A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of thegarden:  the
roses growing on it were white, but there were threegardeners at
it, busily painting them red.  Alice thought thisa very curious
thing, and she went nearer to watch them, and just asshe came up
to them she heard one of them say, `Look out now, Five! Don't go
splashing paint over me like that!'

  `I couldn't help it,' said Five, in a sulky tone;`Seven jogged
my elbow.'

  On which Seven looked up and said, `That's right,Five!  Always
lay the blame on others!'

  `YOU'D better not talk!' said Five.  `I heardthe Queen say only
yesterday you deserved to be beheaded!'

  `What for?' said the one who had spoken first.

  `That's none of YOUR business, Two!' said Seven.

  `Yes, it IS his business!' said Five, `and I'lltell him--it
was for bringing the cook tulip-roots instead of onions.'

  Seven flung down his brush, and had just begun`Well, of all
the unjust things--' when his eye chanced to fall uponAlice, as
she stood watching them, and he checked himself suddenly: the
others looked round also, and all of them bowed low.

  `Would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly,`why you are
painting those roses?'

  Five and Seven said nothing, but looked at Two. Two began in a
low voice, `Why the fact is, you see, Miss, this hereought to
have been a RED rose-tree, and we put a white one inby mistake;
and if the Queen was to find it out, we should all haveour heads
cut off, you know.  So you see, Miss, we're doingour best, afore
she comes, to--'  At this moment Five, who had beenanxiously
looking across the garden, called out `The Queen! The Queen!'
and the three gardeners instantly threw themselves flatupon
their faces.  There was a sound of many footsteps,and Alice
looked round, eager to see the Queen.

  First came ten soldiers carrying clubs; these wereall shaped
like the three gardeners, oblong and flat, with theirhands and
feet at the corners:  next the ten courtiers; thesewere
ornamented all over with diamonds, and walked two andtwo, as the
soldiers did.  After these came the royal children;there were
ten of them, and the little dears came jumping merrilyalong hand
in hand, in couples:  they were all ornamented withhearts.  Next
came the guests, mostly Kings and Queens, and among themAlice
recognised the White Rabbit:  it was talking ina hurried nervous
manner, smiling at everything that was said, and wentby without
noticing her.  Then followed the Knave of Hearts,carrying the
King's crown on a crimson velvet cushion; and, last ofall this
grand procession, came THE KING AND QUEEN OF HEARTS.

  Alice was rather doubtful whether she ought notto lie down on
her face like the three gardeners, but she could notremember
ever having heard of such a rule at processions; `andbesides,
what would be the use of a procession,' thought she,`if people
had all to lie down upon their faces, so that they couldn'tsee it?'
So she stood still where she was, and waited.

  When the procession came opposite to Alice, theyall stopped
and looked at her, and the Queen said severely `Who isthis?'
She said it to the Knave of Hearts, who only bowed andsmiled in reply.

  `Idiot!' said the Queen, tossing her head impatiently;and,
turning to Alice, she went on, `What's your name, child?'

  `My name is Alice, so please your Majesty,' saidAlice very
politely; but she added, to herself, `Why, they're onlya pack of
cards, after all.  I needn't be afraid of them!'

  `And who are THESE?' said the Queen, pointing tothe three
gardeners who were lying round the rosetree; for, yousee, as
they were lying on their faces, and the pattern on theirbacks
was the same as the rest of the pack, she could not tellwhether
they were gardeners, or soldiers, or courtiers, or threeof her
own children.

  `How should I know?' said Alice, surprised at herown courage.
`It's no business of MINE.'

  The Queen turned crimson with fury, and, afterglaring at her
for a moment like a wild beast, screamed `Off with herhead!
Off--'

  `Nonsense!' said Alice, very loudly and decidedly,and the
Queen was silent.

  The King laid his hand upon her arm, and timidlysaid
`Consider, my dear:  she is only a child!'

  The Queen turned angrily away from him, and saidto the Knave
`Turn them over!'

  The Knave did so, very carefully, with one foot.

