seemed to be a person of authority among them,
called out "Sit down, all of you, and listen to me! _I'll_ soon make you
dry enough!" They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse
in the middle. Alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt
sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon.

"Ahem!" said the Mouse with an important air. "Are you all ready? This
is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please! 'William
the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted
to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much
accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of
Mercia and Northumbria--'"

"Ugh!" said the Lory, with a shiver.

"I beg your pardon!" said the Mouse, frowning, but very politely. "Did
you speak?"

"Not I!" said the Lory hastily.

"I thought you did," said the Mouse, "--I proceed. 'Edwin and Morcar,
the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared for him: and even
Stigand, the patriotic Archbishop of Canterbury, found it advisable--'"

"Found _what_?" said the Duck.

"Found _it_," the Mouse replied rather crossly: "of course you know what
'it' means."

"I know what 'it' means well enough, when _I_ find a thing," said the
Duck; "it's generally a frog or a worm. The question is, what did the
archbishop find?"

The Mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedly went on, "'--found
it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet William and offer him the
crown. William's conduct at first was moderate. But the insolence of his
Normans--' How are you getting on now, my dear?" it continued, turning
to Alice as it spoke.

"As wet as ever," said Alice in a melancholy tone; "doesn't seem to dry
me at all."

"In that case," said the Dodo solemnly, rising to its feet, "I move that
the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more energetic
remedies----"

"Speak English!" said the Eaglet. "I don't know the meaning of half
those long words, and, what's more, I don't believe you do either!" And
the Eaglet bent down its head to hide a smile: some of the other birds
tittered audibly.

"What I was going to say," said the Dodo in an offended tone, "was that
the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race."

"What _is_ a Caucus-race?" said Alice; not that she much wanted to know,
but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that _somebody_ ought to speak,
and no one else seemed inclined to say an