At first Al-ice found it hard to use a live bird for a mal-let. It was a large bird with a long neck and long legs. She tucked it un-der her arm with its legs down, but just as she got its neck straight and thought now she could give the ball a good blow with its head, the bird would twist its neck round and give her such a queer look, that she could not help laugh-ing; and by the time she had got its head down a-gain, she found that the hedge-hog had crawled off. Then too there was al-ways a ridge or a hole in the way of where she want-ed to send her ball; and she couldn't find an arch in its place, for the men would get up and walk off when it pleased them. Al-ice soon made up her mind that it was a ve-ry hard game to play. The Queen was soon in a great rage, and stamped a-bout, shout-ing "Off with his head!" or "Off with her head!" with each breath. Al-ice felt quite ill at ease; to be sure, she had not as yet had cause to feel the wrath of the Queen, but she knew not how soon it might be her turn; "and then," she thought, "what shall I do?" As she was look-ing round for some way to get off with-out be-ing seen, she saw a strange thing in the air, which she at last made out to be a grin, and she said to her-self, "It's the Cat; now I shall have some one to talk to." "How do you do?" said the Cat as soon as its whole mouth came out. Al-ice wait-ed till she saw the eyes, then nod-ded. "It's no use to speak to it till its ears have come, or at least one of them." In a short time the whole head came in view, then she put down her bird and told him of the game; glad that she had some one that was pleased to hear her talk. "I don't think they are at all fair in the game," said Al-ice with a scowl; "and they all talk so loud that one can't hear one's self speak--and they don't have rules to play by; at least if they have, they don't mind them--and you don't know how bad it is to have to use live things to play with. The arch I have to go through next walked off just now to the far end of the ground--and I should have struck the Queen's hedge-hog, but it ran off when it saw that mine was near!" "How do you like the Queen?" asked the Cat in a low voice. "Not at all," said Al-ice, "she's so--" Just then she saw that the Queen was be-hind her and heard what she said; so she went on, "sure to win that it's not worth while to go on with the game." The Queen smiled and passed on. "Who are you talk-ing to?" said the King, as he came up to Al-ice and stared at the Cat's head as if it were a strange sight. "It's a friend of mine--a Che-shire Cat," said Al-ice. "I don't like the look of it at all," said the King; "it may kiss my hand if it likes." "I don't want to," said the Cat. "Don't be rude; and don't look at me like that," said the King. "A cat may look at a king," said Al-ice. "I've read that in some book, but I can't tell where."