  `Get up!' said the Queen, in a shrill, loud voice,and the
three gardeners instantly jumped up, and began bowingto the
King, the Queen, the royal children, and everybody else.

  `Leave off that!' screamed the Queen.  `Youmake me giddy.'
And then, turning to the rose-tree, she went on, `WhatHAVE you
been doing here?'

  `May it please your Majesty,' said Two, in a veryhumble tone,
going down on one knee as he spoke, `we were trying--'

  `I see!' said the Queen, who had meanwhile beenexamining the
roses.  `Off with their heads!' and the processionmoved on,
three of the soldiers remaining behind to execute theunfortunate
gardeners, who ran to Alice for protection.

  `You shan't be beheaded!' said Alice, and she putthem into a
large flower-pot that stood near.  The three soldierswandered
about for a minute or two, looking for them, and thenquietly
marched off after the others.

  `Are their heads off?' shouted the Queen.

  `Their heads are gone, if it please your Majesty!'the soldiers
shouted in reply.

  `That's right!' shouted the Queen.  `Can youplay croquet?'

  The soldiers were silent, and looked at Alice,as the question
was evidently meant for her.

  `Yes!' shouted Alice.

  `Come on, then!' roared the Queen, and Alice joinedthe
procession, wondering very much what would happen next.

  `It's--it's a very fine day!' said a timid voiceat her side.
She was walking by the White Rabbit, who was peepinganxiously
into her face.

  `Very,' said Alice:  `--where's the Duchess?'

  `Hush!  Hush!' said the Rabbit in a low, hurriedtone.  He
looked anxiously over his shoulder as he spoke, and thenraised
himself upon tiptoe, put his mouth close to her ear,and
whispered `She's under sentence of execution.'

  `What for?' said Alice.

  `Did you say "What a pity!"?' the Rabbit asked.

  `No, I didn't,' said Alice:  `I don't thinkit's at all a pity.
I said "What for?"'

  `She boxed the Queen's ears--' the Rabbit began. Alice gave a
little scream of laughter.  `Oh, hush!' the Rabbitwhispered in a
frightened tone.  `The Queen will hear you! You see, she came
rather late, and the Queen said--'

  `Get to your places!' shouted the Queen in a voiceof thunder,
and people began running about in all directions, tumblingup
against each other; however, they got settled down ina minute or
two, and the game began.  Alice thought she hadnever seen such a
curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridgesand
furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live
flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselvesup and to
stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.

  The chief difficulty Alice found at first was inmanaging her
flamingo:  she succeeded in getting its body tuckedaway,
comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hangingdown,
but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened
out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with itshead, it
WOULD twist itself round and look up in her face, withsuch a
puzzled expression that she could not help bursting outlaughing:
and when she had got its head down, and was going tobegin again,
it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled
itself, and was in the act of crawling away:  besidesall this,
there was generally a ridge or furrow in the way wherevershe
wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-upsoldiers
were always getting up and walking off to other partsof the
ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that it wasa very
difficult game indeed.

  The players all played at once without waitingfor turns,
quarrelling all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs;and in
a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion,and went
stamping about, and shouting `Off with his head!' or`Off with
her head!' about once in a minute.

  Alice began to feel very uneasy:  to be sure,she had not as
yet had any dispute with the Queen, but she knew thatit might
happen any minute, `and then,' thought she, `what wouldbecome of
me?  They're dreadfully fond of beheading peoplehere; the great
wonder is, that there's any one left alive!'

  She was looking about for some way of escape, andwondering
whether she could get away without being seen, when shenoticed a
curious appearance in the air:  it puzzled her verymuch at
first, but, after watching it a minute or two, she madeit out to
be a grin, and she said to herself `It's the CheshireCat:  now I
shall have somebody to talk to.'

  `How are you getting on?' said the Cat, as soonas there was
mouth enough for it to speak with.

  Alice waited till the eyes appeared, and then nodded. `It's no
use speaking to it,' she thought, `till its ears havecome, or at
least one of them.'  In another minute the wholehead appeared,
and then Alice put down her flamingo, and began an accountof the
game, feeling very glad she had someone to listen toher.  The
Cat seemed to think that there was enough of it now insight, and
no more of it appeared.

