Through the Looking-Glass

[Illustration]

THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS

And What Alice Found There

By Lewis Carroll

The Millennium Fulcrum Edition 1.7

CHARACTERS IN THE STORY
(_Arranged as they would appear before the chess game begins._)

WHITE RED.
PIECES. PAWNS. PAWNS. PIECES.
Tweedledee. Daisy. Daisy. Humpty Dumpty.
Unicorn. Haigha. Messenger. Carpenter.
Sheep. Oyster. Oyster. Walrus.
W. Queen. “Lily.” Tiger-lily. R. Queen.
W. King. Fawn. Rose. R. King.
Aged man. Oyster. Oyster. Crow.
W. Knight. Hatta. Frog. R. Knight.
Tweedledum. Daisy. Daisy. Lion.

_RED._

[Illustration: chessboard]

_WHITE._

White Pawn (Alice) moves first, and wins the game in eleven moves.

1. Alice meets the Red Queen.
2. Red Queen moves to King's Rook's 4th square.
3. Alice travels through the Queen's 3rd square (_by railway_) to the 4th square (_where she meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee_).
4. White Queen moves to Queen's Bishop's 4th square (_chasing after her shawl_).
5. Alice meets the White Queen (_carrying her shawl_).
6. White Queen moves to Queen's Bishop's 5th square (_and turns into a sheep_).
7. Alice reaches the Queen's 5th square (_a shop, then a river, then a shop again_).
8. White Queen moves to King's Bishop's 8th square (_leaving an egg on a shelf_).
9. Alice reaches the Queen's 6th square (_where she meets Humpty Dumpty_).
10. White Queen moves to Queen's Bishop's 8th square (_fleeing from the Red Knight_).
11. Alice reaches the Queen's 7th square (_a forest_).
12. Red Knight moves to King's 2nd square (check).
13. White Knight captures the Red Knight.
14. White Knight moves to King's Bishop's 5th square.
15. Alice reaches the Queen's 8th square (_her coronation_).
16. Red Queen moves to King's square (_for the examination_).
17. Alice becomes a Queen.
18. Both Queens castle.
19. Alice castles (_the feast_).
20. White Queen moves to Queen's Rook's 6th square (_the soup_).
21. Alice captures the Red Queen and wins.

Child with the calm and clear young face
And dreaming eyes of wonder!
Though years go by at hurried pace,
And you and I are far apart,
Your loving smile will still delight
In this small gift—a story bright.

I've never seen your sunny face,
Nor heard you laugh with pleasure;
No thought of me will find a place
In your future days of treasure—
It's enough that now you will not fail
To listen to my fairy tale.

A tale begun in other days,
When summer suns were glowing—
A simple tune that helped to time
The rhythm of our rowing—
Whose echoes live in memory yet,
Though passing years would say "forget."

Come, listen then, before a voice of dread,
Bringing news you will not treasure,
Calls you away to an unwelcome bed,
Taking you from happy leisure!
We are only older children, dear,
Who dread to see our bedtime near.

Outside: the frost, the blinding snow,
The storm-wind's wild complaining—
Inside: the firelight's cheerful glow,
And childhood's joy remaining.
These magic words shall hold you fast:
You will not fear the howling blast.

And though a hint of sadness may
Tremble through the story,
For happy summer days gone by,
And faded summer glory—
It shall not spoil with any pain
The pleasure of our tale again.

Contents

CHAPTER I. Looking-Glass House
CHAPTER II. The Garden of Live Flowers
CHAPTER III. Looking-Glass Insects
CHAPTER IV. Tweedledum and Tweedledee
CHAPTER V. Wool and Water
CHAPTER VI. Humpty Dumpty
CHAPTER VII. The Lion and the Unicorn
CHAPTER VIII. "It's My Own Invention"
CHAPTER IX. Queen Alice
CHAPTER X. Shaking
CHAPTER XI. Waking
CHAPTER XII. Which Dreamed It?

CHAPTER I.
Looking-Glass House

One thing was certain: the white kitten had nothing to do with the mess. It was the black kitten's fault, completely. The white kitten had been having its face washed by the old cat, Dinah, for the last fifteen minutes—and had put up with it fairly well, all things considered. So clearly, it couldn't have had any part in the trouble.

Here's how Dinah washed her kittens' faces: first she pinned the poor creature down by its ear with one paw. Then, with her other paw, she scrubbed its face all over—the wrong way, starting at the nose. Right now, as I mentioned, she was hard at work on the white kitten, which lay perfectly still and tried to purr, clearly believing this was all being done for its own good.

But the black kitten had finished its wash earlier that afternoon. So while Alice sat curled up in a corner of the big armchair, half talking to herself and half asleep, the black kitten had been having a wonderful time playing with a ball of yarn that Alice had been trying to wind into a ball. The kitten had rolled it back and forth until the whole thing came completely unwound again. Now it lay spread across the hearth rug in a tangled mess of knots, with the kitten chasing its own tail right in the middle of it.

