The King and Queen of Hearts were seated on

their throne when they arrived, with a

great crowd assembled about them--all sorts

of little birds and beasts, as well as the

whole pack of cards: the Knave was standing

before them, in chains, with a soldier on

each side to guard him; and near the King

was the White Rabbit, with a trumpet in one

hand, and a scroll of parchment in the

other.

In the very middle of the court was a

table, with a large dish of tarts upon it:

they looked so good, that it made Alice

quite hungry to look at them--'I wish

they'd get the trial done,' she thought,

'and hand round the refreshments!'

But there seemed to be no chance of this,

so she began looking at everything about

her, to pass away the time.

Alice had never been in a court of justice

before, but she had read about them in

books, and she was quite pleased to find

that she knew the name of nearly everything

there.

'That's the judge,' she said to herself,

'because of his great wig.'

The judge, by the way, was the King; and as

he wore his crown over the wig, (look at

the frontispiece if you want to see how he

did it,) he did not look at all

comfortable, and it was certainly not

becoming.

'And that's the jury-box,' thought Alice,

'and those twelve creatures,' (she was

obliged to say 'creatures,' you see,

because some of them were animals, and some

were birds,) 'I suppose they are the

jurors.'

She said this last word two or three times

over to herself, being rather proud of it:

for she thought, and rightly too, that very

few little girls of her age knew the

meaning of it at all.

However, 'jury-men' would have done just as

well.

The twelve jurors were all writing very

busily on slates.

'What are they doing?'

Alice whispered to the Gryphon.

'They can't have anything to put down yet,

before the trial's begun.'

'They're putting down their names,' the

Gryphon whispered in reply, 'for fear they

should forget them before the end of the

trial.'

'Stupid things!'

Alice began in a loud, indignant voice, but

she stopped hastily, for the White Rabbit

cried out, 'Silence in the court!' and the

King put on his spectacles and looked

anxiously round, to make out who was

talking.

Alice could see, as well as if she were

looking over their shoulders, that all the

jurors were writing down 'stupid things!'

on their slates, and she could even make

out that one of them didn't know how to

spell 'stupid,' and that he had to ask his

neighbour to tell him.

'A nice muddle their slates'll be in before

the trial's over!' thought Alice.

One of the jurors had a pencil that

squeaked.

This of course, Alice could not stand, and

she went round the court and got behind

him, and very soon found an opportunity of

taking it away.

She did it so quickly that the poor little

juror (it was Bill, the Lizard) could not

make out at all what had become of it; so,

after hunting all about for it, he was

obliged to write with one finger for the

rest of the day; and this was of very

little use, as it left no mark on the

slate.

'Herald, read the accusation!' said the

King.

On this the White Rabbit blew three blasts

on the trumpet, and then unrolled the

parchment scroll, and read as follows:--

| 'The Queen of Hearts, | she made

some tarts, | All on a summer day:

| The Knave of Hearts, | he stole

those tarts, | And took them quite away!'

'Consider your verdict,' the King said to

the jury.

'Not yet, not yet!' the Rabbit hastily

interrupted.

'There's a great deal to come before that!'

'Call the first witness,' said the King;

and the White Rabbit blew three blasts on

the trumpet, and called out, 'First

witness!'

The first witness was the Hatter.

He came in with a teacup in one hand and a

piece of bread-and-butter in the other.

'I beg pardon, your Majesty,' he began,

'for bringing these in: but I hadn't quite

finished my tea when I was sent for.'

'You ought to have finished,' said the

King.

'When did you begin?'

The Hatter looked at the March Hare, who

had followed him into the court, arm-in-arm

with the Dormouse.

'Fourteenth of March, I think it was,' he

said.

'Fifteenth,' said the March Hare.

'Sixteenth,' added the Dormouse.

'Write that down,' the King said to the

jury, and the jury eagerly wrote down all

three dates on their slates, and then added

them up, and reduced the answer to

shillings and pence.

'Take off your hat,' the King said to the

Hatter.

'It isn't mine,' said the Hatter.

'Stolen!' the King exclaimed, turning to

the jury, who instantly made a memorandum

of the fact.

'I keep them to sell,' the Hatter added as

an explanation; 'I've none of my own.

I'm a hatter.'

Here the Queen put on her spectacles, and

began staring at the Hatter, who turned

pale and fidgeted.

'Give your evidence,' said the King; 'and

don't be nervous, or I'll have you executed

on the spot.'

This did not seem to encourage the witness

at all: he kept shifting from one foot to

the other, looking uneasily at the Queen,

and in his confusion he bit a large piece

out of his teacup instead of the bread-and-

butter.

Just at this moment Alice felt a very

curious sensation, which puzzled her a good

deal until she made out what it was: she

was beginning to grow larger again, and she

thought at first she would get up and leave

the court; but on second thoughts she

decided to remain where she was as long as

there was room for her.

'I wish you wouldn't squeeze so.' said the

Dormouse, who was sitting next to her.

'I can hardly breathe.'

'I can't help it,' said Alice very meekly:

'I'm growing.'

'You've no right to grow here,' said the

Dormouse.

'Don't talk nonsense,' said Alice more

boldly: 'you know you're growing too.'

'Yes, but I grow at a reasonable pace,'

said the Dormouse: 'not in that ridiculous

fashion.'

And he got up very sulkily and crossed over

to the other side of the court.

All this time the Queen had never left off

staring at the Hatter, and, just as the

Dormouse crossed the court, she said to one

of the officers of the court, 'Bring me the

list of the singers in the last concert!'

on which the wretched Hatter trembled so,

that he shook both his shoes off.

'Give your evidence,' the King repeated

angrily, 'or I'll have you executed,

whether you're nervous or not.'

'I'm a poor man, your Majesty,' the Hatter

began, in a trembling voice, '--and I

hadn't begun my tea--not above a week or

so--and what with the bread-and-butter

getting so thin--and the twinkling of the

tea--'

'The twinkling of the what?' said the King.

'It began with the tea,' the Hatter

replied.

'Of course twinkling begins with a T!' said

the King sharply.

'Do you take me for a dunce?

Go on!'

'I'm a poor man,' the Hatter went on, 'and

most things twinkled after that--only the

March Hare said--'

'I didn't!' the March Hare interrupted in a

great hurry.

'You did!' said the Hatter.

'I deny it!' said the March Hare.

'He denies it,' said the King: 'leave out

that part.'

'Well, at any rate, the Dormouse said--'

the Hatter went on, looking anxiously round

to see if he would deny it too: but the

Dormouse denied nothing, being fast asleep.

'After that,' continued the Hatter, 'I cut

some more bread-and-butter--'

'But what did the Dormouse say?' one of the

jury asked.

'That I can't remember,' said the Hatter.

'You MUST remember,' remarked the King, 'or

I'll have you executed.'

The miserable Hatter dropped his teacup and

bread-and-butter, and went down on one

knee.

'I'm a poor man, your Majesty,' he began.

'You're a very poor speaker,' said the

King.

Here one of the guinea-pigs cheered, and

was immediately suppressed by the officers

of the court.

(As that is rather a hard word, I will just