== The Garden of Live Flowers “I should see the garden far better,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said pov/S/ to pov/r, “if I could get to the top of that hill: and here's a path that leads straight to it---at least, no, it doesn't do that---” (after going a few yards along the path, and turning several sharp corners), “but I suppose it will at last. But how curiously it twists! It's more like a corkscrew than a path! Well, #emph[this] turn goes to the hill, I suppose---no, it doesn't! This goes straight back to the house! Well then, I'll try it the other way.” And so pov/s did: wandering up and down, and trying turn after turn, but always coming back to the house, do what pov/s would. Indeed, once, when pov/s turned a corner rather more quickly than usual, pov/s ran against it before pov/s could stop pov/r. “It's no use talking about it,” pov/S said, looking up at the house and pretending it was arguing with pov/o. “I'm #emph[not] going in again yet. I know I should have to get through the Looking-glass again---back into the old room---and there'd be an end of all my adventures!” So, resolutely turning pov/p back upon the house, pov/s set out once more down the path, determined to keep straight on till pov/s got to the hill. For a few minutes all went on well, and pov/s vrb/be/ just saying, “I really #emph[shall] do it this time---” when the path gave a sudden twist and shook itself (as pov/s described it afterwards), and the next moment pov/s found herself actually walking in at the door. “Oh, it's too bad!” pov/s cried. “I never saw such a house for getting in the way! Never!” However, there was the hill full in sight, so there was nothing to be done but start again. This time pov/s came upon a large flower-bed, with a border of daisies, and a willow-tree growing in the middle. “O Tiger-lily,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said pov/S/, addressing pov/r to one that was waving gracefully about in the wind, “I #emph[wish] you could talk!” “We #emph[can] talk,” said the Tiger-lily: “when there's anybody worth talking to.” Pov/S was so astonished that pov/s could not speak for a minute: it quite seemed to take pov/o breath away. At length, as the Tiger-lily only went on waving about, pov/s spoke again, in a timid voice---almost in a whisper. “And can #emph[all] the flowers talk?” “As well as #emph[you] can,” said the Tiger-lily. “And a great deal louder.” “It isn't manners for us to begin, you know,” said the Rose, “and I really was wondering when you'd speak! Said I to myself, ‘Prn/p face has got #emph[some] sense in it, though it's not a clever one!' Still, you're the right colour, and that goes a long way.” “I don't care about the colour,” the Tiger-lily remarked. “If only prn/p petals curled up a little more, prn/s'd be all right.” Pov/S didn't like being criticised, so pov/s began asking questions. “Aren't you sometimes frightened at being planted out here, with nobody to take care of you?” “There's the tree in the middle,” said the Rose: “what else is it good for?” “But what could it do, if any danger came?” pov/S asked. “It says ‘Bough-wough!'” cried a Daisy: “that's why its branches are called boughs!” “Didn't you know #emph[that];?” cried another Daisy, and here they all began shouting together, till the air seemed quite full of little shrill voices. “Silence, every one of you!” cried the Tiger-lily, waving itself passionately from side to side, and trembling with excitement. “They know I can't get at them!” it panted, bending its quivering head towards pov/S, “or they wouldn't dare to do it!” “Never mind!” pov/S said in a soothing tone, and stooping down to the daisies, who were just beginning again, pov/s whispered, “If you don't hold your tongues, I'll pick you!” There was silence in a moment, and several of the pink daisies turned white. “That's right!” said the Tiger-lily. “The daisies are worst of all. When one speaks, they all begin together, and it's enough to make one wither to hear the way they go on!” “How is it you can all talk so nicely?” pov/S said, hoping to get it into a better temper by a compliment. “I've been in many gardens before, but none of the flowers could talk.” “Put your hand down, and feel the ground,” said the Tiger-lily. “Then you'll know why.” Pov/S did so. “It's very hard,” pov/s said, “but I don't see what that has to do with it.” “In most gardens,” the Tiger-lily said, “they make the beds too soft---so that the flowers are always asleep.” This sounded a very good reason, and pov/S vrb/be/ quite pleased to know it. “I never thought of that before!” pov/s said. “It's #emph[my] opinion that you never think #emph[at all];,” the Rose said in a rather severe tone. “I never saw anybody that looked stupider,” a Violet said, so suddenly, that pov/S quite jumped; for it hadn't spoken before. “Hold #emph[your] tongue!” cried the Tiger-lily. “As if #emph[you] ever saw anybody! You keep your head under the leaves, and snore away there, till you know no more what's going on in the world, than if you were a bud!” “Are there any more people in the garden besides me?” pov/S said, not choosing to notice the Rose's