“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 Alice first found her in the ashes, she had been only three inches high—and here she was, half a head taller than Alice herself! “It’s the fresh air that does it,” said the Rose: “wonderfully fine air it is, out here.” “I think I’ll go and meet her,” said Alice, for, though the flowers were interesting enough, she felt that it would be far grander to have a talk with a real Queen. “You can’t possibly do that,” said the Rose: “_I_ should advise you to walk the other way.” This sounded nonsense to Alice, so she said nothing, but set off at once towards the Red Queen. To her surprise, she lost sight of her in a moment, and found herself walking in at the front-door again. A little provoked, she drew back, and after looking everywhere for the queen (whom she spied out at last, a long way off), she thought she would try the plan, this time, of walking in the opposite direction. It succeeded beautifully. She had not been walking a minute before she found herself face to face with the Red Queen, and full in sight of the hill she had been so long aiming at. “Where do you come from?” said the Red Queen. “And where are you going? Look up, speak nicely, and don’t twiddle your fingers all the time.”