added `It isn't a letter, after all: it's a set
of verses.'

  `Are they in the prisoner's handwriting?' askedanother of
they jurymen.

  `No, they're not,' said the White Rabbit, `andthat's the
queerest thing about it.'  (The jury all lookedpuzzled.)

  `He must have imitated somebody else's hand,' saidthe King.
(The jury all brightened up again.)

  `Please your Majesty,' said the Knave, `I didn'twrite it, and
they can't prove I did:  there's no name signedat the end.'

  `If you didn't sign it,' said the King, `that onlymakes the
matter worse.  You MUST have meant some mischief,or else you'd
have signed your name like an honest man.'

  There was a general clapping of hands at this: it was the
first really clever thing the King had said that day.

  `That PROVES his guilt,' said the Queen.

  `It proves nothing of the sort!' said Alice. `Why, you don't
even know what they're about!'

  `Read them,' said the King.

  The White Rabbit put on his spectacles.  `Whereshall I begin,
please your Majesty?' he asked.

  `Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely,`and go on
till you come to the end:  then stop.'

  These were the verses the White Rabbit read:--

        `They toldme you had been to her,
         And mentioned me to him:
        She gave mea good character,
         But said I could not swim.

        He sent themword I had not gone
         (We know it to be true):
        If she shouldpush the matter on,
         What would become of you?

        I gave herone, they gave him two,
         You gave us three or more;
        They all returnedfrom him to you,
         Though they were mine before.

        If I or sheshould chance to be
         Involved in this affair,
        He truststo you to set them free,
         Exactly as we were.

        My notion wasthat you had been
         (Before she had this fit)
        An obstaclethat came between
         Him, and ourselves, and it.

        Don't let himknow she liked them best,
         For this must ever be
        A secret,kept from all the rest,
         Between yourself and me.'

  `That's the most important piece of evidence we'veheard yet,'
said the King, rubbing his hands; `so now let the jury--'

  `If any one of them can explain it,' said Alice,(she had
grown so large in the last few minutes that she wasn'ta bit
afraid of interrupting him,) `I'll give him sixpence. _I_ don't
believe there's an atom of meaning in it.'

  The jury all wrote down on their slates, `SHE doesn'tbelieve
there's an atom of meaning in it,' but none of them attemptedto
explain the paper.

  `If there's no meaning in it,' said the King, `thatsaves a
world of trouble, you know, as we needn't try to findany.  And
yet I don't know,' he went on, spreading out the verseson his
knee, and looking at them with one eye; `I seem to seesome
meaning in them, after all.  "--SAID I COULD NOTSWIM--" you
can't swim, can you?' he added, turning to the Knave.

  The Knave shook his head sadly.  `Do I looklike it?' he said.
(Which he certainly did NOT, being made entirely of cardboard.)

  `All right, so far,' said the King, and he wenton muttering
over the verses to himself:  `"WE KNOW IT TO BETRUE--" that's
the jury, of course-- "I GAVE HER ONE, THEY GAVE HIMTWO--" why,
that must be what he did with the tarts, you know--'

  `But, it goes on "THEY ALL RETURNED FROM HIM TOYOU,"' said
Alice.

  `Why, there they are!' said the King triumphantly,pointing to
the tarts on the table.  `Nothing can be clearerthan THAT.
Then again--"BEFORE SHE HAD THIS FIT--"  you neverhad fits, my
dear, I think?' he said to the Queen.

  `Never!' said the Queen furiously, throwing aninkstand at the
Lizard as she spoke.  (The unfortunate little Billhad left off
writing on his slate with one finger, as he found itmade no
mark; but he now hastily began again, using the ink,that was
trickling down his face, as long as it lasted.)

  `Then the words don't FIT you,' said the King,looking round
the court with a smile.  There was a dead silence.

  `It's a pun!' the King added in an offended tone,and
everybody laughed, `Let the jury consider their verdict,'the
King said, for about the twentieth time that day.

  `No, no!' said the Queen.  `Sentence first--verdictafterwards.'

  `Stuff and nonsense!' said Alice loudly. `The idea of having
the sentence first!'

  `Hold your tongue!' said the Queen, turning purple.

  `I won't!' said Alice.

  `Off with her head!' the Queen shouted at the topof her voice.
Nobody moved.

  `Who cares for you?' said Alice, (she had grownto her full
size by this time.)  `You're nothing but a packof cards!'

  At this the whole pack rose up into the air, andcame flying
down upon her:  she gave a little scream, half offright and half
of anger, and tried to beat them off, and found herselflying on
the bank, with her head in the lap of her sister, whowas gently
brushing away some dead leaves that had fluttered downfrom the
trees upon her face.

  `Wake up, Alice dear!' said her sister; `Why, whata long
sleep you've had!'

  `Oh, I've had such a curious dream!' said Alice,and she told
her sister, as well as she could remember them, all thesestrange
Adventures of hers that you have just been reading about;and
when she had finished, her sister kissed her, and said,`It WAS a
curious dream, dear, certainly:  but now run into your tea; it's
getting late.'  So Alice got up and ran off, thinkingwhile she
ran, as well she might, what a wonderful dream it hadbeen.

  But her sister sat still just as she left her,leaning her
head on her hand, watching the setting sun, and thinkingof
little Alice and all her wonderful Adventures, till shetoo began
dreaming after a fashion, and this was her dream:--

  First, she dreamed of little Alice herself, andonce again the
tiny hands were clasped upon her knee, and the brighteager eyes
were looking up into hers--she could hear the very tonesof her
voice, and see that queer little toss of her head tokeep back
the wandering hair that WOULD always get into her eyes--and
still as she listened, or seemed to listen, the wholeplace
around her became alive the strange creatures of herlittle
sister's dream.

  The long grass rustled at her feet as the WhiteRabbit hurried
by--the frightened Mouse splashed his way through the
neighbouring pool--she could hear the rattle of the teacupsas
the March Hare and his friends shared their never-endingmeal,
and the shrill voice of the Queen ordering off her unfortunate
guests to execution--once more the pig-baby was sneezingon the
Duchess's knee, while plates and dishes crashed aroundit--once
more the shriek of the Gryphon, the squeaking of theLizard's
slate-pencil, and the choking of the suppressed guinea-pigs,
filled the air, mixed up with the distant sobs of themiserable
Mock Turtle.

  So she sat on, with closed eyes, and half believedherself in
Wonderland, though she knew she had but to open themagain, and
all would change to dull reality--the grass would beonly
rustling in the wind, and the pool rippling to the wavingof the
reeds--the rattling teacups would change to tinklingsheep-
bells, and the Queen's shrill cries to the voice of theshepherd
boy--and the sneeze of the baby, the shriek of the Gryphon,and
all thy other queer noises, would change (she knew) tothe
confused clamour of the busy farm-yard--while the lowingof the
cattle in the distance would take the place of the MockTurtle's
heavy sobs.

  Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same littlesister of
hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman;and how
she would keep, through all her riper years, the simpleand
loving heart of her childhood:  and how she wouldgather about
her other little children, and make THEIR eyes brightand eager
with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dreamof
Wonderland of long ago:  and how she would feelwith all their
simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simplejoys,
remembering her own child-life, and the happy summerdays.

                            THE END