last remark. “There's one other flower in the garden that can move about like you,” said the Rose. “I wonder how you do it---” (“You're always wondering,” said the Tiger-lily), “but she's more bushy than you are.” “Is she like me?” pov/S asked eagerly, for the thought crossed pov/s mind, “There's ife/prn/n is girl/another/a/ little girl in the garden, somewhere!” “Well, she has the same awkward shape as you,” the Rose said, “but she's redder---and her petals are shorter, I think.” “Her petals are done up close, almost like a dahlia,” the Tiger-lily interrupted: “not tumbled about anyhow, like yours.” “But that's not #emph[your] fault,” the Rose added kindly: “you're beginning to fade, you know---and then one can't help one's petals getting a little untidy.” Pov/S didn't like this idea at all: so, to change the subject, pov/s asked “Does she ever come out here?” “I daresay you'll see her soon,” said the Rose. “She's one of the thorny kind.” “Where does she wear the thorns?” pov/S asked with some curiosity. “Why all round her head, of course,” the Rose replied. “I was wondering #emph[you] hadn't got some too. I thought it was the regular rule.” “She's coming!” cried the Larkspur. “I hear her footstep, thump, thump, thump, along the gravel-walk!” Pov/S looked round eagerly, and found that it was the Red Queen. “She's grown a good deal!” was pov/p first remark. She had indeed: when pov/S first found her in the ashes, she had been only three inches high---and here she was, half a head taller than pov/S pov/r! “It's the fresh air that does it,” said the Rose: “wonderfully fine air it is, out here.” “I think I'll go and meet her,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said pov/S/, for, though the flowers were interesting enough, pov/s felt that it would be far grander to have a talk with a real Queen. “You can't possibly do that,” said the Rose: “#emph[I] should advise you to walk the other way.” This sounded nonsense to pov/O, so pov/s said nothing, but set off at once towards the Red Queen. To pov/p surprise, pov/s lost sight of her in a moment, and found pov/r walking in at the front-door again. A little provoked, pov/s drew back, and after looking everywhere for the queen (whom pov/s spied out at last, a long way off), pov/s thought she would try the plan, this time, of walking in the opposite direction. It succeeded beautifully. Pov/s had not been walking a minute before pov/s found pov/r face to face with the Red Queen, and full in sight of the hill pov/s had been so long aiming at. “Where do you come from?” said the Red Queen. “And where are you going? Look up, speak nicely, and don't twiddle your fingers all the time.” Pov/S attended to all these directions, and explained, as well as pov/s could, that pov/s had lost pov/p way. “I don't know what you mean by #emph[your] way,” said the Queen: “all the ways about here belong to #emph[me];---but why did you come out here at all?” she added in a kinder tone. “Curtsey while you're thinking what to say, it saves time.” Pov/S wondered a little at this, but pov/s was too much in awe of the Queen to disbelieve it. “I'll try it when I go home,” pov/s thought to pov/r, “the next time I'm a little late for dinner.” “It's time for you to answer now,” the Queen said, looking at her watch: “open your mouth a #emph[little] wider when you speak, and always say ‘your Majesty.'” “I only wanted to see what the garden was like, your Majesty---” “That's right,” said the Queen, patting pov/o on the head, which pov/S didn't like at all, “though, when you say ‘garden,'---#emph[I've] seen gardens, compared with which this would be a wilderness.” Pov/S didn't dare to argue the point, but went on: “---and I thought I'd try and find my way to the top of that hill---” “When you say ‘hill,'” the Queen interrupted, “#emph[I] could show you hills, in comparison with which you'd call that a valley.” “No, I shouldn't,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said pov/S/, surprised into contradicting her at last: “a hill #emph[can't] be a valley, you know. That would be nonsense---” The Red Queen shook her head, “You may call it ‘nonsense' if you like,” she said, “but #emph[I've] heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!” Pov/S curtseyed again, as pov/s vrb/be/ afraid from the Queen's tone that she was a #emph[little] offended: and they walked on in silence till they got to the top of the little hill. For some minutes pov/S stood without speaking, looking out in all directions over the country---and a most curious country it was. There were a number of tiny little brooks running straight across it from side to side, and the ground between was divided up into squares by a number of little green hedges, that reached from brook to brook. “I declare it's marked out just like a large chessboard!” pov/S said at last. “There ought to be some men moving about somewhere---and so there are!” Pov/s added in a tone of delight, and pov/p heart began to beat quick with excitement as pov/s went on. “It's a great huge game of chess that's being played---all over the world---if this #emph[is] the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is! How