| THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS |
| |
| By Lewis Carroll |
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| CHAPTER I. Looking-Glass house |
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| One thing was certain, that the WHITE kitten had had nothing to do with |
| it:--it was the black kitten's fault entirely. For the white kitten had |
| been having its face washed by the old cat for the last quarter of |
| an hour (and bearing it pretty well, considering); so you see that it |
| COULDN'T have had any hand in the mischief. |
| |
| The way Dinah washed her children's faces was this: first she held the |
| poor thing down by its ear with one paw, and then with the other paw she |
| rubbed its face all over, the wrong way, beginning at the nose: and |
| just now, as I said, she was hard at work on the white kitten, which was |
| lying quite still and trying to purr--no doubt feeling that it was all |
| meant for its good. |
| |
| But the black kitten had been finished with earlier in the afternoon, |
| and so, while Alice was sitting curled up in a corner of the great |
| arm-chair, half talking to herself and half asleep, the kitten had been |
| having a grand game of romps with the ball of worsted Alice had been |
| trying to wind up, and had been rolling it up and down till it had all |
| come undone again; and there it was, spread over the hearth-rug, all |
| knots and tangles, with the kitten running after its own tail in the |
| middle. |
| |
| 'Oh, you wicked little thing!' cried Alice, catching up the kitten, and |
| giving it a little kiss to make it understand that it was in disgrace. |
| 'Really, Dinah ought to have taught you better manners! You OUGHT, |
| Dinah, you know you ought!' she added, looking reproachfully at the old |
| cat, and speaking in as cross a voice as she could manage--and then she |
| scrambled back into the arm-chair, taking the kitten and the worsted |
| with her, and began winding up the ball again. But she didn't get on |
| very fast, as she was talking all the time, sometimes to the kitten, and |
| sometimes to herself. Kitty sat very demurely on her knee, pretending to |
| watch the progress of the winding, and now and then putting out one |
| paw and gently touching the ball, as if it would be glad to help, if it |
| might. |
| |
| 'Do you know what to-morrow is, Kitty?' Alice began. 'You'd have guessed |
| if you'd been up in the window with me--only Dinah was making you tidy, |
| so you couldn't. I was watching the boys getting in sticks for the |
| bonfire--and it wants plenty of sticks, Kitty! Only it |
