--and it really i{was} a kitten, after all.
Which Dreamed It?
"YOUR Red Majesty shouldn't purr so loud,"
Alice said, rubbing her eyes, and addressing
the kitten respectfully, yet with some severity. "You
woke me out of--oh! such a nice dream! And
you've been along with me, Kitty--all through
the Looking-glass world. Did you know it,
dear?"
It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice
had once made the remark) that, whatever you say
to them, they i{always} purr. "If they would only purr
for "yes,' and mew for "no,' or any rule of that sort,"
she had said, "so that one could keep up a
conversation! But how i{can} you talk with a person if they
always say the same thing?"
On this occasion the kitten only purred: and it
was impossible to guess whether it meant "yes" or
"no."
So Alice hunted among the chessmen on the
table till she had found the Red Queen: then she
went down on her knees on the hearthrug, and put
the Kitten and the Queen to look at each other.
"Now, Kitty!" she cried, clapping her hands
triumphantly. "You've got to confess that that was
what you turned into!"
("But it wouldn't look at it," she said, when she
was explaining the thing afterwards to her sister: "it
turned away its head, and pretended not to see it:
but it looked a i{little} ashamed of itself, so I think it
i{must} have been the Red Queen.")
"Sit up a little more stiffly, dear!" Alice cried with
a merry laugh. "And curtsey while you're thinking
what to--what to purr. It saves time, remember!"
And she caught it up in her arms, and gave it one
little kiss "just in honour of its having been a Red
Queen, you know!"
"Snowdrop, my pet!" she went on, looking over
her shoulder at the White Kitten, which was still
patiently undergoing its toilet, "when i{will} Dinah
have finished with your White Majesty, I wonder?
That must be the reason you were so untidy in my
dream.--Dinah! Do you know that you're
scrubbing a White Queen? Really, it's most disrespectful
you, and I'm quite surprised at you!"
"And what did i{Dinah} turn to, I wonder?" she
prattled on, as she settled comfortably down, with
one elbow on the rug, and her chin in her hand, to
watch the kittens. "Tell me, Dinah, did you turn
to Humpty Dumpty? I i{think} you did--however,
you'd better not mention it to your friends just yet,
for I'm not sure."
"By the way, Kitty, if only you'd been really with
me in my dream, there was one thing you i{would}
have enjoyed--I had such a quantity of poetry said
to me, all about fishes! To-morrow morning you
shall have a real treat. All the time you're eating
your breakfast, I'll repeat i{The Walrus and the
Carpenter} to you; and then you can make believe
it's oysters, my dear!"
"Now, Kitty, let's consider who it was that
dreamed it all. This is a serious question, my dear,
and you should i{not} go on licking your paw like that
--as if Dinah hadn't washed you this morning!
You see, Kitty, it i{must} have been either me or the
Red King. He was part of my dream, of coursebut then I was part of his dream, too! i{Was} it the
Red King, Kitty? You were his wife, my dear, so
you ought to know--oh, Kitty, i{do} help to settle it!
I'm sure your paw can wait!" But the provoking
kitten only began on the other paw, and pretended
it hadn't heard the question.
Which do i{you} think it was?
