et
on better."

"I'd rather finish my tea," said the Hatter, with an anxious look at
the Queen, who was reading the list of singers.

"You may go," said the King; and the Hatter hurriedly left the court,
without even waiting to put his shoes on.

"--and just take his head off outside," the Queen added to one of the
officers; but the Hatter was out of sight before the officer could get
to the door.

"Call the next witness!" said the King.

The next witness was the Duchess's cook. She carried the pepper-box in
her hand, and Alice guessed who it was, even before she got into the
court, by the way the people near the door began sneezing all at once.

"Give your evidence," said the King.

"Sha'n't," said the cook.

The King looked anxiously at the White Rabbit, who said in a low voice,
"Your Majesty must cross-examine _this_ witness."

"Well, if I must, I must," the King said with a melancholy air, and,
after folding his arms and frowning at the cook till his eyes were
nearly out of sight, he said in a deep voice, "What are tarts made of?"

"Pepper, mostly," said the cook.

"Treacle," said a sleepy voice behind her.

"Collar that Dormouse," the Queen shrieked out. "Behead that Dormouse!
Turn that Dormouse out of court! Suppress him! Pinch him! Off with his
whiskers."

For some minutes the whole court was in confusion, getting the Dormouse
turned out, and, by the time they had settled down again, the cook had
disappeared.

[Illustration]

"Never mind!" said the King, with an air of great relief. "Call the next
witness." And he added in an undertone to the Queen, "Really, my dear,
_you_ must cross-examine the next witness. It quite makes my forehead
ache!"

Alice watched the White Rabbit as he fumbled over the list, feeling very
curious to see what the next witness would be like, "--for they haven't
got much evidence _yet_," she said to herself. Imagine her surprise,
when the White Rabbit read out, at the top of his shrill little voice,
the name "Alice!"

CHAPTER XII

[Sidenote: _Alice's Evidence_]

"HERE!" cried Alice, quite forgetting in the flurry of
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-box with the
edge of her skirt, upsetting all the jurymen on to the heads of the
crowd below, and there they lay sprawling about, reminding her very much
of a globe of gold-fish she had accidentally upset the week before.