Didyou ever play at Croquet? There are large wooden balls, painted with different colours, that you have to roll about; and arches of wire, that you have to send them through; and great wooden mallets, with long handles, to knock the balls about with.
Now look at the picture, and you’ll see thatAlicehas just been playing a Game of Croquet.
“But shecouldn’tplay, with that great red what’s-its-name in her arms! Why, how could she hold the mallet?”
Alice holding a flamingo and talking to the Duchess
Why, my dear Child, that great red what’s-its-name (itsrealname is “a Flamingo”)isthe mallet! In this Croquet-Game, the balls wereliveHedge-hogs——you know a hedge-hog can roll itself up into a ball?——and the mallets were liveFlamingos!
So Alice is just resting from the Game, for a minute, to have a chat with that dear old thing, the Duchess: and of course she keeps her mallet under her arm, so as not to lose it.
“But I don’t think shewasa dear old thing, one bit! To call her Baby aPig, and to want to chop off Alice’s head!”
Oh, that was only a joke, about chopping off Alice’s head: and as to the Baby——why, itwasa Pig, you know! And just look at hersmile! Why, it’s wider than all Alice’s head: and yet you can only see half of it!
Well, they’d only had averylittle chat, when the Queen came and took Alice away, to see the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle.
You don’t know what a Gryphon is?Well! Do you knowanything? That’s the question. However, look at the picture. That creature with a red head, and red claws, and green scales, is theGryphon. Now you know.
And the other’s theMock Turtle. It’s got a calf’s-head, because calf’s head is used to makeMock Turtle Soup. Now you know.
“But what are theydoing, going round and round Alice like that?”
Why, I thought ofcourseyou’d knowthat! They’re dancinga Lobster-Quadrille.
Alice, Gryphon, and Mock Turtle
And next timeyoumeet a Gryphon and a Mock Turtle, I daresay they’ll dance it foryou, if you ask them prettily. Only don’t let them comequiteclose, or they’ll be treading on your toes, as they did on poor Alice’s.