Chapter 12 - Which Dreamed it?
`
our majesty shouldn't purr so
loud,' Alice said, rubbing her eyes, and addressing the kitten, respectfully, yet with
some severity. `You woke me out of oh! such a nice dream! And you've been along with me,
Kitty -- all through the Looking-Glass world. Did you know it, dear?'
It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice had once made the remark) that, whatever
you say to them, they Always purr. `If them would only purr for "yes" and mew
for "no," or any rule of that sort,' she had said, `so that one could keep up a
conversation! But how can you talk with a person if they always say the same thing?'
On this occasion the kitten only purred: and it was impossible to guess whether it meant
`yes' or `no.'
So Alice hunted among the chessmen on the table till she had found the Red Queen: then she
went down on her knees on the hearth-rug, and put the kitten and the Queen to look at each
other. "Now, Kitty!' she cried, clapping her hands triumphantly. `Confess that was
what you turned into!'
(`But it wouldn't look at it,' she said, when she was explaining the thing afterwards to
her sister: `it turned away its head, and pretended not to see it: but it looked a little
ashamed of itself, so I think it must have been the Red Queen.')
`Sit up a little more stiffly, dear!' Alice cried with a merry laugh. `And curtsey while
you're thinking what to -- what to purr. It saves time, remember!' And she caught it up
and gave it one little kiss, `just in honour of having been a Red Queen.'
`Snowdrop, my pet!' she went on, looking over her shoulder at the White Kitten, which was
still patiently undergoing its toilet, `when will Dinah have finished with your White
Majesty, I wonder? That must be the reason you were so untidy in my dream - - Dinah! do
you know that you're scrubbing a White Queen? Really, it's most disrespectful of you!
`And what did dinah turn to, I wonder?' she prattled on, as she settled comfortably down,
with one elbow in the rug, and her chin in her hand, to watch the kittens. `Tell me,
Dinah, did you turn to Humpty Dumpty? I think you did -- however, you'd better not mention
it to your friends just yet, for I'm not sure.
`By the way, Kitty, of only you'd been really with me in my dream, there was one thing you
would have enjoyed -- I had such a quantity of poetry said to me, all about fishes!
To-morrow morning you shall have a real treat. All the time you're eating your breakfast,
I'll repeat "The Walrus and the Carpenter" to you; and then you can make believe
it's oysters, dear!
`Now, Kitty, let's consider who it was that dreamed it all. This is a serious question, my
dear, and you should not go on licking your paw like that -- as if Dinah hadn't washed you
this morning! You see, Kitty, it must have been either me or the Red King. He was part of
my dream, of course -- but then I was part of his dream, too! was it the Red King, Kitty.
You were his wife, my dear, so you ought to know -- Oh, Kitty, do help to settle it! I'm
sure your paw can wait!' But the provoking kitten only began on the other paw, and
pretended it hadn't heard the question.
Which do you think it was?
