Rule of Battle, that Alice had not noticed, seemed to be that
they always fell on their heads, and the battle ended with their both
falling off in this way, side by side: when they got up again, they
shook hands, and then the Red Knight mounted and galloped off.

'It was a glorious victory, wasn't it?' said the White Knight, as he
came up panting.

'I don't know,' Alice said doubtfully. 'I don't want to be anybody's
prisoner. I want to be a Queen.'

'So you will, when you've crossed the next brook,' said the White
Knight. 'I'll see you safe to the end of the wood--and then I must go
back, you know. That's the end of my move.'

'Thank you very much,' said Alice. 'May I help you off with your
helmet?' It was evidently more than he could manage by himself; however,
she managed to shake him out of it at last.

'Now one can breathe more easily,' said the Knight, putting back his
shaggy hair with both hands, and turning his gentle face and large mild
eyes to Alice. She thought she had never seen such a strange-looking
soldier in all her life.

He was dressed in tin armour, which seemed to fit him very badly, and
he had a queer-shaped little deal box fastened across his shoulder,
upside-down, and with the lid hanging open. Alice looked at it with
great curiosity.

'I see you're admiring my little box.' the Knight said in a friendly
tone. 'It's my own invention--to keep clothes and sandwiches in. You see
I carry it upside-down, so that the rain can't get in.'

'But the things can get OUT,' Alice gently remarked. 'Do you know the
lid's open?'

'I didn't know it,' the Knight said, a shade of vexation passing over
his face. 'Then all the things must have fallen out! And the box is no
use without them.' He unfastened it as he spoke, and was just going to
throw it into the bushes, when a sudden thought seemed to strike him,
and he hung it carefully on a tree. 'Can you guess why I did that?' he
said to Alice.

Alice shook her head.

'In hopes some bees may make a nest in it--then I should get the honey.'

'But you've got a bee-hive--or something like one--fastened to the
saddle,' said Alice.

'Yes, it's a very good bee-hive,' the Knight said in a discontented
tone, 'one of the best kind. But not a single bee has come near it yet.
And the other thing is a mouse-trap. I suppose the mice keep the bees
out--or the bees keep the mice out, I don't know which.'

'I was wondering what the mouse-trap was for,' said Alice. 'I