Through the Looking-Glass | Released: 02 Jan 2019

CHAPTER I. Looking-Glass houseOne thing was certain, that the WHITE kitten had had nothing to do withit: --it was the black kitten's fault entirely. For the white kitten hadbeen having its face washed by the old cat for the last quarter ofan hour (and bearing it pretty well, considering); so you see that itCOULDN'T have had any hand in the mischief.The way Dinah washed her children's faces was this: first she held thepoor thing down by its ear with one paw, and then with the other paw sherubbed its face all over, the wrong way, beginning at the nose: andjust now, as I said, she was hard at work on the white kitten, which waslying quite still and trying to purr--no doubt feeling that it was allmeant 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 greatarm-chair, half talking to herself and half asleep, the kitten had beenhaving a grand game of romps with the ball of worsted Alice had beentrying to wind up, and had been rolling it up and down till it had allcome undone again; and there it was, spread over the hearth-rug, allknots and tangles, with the kitten running after its own tail in themiddle.'Oh, you wicked little thing!' cried Alice, catching up the kitten, andgiving 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 oldcat, and speaking in as cross a voice as she could manage--and then shescrambled back into the arm-chair, taking the kitten and the worstedwith her, and began winding up the ball again. But she didn't get onvery fast, as she was talking all the time, sometimes to the kitten, andsometimes to herself. Kitty sat very demurely on her knee, pretending towatch the progress of the winding, and now and then putting out onepaw and gently touching the ball, as if it would be glad to help, if itmight.'Do you know what to-morrow is, Kitty?' Alice began. 'You'd have guessedif 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 thebonfire--and it wants plenty of sticks, Kitty! Only it got so cold, andit snowed so, they had to leave off. Never mind, Kitty, we'll go andsee the bonfire to-morrow.' Here Alice wound two or three turns of theworsted round the kitten's neck, just to see how it would look: this ledto a scramble, in which the ball rolled down upon the floor, and yardsand yards of it got unwound again.'Do you know, I was so angry, Kitty, ' Alice went on as soon as they werecomfortably settled again, 'when I saw all the mischief you had beendoing, I was very nearly opening the window, and putting you out intothe snow! And you'd have deserved it, you little mischievous darling!What have you got to say for yourself? Now don't interrupt me!' shewent on, holding up one finger. 'I'm going to tell you all your faults.Number one: you squeaked twice while Dinah was washing your face thismorning. Now you can't deny it, Kitty: I heard you! What's that yousay?' (pretending that the kitten was speaking.) 'Her paw went into youreye? Well, that's YOUR fault, for keeping your eyes open--if you'dshut them tight up, it wouldn't have happened. Now don't make any moreexcuses, but listen! Number two: you pulled Snowdrop away by the tailjust as I had put down the saucer of milk before her! What, you werethirsty, were you? How do you know she wasn't thirsty too? Now fornumber three: you unwound every bit of the worsted while I wasn'tloo