Complete Works of Lewis Carroll Read Free Page B

self-important air, "are you all ready? This is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please!
    "William the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria—"
    "Ugh!" said the Lory with a shiver.
    "I beg your pardon?" said the mouse, frowning, but very politely, "did you speak?"
    "Not I!" said the Lory hastily.
    "I thought you did," said the mouse, "I proceed. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared for him; and even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet William and offer him the crown. William's conduct was at first moderate—how are you getting on now, dear?" said the mouse, turning to Alice as it spoke.
    "As wet as ever," said poor Alice, "it doesn't seem to dry me at all."
    "In that case," said the Dodo solemnly, rising to his feet, "I move that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more energetic remedies—"
    "Speak English!" said the Duck, "I don't know the meaning of half those long words, and what's more, I don't believe you do either!" And the Duck quacked a comfortable laugh to itself. Some of the other birds tittered audibly.
    "I only meant to say," said the Dodo in a rather offended tone, "that I know of a house near here, where we could get the young lady and the rest of the party dried, and then we could listen comfortably to the story which I think you were good enough to promise to tell us," bowing gravely to the mouse.
    The mouse made no objection to this, and the whole party moved along the river bank, (for the pool had by this time began to flow out of the hall, and the edge of it was fringed with rushes and forget-me-nots,) in a slow procession, the Dodo leading the way. After a time the Dodo became impatient, and, leaving the Duck to bring up the rest of the party, moved on at a quicker pace with Alice, the Lory, and the Eaglet, and soon brought them to a little cottage, and there they sat snugly by the fire, wrapped up in blankets, until the rest of the party had arrived, and they were all dry again.
    Then they all sat down again in a large ring on the bank, and begged the mouse to begin his story.
    "Mine is a long and a sad tale!" said the mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing.
    "It is a long tail, certainly," said Alice, looking down with wonder at the mouse's tail, which was coiled nearly all round the party, "but why do you call it sad?" and she went on puzzling about this as the mouse went on speaking, so that her idea of the tale was something like this:



We lived beneath the mat
    Warm and snug and fat
    But one woe, & that
    Was the cat!
    To our joys
    a clog, In
    our eyes a
    fog, On our
    hearts a log
    Was the dog!
    When the
    cat's away,
    Then
    the mice
    will
    play,
    But, alas!
    one day, (So they say)
    Came the dog and
    cat, Hunting
    for a
    rat,
    Crushed
    the mice
    all flat;
    Each
    one
    as
    he
    sat.
    U
    n
    d
    e
    r
    n
    e
    a
    t
    h
     
    t
    h
    e
     
    m
    a
    t
    ,
    m r a W
    g u n s &
    t a f &
    T h i n k?
    o f t h a t!
     
    "You are not attending!" said the mouse to Alice severely, "what are you thinking of?"
    "I beg your pardon," said Alice very humbly, "you had got to the fifth bend, I think?"
    "I had not!" cried the mouse, sharply and very angrily.
    "A knot!" said Alice, always ready to make herself useful, and looking anxiously about her, "oh, do let me help to undo it!"
    "I shall do nothing of the sort!" said the mouse, getting up and walking away from the party, "you insult me by talking such nonsense!"
    "I didn't mean it!" pleaded poor Alice, "but you're so easily offended, you know."
    The mouse only growled in reply.
    "Please come back and finish your story!" Alice called after it, and the others all joined in chorus "yes, please do!" but the mouse only shook its ears, and walked quickly away, and was soon out