-a Cheshire Cat," said Alice: "allow me to
introduce it."

"I don't like the look of it at all," said the King: "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't look at me like that!"
He got behind Alice as he spoke.

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

"Well, it must be removed," said the King very decidedly, and he called
to the Queen, who was passing at the moment, "My dear! 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, without even looking round.

"I'll fetch the executioner myself," said the King eagerly, and he
hurried off.

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

The hedgehog was engaged in a fight with another hedgehog, which seemed
to Alice an excellent opportunity for croqueting one 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 to fly up into one of the trees.

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

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

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

[Illustration]

The executioner's argum