"Oh, you naughty little thing!" cried Alice, scooping up the kitten and giving it a small kiss to let it know it was in trouble. "Really, Dinah should have taught you better manners! You should have, Dinah, you know you should!" she added, giving the old cat a scolding look and trying to sound as stern as possible. Then she climbed back into the armchair, bringing the kitten and the yarn with her, and began winding the ball again. But she didn't make much progress, since she kept talking the whole time—sometimes to the kitten, sometimes to herself. Kitty sat properly on her lap, pretending to watch the winding, and now and then reaching out one paw to touch the ball gently, as though offering to help if she were allowed.

"Do you know what tomorrow is, Kitty?" Alice began. "You'd have guessed if you'd been up at the window with me—but Dinah was busy grooming you, so you missed it. I was watching the boys gather sticks for the bonfire—and it needs a lot of sticks, Kitty! But it got so cold, and it snowed so hard, they had to stop. Never mind, Kitty, we'll go see the bonfire tomorrow." Here Alice wound a few loops of yarn around the kitten's neck, just to see how it would look. This led to a struggle, during which the ball rolled onto the floor, unwinding yards and yards of yarn all over again.

"Do you know, I was so angry with you, Kitty," Alice continued once they'd settled back down, "when I saw all the trouble you'd caused, I nearly opened the window and put you outside in the snow! And you would have deserved it, you little troublemaker! What do you have to say for yourself? Don't interrupt me!" she said, holding up one finger. "I'm going to list all your bad behavior. First: you squeaked twice while Dinah was washing your face this morning. Don't deny it, Kitty—I heard you! What's that you say?" (She pretended the kitten was answering back.) "Her paw poked your eye? Well, that's your fault for keeping your eyes open—if you'd squeezed them shut, it wouldn't have happened. No more excuses—just listen! Second: you dragged Snowdrop away by the tail right after I set down her saucer of milk! Oh, you were thirsty, were you? How do you know she wasn't thirsty too? And third: you unwound the entire ball of yarn while I wasn't watching!

"That's three things you've done wrong, Kitty, and you haven't been punished for any of them yet. You know I'm saving up all your punishments for a week from Wednesday—Just imagine if someone saved up all my punishments the same way!" she went on, talking more to herself now than to the kitten. "What would happen at the end of a year? I suppose they'd send me to prison when the day finally came. Or—let me think—suppose each punishment meant skipping a dinner: then, on that terrible day, I'd have to skip fifty dinners all at once! Well, I wouldn't mind that too much! I'd much rather skip them than eat them!

"Do you hear the snow tapping against the window, Kitty? Doesn't it sound soft and nice? Almost like someone kissing the window from outside. I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, since it kisses them so gently? And then it tucks them in snugly under a white blanket, and maybe it whispers, 'Go to sleep, dears, until summer comes again.' And when they wake up in summer, Kitty, they put on green clothes and dance about whenever the wind blows—oh, that's such a pretty thought!" cried Alice, letting go of the yarn ball to clap her hands. "I really do wish it were true! I'm sure the woods look sleepy in autumn, when the leaves start turning brown.

"Kitty, can you play chess? Now don't smile, dear—I'm asking seriously. Because when we played earlier, you watched as if you actually understood the game! And when I said 'Check!' you purred! Well, it was a nice check, Kitty, and I really might have won, if it hadn't been for that pesky Knight that came wiggling in among my pieces. Kitty, dear, let's pretend—"

And here I wish I could share half of the things Alice used to say, always starting with her favorite phrase, "Let's pretend." Just the day before, she'd had quite an argument with her sister, all because Alice had begun with "Let's pretend we're kings and queens." Her sister, who liked things to be precise, pointed out that they couldn't do that, since there were only two of them. In the end, Alice had to settle for saying, "Well, you can be one of them, then, and I'll be all the rest." And once she had genuinely startled her old nurse by suddenly shouting in her ear, "Nurse! Let's pretend that I'm a hungry hyena, and you're a bone!"

But this is drifting away from Alice's conversation with the kitten. "Let's pretend you're the Red Queen, Kitty! You know, I think if you sat up straight and folded your arms, you'd look just like her. Now try it, there's a good kitten!" And Alice grabbed the Red Queen chess piece from the table and set it in front of the kitten as an example to copy. However, it didn't work out—mainly, Alice said, because the kitten simply wouldn't fold its arms properly. So, as punishment, she held it up to the mirror so it could see how grumpy it looked. "And if you don't behave right now," she added, "I'll send you through into Looking-glass House. How would you like that?"

"Now, if you'll just listen, Kitty, and stop chattering so much, I'll share all my thoughts about Looking-glass House. First, there's the room you can see through the mirror—it's just like our sitting room, except everything is reversed. I can see all of it when I stand on a chair—except the little section hidden behind the fireplace. Oh,