If she should push the matter on,
What would become of you?

I gave her one, they gave him two,
You gave us three or more;
They all returned from him to you,
Though they were mine before.

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

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

Don't let him know 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've heard yet," said the
King, rubbing his hands; "so now let the jury----"

"If any of them can explain it," said Alice, (she had grown so large in
the last few minutes that she wasn't a 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't believe there's
an atom of meaning in it," but none of them attempted to explain the
paper.

"If there's no meaning in it," said the King, "that saves a world of
trouble, you know, as we needn't try to find any. And yet I don't
know," he went on, spreading out the verses on his knee, and looking at
them with one eye; "I seem to see some meaning in them after all.
'----_said I could not swim_--' you can't swim can you?" he added,
turning to the Knave.

The Knave shook his head sadly. "Do I look like it?" he said. (Which he
certainly did _not_, being made entirely of cardboard.)

"All right, so far," said the King, as he went on muttering over the
verses to himself: "'_We know it to be true_--' that's the jury, of
course--'_If she should push the matter on_'--that must be the
Queen--'_What would become of you?_'--What, indeed!--'_I gave her one,
they gave him two_--' why, that must be what he did with the tarts, you
know----"

"But it goes on '_they all returned from him to you_,'" said Alice.

"Why, there they are!" said the King triumphantly, pointing to the tarts
on the table. "Nothing can be clearer than _that_. Then again--'_before
she had this fit_--' you never had _fits_, my dear, I think?" he said to
the Queen.

"Never!" said the Queen furiously, throw