, so as to prevent its undoing itself,) she carried it out into
the open air. "If I don't take this child away with me," thought Alice,
"they're sure to kill it in a day or two: wouldn't it be murder to leave
it behind?" She said the last words out loud, and the little thing
grunted in reply (it had left off sneezing by this time). "Don't grunt,"
said Alice; "that's not at all a proper way of expressing yourself."

The baby grunted again, and Alice looked very anxiously into its face to
see what was the matter with it. There could be no doubt that it had a
_very_ turn-up nose, much more like a snout than a real nose; also its
eyes were getting extremely small for a baby: altogether Alice did not
like the look of the thing at all. "But perhaps it was only sobbing,"
she thought, and looked into its eyes again, to see if there were any
tears.

No, there were no tears. "If you're going to turn into a pig, my dear,"
said Alice, seriously, "I'll have nothing more to do with you. Mind
now!" The poor little thing sobbed again (or grunted, it was impossible
to say which), and they went on for some while in silence.

Alice was just beginning to think to herself, "Now, what am I to do with
this creature when I get it home?" when it grunted again, so violently,
that she looked down into its face in some alarm. This time there could
be _no_ mistake about it: it was neither more nor less than a pig, and
she felt that it would be quite absurd for her to carry it any further.

So she set the little creature down, and felt quite relieved to see it
trot quietly away into the wood. "If it had grown up," she said to
herself, "it would have made a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes
rather a handsome pig, I think." And she began thinking over other
children she knew, who might do very well as pigs, and was just saying
to herself, "if one only knew the right way to change them----" when she
was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a
tree a few yards off.

[Illustration: _It grunted again so violently that she looked down into
its face in some alarm_]

The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she
thought: still it had _very_ long claws and a great many teeth, so she
felt that it ought to be treated with respect.

[Illustration]

"Cheshire Puss," she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know
whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider.
"Come, it's