' Alice said, hoping to get it
into a better temper by a compliment. 'I've been in many gardens before,
but none of the flowers could talk.'

'Put your hand down, and feel the ground,' said the Tiger-lily. 'Then
you'll know why.'

Alice did so. 'It's very hard,' she said, 'but I don't see what that has
to do with it.'

'In most gardens,' the Tiger-lily said, 'they make the beds too soft--so
that the flowers are always asleep.'

This sounded a very good reason, and Alice was quite pleased to know it.
'I never thought of that before!' she said.

'It's MY opinion that you never think AT ALL,' the Rose said in a rather
severe tone.

'I never saw anybody that looked stupider,' a Violet said, so suddenly,
that Alice quite jumped; for it hadn't spoken before.

'Hold YOUR tongue!' cried the Tiger-lily. 'As if YOU ever saw anybody!
You keep your head under the leaves, and snore away there, till you know
no more what's going on in the world, than if you were a bud!'

'Are there any more people in the garden besides me?' Alice said, not
choosing to notice the Rose's last remark.

'There's one other flower in the garden that can move about like you,'
said the Rose. 'I wonder how you do it--' ('You're always wondering,'
said the Tiger-lily), 'but she's more bushy than you are.'

'Is she like me?' Alice asked eagerly, for the thought crossed her mind,
'There's another little girl in the garden, somewhere!'

'Well, she has the same awkward shape as you,' the Rose said, 'but she's
redder--and her petals are shorter, I think.'

'Her petals are done up close, almost like a dahlia,' the Tiger-lily
interrupted: 'not tumbled about anyhow, like yours.'

'But that's not YOUR fault,' the Rose added kindly: 'you're beginning
to fade, you know--and then one can't help one's petals getting a little
untidy.'

Alice didn't like this idea at all: so, to change the subject, she asked
'Does she ever come out here?'

'I daresay you'll see her soon,' said the Rose. 'She's one of the thorny
kind.'

'Where does she wear the thorns?' Alice asked with some curiosity.

'Why all round her head, of course,' the Rose replied. 'I was wondering
YOU hadn't got some too. I thought it was the regular rule.'

'She's coming!' cried the Larkspur. 'I hear her footstep, thump, thump,
thump, along the gravel-walk!'

Alice looked round eagerly, and found that it was the Red Queen. 'She's
grown a good deal!' was her first remark. She had indeed: when