  `I don't think they play at all fairly,' Alicebegan, in rather
a complaining tone, `and they all quarrel so dreadfullyone can't
hear oneself speak--and they don't seem to have any rulesin
particular; at least, if there are, nobody attends tothem--and
you've no idea how confusing it is all the things beingalive;
for instance, there's the arch I've got to go throughnext
walking about at the other end of the ground--and I shouldhave
croqueted the Queen's hedgehog just now, only it ranaway when it
saw mine coming!'

  `How do you like the Queen?' said the Cat in alow voice.

  `Not at all,' said Alice:  `she's so extremely--' Just then
she noticed that the Queen was close behind her, listening: so
she went on, `--likely to win, that it's hardly worthwhile
finishing the game.'

  The Queen smiled and passed on.

  `Who ARE you talking to?' said the King, goingup to Alice, and
looking at the Cat's head with great curiosity.

  `It's a friend of mine--a Cheshire Cat,' said Alice: `allow me
to introduce it.'

  `I don't like the look of it at all,' said theKing:
`however, it may kiss my hand if it likes.'

  `I'd rather not,' the Cat remarked.

  `Don't be impertinent,' said the King, `and don'tlook at me
like that!'  He got behind Alice as he spoke.

  `A cat may look at a king,' said Alice.  `I'veread that in
some book, but I don't remember where.'

  `Well, it must be removed,' said the King verydecidedly, and
he called the Queen, who was passing at the moment, `Mydear!  I
wish you would have this cat removed!'

  The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties,great
or small.  `Off with his head!' she said, withouteven looking
round.

  `I'll fetch the executioner myself,' said the Kingeagerly, and
he hurried off.

  Alice thought she might as well go back, and seehow the game
was going on, as she heard the Queen's voice in the distance,
screaming with passion.  She had already heard hersentence three
of the players to be executed for having missed theirturns, and
she did not like the look of things at all, as the gamewas in
such confusion that she never knew whether it was herturn or
not.  So she went in search of her hedgehog.

  The hedgehog was engaged in a fight with anotherhedgehog,
which seemed to Alice an excellent opportunity for croquetingone
of them with the other:  the only difficulty was,that her
flamingo was gone across to the other side of the garden,where
Alice could see it trying in a helpless sort of way tofly up
into a tree.

  By the time she had caught the flamingo and broughtit back,
the fight was over, and both the hedgehogs were out ofsight:
`but it doesn't matter much,' thought Alice, `as allthe arches
are gone from this side of the ground.'  So shetucked it away
under her arm, that it might not escape again, and wentback for
a little more conversation with her friend.

  When she got back to the Cheshire Cat, she wassurprised to
find quite a large crowd collected round it:  therewas a dispute
going on between the executioner, the King, and the Queen,who
were all talking at once, while all the rest were quitesilent,
and looked very uncomfortable.

  The moment Alice appeared, she was appealed toby all three to
settle the question, and they repeated their argumentsto her,
though, as they all spoke at once, she found it veryhard indeed
to make out exactly what they said.

  The executioner's argument was, that you couldn'tcut off a
head unless there was a body to cut it off from: that he had
never had to do such a thing before, and he wasn't goingto begin
at HIS time of life.

  The King's argument was, that anything that hada head could be
beheaded, and that you weren't to talk nonsense.

  The Queen's argument was, that if something wasn'tdone about
it in less than no time she'd have everybody executed,all round.
(It was this last remark that had made the whole partylook so
grave and anxious.)

  Alice could think of nothing else to say but `Itbelongs to the
Duchess:  you'd better ask HER about it.'

  `She's in prison,' the Queen said to the executioner: `fetch
her here.'  And the executioner went off like anarrow.

   The Cat's head began fading away the momenthe was gone, and,
by the time he had come back with the Dutchess, it hadentirely
disappeared; so the King and the executioner ran wildlyup and down
looking for it, while the rest of the party went backto the game.