is happened so rapidly that the children hardly had time to be
surprised, but now that the looking-glass had been carried away and
they were left with their reflections, their shadows, their images (or
whatever it was), they didn't know what to do, or say, or think. They
could only look at each other in dumb astonishment. Drusilla was the
first to break the silence. In her surprise she had moved quickly back
a few steps, and her image, which had come out of the looking-glass,
had as quickly moved forward and toward her a few steps.

"Don't come follerin' atter me!" she cried excitedly. "Kaze ef you
do, you'll sho' git hurted. I ain't done nothin' 't all ter you. I
ain't gwine ter pester you, an' I ain't gwine ter let you pester me. I
tell you dat now, so you'll know what ter 'pen' on."

"Don't move! Please don't move!" cried Sweetest Susan to Buster John.
"If you do I can't tell you apart. I won't know which is which. That
wouldn't be treating me right nor Mamma, either."

Naturally, the children were in a great predicament when Mrs. Meadows
came back. She saw the trouble at once, and began to laugh. It was
funny to see Buster John and Sweetest Susan and Drusilla standing
there staring first at the Looking-Glass children and then at
themselves, not daring to move for fear they would get mixed up with
their doubles. The Looking-Glass children stared likewise, first at
themselves and then at the others.

"What is the matter?" Mrs. Meadows asked. "Why don't you go and play
with one another and make friends? It isn't many folks that have the
chance you children have got."

"I don't feel like playing," said Sweetest Susan. "I'm afraid we'll
get mixed up so that nobody will know one from the other."

"Why, there's all the difference in the world," exclaimed Mrs.
Meadows, trying hard not to laugh. "The Looking-Glass children are all
left-handed. You have a flower on the left side of your hat, the other
Susan has a flower on the right side of hers. Your brother there has
buttons on the right side of his coat; the other John has buttons on
the left side. There is a flaw in the looking-glass, and Drusilla,
being a little taller than you two, was just tall enough for the end
of her nose to be even with the flaw. That's the reason the other
Drusilla's nose looks like it had been mashed with a hammer."

"Yes 'm, it do!" exclaimed Drusilla. She involuntarily took a step
forward to take a nearer view of the flawed nose, and of