Of course I am! Where do you come from? And where are you going? Look up, speak nicely, and don't twiddle your fingers! ALICE I only wanted to see what the looking glass was like. Perhaps I've lost my way. RED QUEEN I don't know what you mean by your way; all the ways about here belong to _me_. Curtsey while you're thinking what to say. It saves time. ALICE I'll try it when I go home; the next time I'm a little late for dinner. RED QUEEN It's time for you to answer now; open your mouth a _little_ wider when you speak, and always say, "Your Majesty." I suppose you don't want to lose your name? ALICE No, indeed. RED QUEEN And yet I don't know, only think how convenient it would be if you could manage to go home without it! For instance, if the governess wanted to call you to your lessons, she would call out "come here," and there she would have to leave off, because there wouldn't be any name for her to call, and of course you wouldn't have to go, you know. ALICE That would never do, I'm sure; the governess would never think of excusing me from lessons for that. If she couldn't remember my name, she'd call me "Miss," as the servants do. RED QUEEN Well, if she said "Miss," and didn't say anything more, of course you'd miss your lessons. I dare say you can't even read this book. ALICE It's all in some language I don't know. Why, it's a looking-glass book, of course! And if I hold it up to a glass, the words will all go the right way again. JABBERWOCKY 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. It seems very pretty, but it's _rather_ hard to understand; somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas--only I don't exactly know what they are. RED QUEEN I daresay you don't know your geography either. Look at the map! [_She takes a right angle course to the portieres and points to them with her sceptre._] ALICE It's marked out just like a big chessboard. I wouldn't mind being a pawn, though of course I should like to be a Red Queen best. RED QUEEN That's easily managed. When you get to the eighth square you'll be a Queen. It's a huge game of chess that's being played--all over the world. Come on, we've got to run. Faster, don't try to talk. ALICE I can't. RED QUEEN Faster, faster. ALICE Are we nearly there? RED QUEEN Nearly there! Why, we passed it ten minutes ago. Faster. You may rest a little now. ALICE Why, I do believe we're in the same place. Everything's just as it was. [Illustration] RED QUEEN Of course it is, what would you have it? ALICE Well, in our country you'd generally get to somewhere else--if you ran very fast for a long time as we've been doing. RED QUEEN A slow sort of country. Now _here_ you see, it takes all the running _you_ can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that. ALICE