"I’m not nobody, all the same," she thought to herself, "I’m the Queen of the ’most prosperous and contented nation in the world,’ though I don’t quite understand what it means. But it will never do to offend the bat, it is so dreadfully dull when he won’t talk;" so she said, "Would it be possible for me to fly?" for a great longing had come into her heart to be able to fly away out of the garden with the roses and the marble bench. "Well, it certainly won’t be if you suppose you can’t," the bat said. "Now, when I was a mouse, I used to suppose I couldn’t fly, and so, of course, I couldn’t. But, one day, I saved the life of a cockchafer that had got into a beetle-trap, and he told me how it was to be managed." "How?" the Queen said eagerly. "Ah, you like cats," the bat said, "and you’d tell them the secret; and then there’d be no peace for me. Ugh!—flying cats!" And the bat shuddered and wrapped his wings round his head. "Oh, but I promise I won’t tell," the Queen said eagerly; "indeed I do. Dear bat, you are so wise, and so good, and so handsome, do tell me." Now, the bat was rather susceptible to compliments, and so he unshrouded his head, pretending not to have heard, though he had. "What did you say?" he said. And the Queen repeated her words. That pleased him, and he answered, "Well, there’s a certain flower that has two remarkable properties—one, that people who carry it about with them can always fly, and the other, that it will restore the blind to sight." "Yes; but I shall have to travel over ever so many mountains and rivers and things before I can find it," the Queen said dismally. "How do you know that?" the bat asked sharply. "I don’t know it, I only supposed it; at least I’ve read it in books." "Well, of course, if you go supposing things and reading them in books, I can’t do anything for you," the bat said. "The only good I can see in books is that they breed bookworms, and the worms turn into flies; but even they aren’t very good to eat. When I was a mouse, though, I used to nibble books to pieces, and the bits made rare good nests. So there is some good in the most useless of things. But I don’t need a nest now that I can fly." "How did you come to be able to fly?" the Queen asked. "Well, after what the cockchafer told me, I just ran out into the garden, and when I found the flower, as I hadn’t any pocket to put it in so as to have it always by me, I just ate it up, and from that time forward I have been able to fly ever so well." The Queen said, "Oh, how nice! And is the flower actually here in the garden? Tell me which it is, please do." "Well, I’ll tell you if you’ll bring me a nice piece of raw meat, and a little red flannel for my rheumatism." Just at that moment the sound of a great bell sounded out into the garden.