Duchess holding a baby while Alice looks on and the cook is cooking
Wouldyou like to hear about Alice’s visit to the Duchess? It was a very interesting visit indeed, I can assure you.
Of course she knocked at the door to begin with: but nobody came: so she had to open it for herself.
Now, if you look at the picture, you’ll see exactly what Alice saw when she got inside.
The door led right into the kitchen, you see. The Duchess sat in the middle of the room, nursing the Baby. The Baby was howling. The soup was boiling. The Cook was stirring the soup. The Cat——it was aCheshireCat——was grinning, as Cheshire Cats always do. All these things were happening just as Alice went in.
The Duchess has a beautiful cap and gown, hasn’t she? But I’m afraid shehasn’tgot a very beautifulface.
The Baby——well, I daresay you’ve seenseveralnicer babies thanthat: and more good-tempered ones, too. However, take a good look at it, and we’ll see if you know it again, next time you meet it!
The Cook——well, youmayhave seen nicer cooks, once or twice.
But I’m nearly sure you’veneverseen a nicerCat! Nowhaveyou? Andwouldn’tyou like to have a Cat of your own, just like that one, with lovely green eyes, and smiling so sweetly?
The Duchess was very rude to Alice. And no wonder. Why, she even called her ownBaby“Pig!” And itwasn’ta Pig,wasit? And she ordered the Cook to chop off Alice’s head: though of course the Cook didn’t do it: and at last she threw the Baby at her! So Alice caught the Baby, and took it away with her: and I think that was about the best thing she could do.
So she wandered away, through the wood, carrying the ugly little thing with her. And a great job it was to keep hold of it, it wriggled about so. But at last she found out that theproperway was, to keep tight hold of its left foot and its right ear.
But don’tyoutry to hold on to a Baby like that, my Child! There are not many babies thatlikebeing nursed inthatway!
Well, and so the Baby kept grunting, and grunting so that Alice had to say to it, quite seriously, “If you’re going to turn into aPig, my dear, I’ll have nothing more to do with you. Mind now!”
Alice holding the pig
And at last she looked down into its face, and whatdoyou think had happened to it? Look at the picture, and see if you can guess.
“Why,that’snot the Baby that Alice was nursing, is it?”
Ah, Iknewyou wouldn’t know it again, though I told you to take a good look at it! Yes, itisthe Baby. And it’s turned into a littlePig!
So Alice put it down, and let it trot away into the wood. And she said to herself “It was averyuglyBaby: but it makes rather a handsomePig, I think.”
Don’t you think she was right?