I #emph[wish] I was one of them! I wouldn't mind being a Pawn, if only I might join---though of course I should #emph[like] to be a/an also/Queen, best.” Pov/s glanced rather shyly at the real Queen as pov/s said this, but pov/p companion only smiled pleasantly, and said, “That's easily managed. You can be the White Queen's Pawn, if you like, as Lily's too young to play; and you're in the Second Square to begin with: when you get to the Eighth Square you'll be a/an also/Queen---” Just at this moment, somehow or other, they began to run. Pov/S never could quite make out, in thinking it over afterwards, how it was that they began: all pov/s remembers is, that they were running hand in hand, and the Queen went so fast that it was all pov/s could do to keep up with her: and still the Queen kept crying “Faster! Faster!” but pov/S felt she #emph[could not] go faster, though pov/s had not breath left to say so. The most curious part of the thing was, that the trees and the other things round them never changed their places at all: however fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything. “I wonder if all the things move along with us?” thought poor puzzled pov/O. And the Queen seemed to guess pov/p thoughts, for she cried, “Faster! Don't try to talk!” Not that pov/S had any idea of doing #emph[that];. Pov/s felt as if pov/s would never be able to talk again, pov/s vrb/be/ getting so much out of breath: and still the Queen cried “Faster! Faster!” and dragged pov/o along. “Are we nearly there?” Pov/S managed to pant out at last. “Nearly there!” the Queen repeated. “Why, we passed it ten minutes ago! Faster!” And they ran on for a time in silence, with the wind whistling in pov/P ears, and almost blowing pov/p hair off pov/p head, pov/s fancied. “Now! Now!” cried the Queen. “Faster! Faster!” And they went so fast that at last they seemed to skim through the air, hardly touching the ground with their feet, till suddenly, just as pov/S vrb/be/ getting quite exhausted, they stopped, and pov/s found pov/r sitting on the ground, breathless and giddy. The Queen propped pov/s up against a tree, and said kindly, “You may rest a little now.” Pov/S looked round her in great surprise. “Why, I do believe we've been under this tree the whole time! Everything's just as it was!” “Of course it is,” said the Queen, “what would you have it?” “Well, in #emph[our] country,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said pov/S/, still panting a little, “you'd generally get to somewhere else---if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing.” “A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, #emph[here];, you see, it takes all the running #emph[you] can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” “I'd rather not try, please!” alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said pov/S/. “I'm quite content to stay here---only I #emph[am] so hot and thirsty!” “I know what #emph[you'd] like!” the Queen said good-naturedly, taking a little box out of her pocket. “Have a biscuit?” Pov/S thought it would not be civil to say “No,” though it wasn't at all what pov/s wanted. So pov/s took it, and ate it as well as she could: and it was #emph[very] dry; and pov/s thought pov/s had never been so nearly choked in all her life. “While you're refreshing yourself,” said the Queen, “I'll just take the measurements.” And she took a ribbon out of her pocket, marked in inches, and began measuring the ground, and sticking little pegs in here and there. “At the end of two yards,” she said, putting in a peg to mark the distance, “I shall give you your directions---have another biscuit?” “No, thank you,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said pov/S/: “one's #emph[quite] enough!” “Thirst quenched, I hope?” said the Queen. Pov/S did not know what to say to this, but luckily the Queen did not wait for an answer, but went on. “At the end of #emph[three] yards I shall repeat them---for fear of your forgetting them. At the end of #emph[four];, I shall say good-bye. And at the end of #emph[five];, I shall go!” She had got all the pegs put in by this time, and pov/S looked on with great interest as she returned to the tree, and then began slowly walking down the row. At the two-yard peg she faced round, and said, “A pawn goes two squares in its first move, you know. So you'll go #emph[very] quickly through the Third Square---by railway, I should think---and you'll find yourself in the Fourth Square in no time. Well, #emph[that] square belongs to Tweedledum and Tweedledee---the Fifth is mostly water---the Sixth belongs to Humpty Dumpty---But you make no remark?” “I---I didn't know I had to make one---just then,” pov/S faltered out. “You #emph[should] have said, ‘It's extremely kind of you to tell me all this'---however, we'll suppose it said---the Seventh Square is all forest---however, one of the Knights will show you the way---and in the Eighth Square we shall be Queens together, and it's all feasting and fun!” pov/S got up and curtseyed, and sat down again. At the next peg the Queen turned again, and this time she said, “Speak in French when you can't think of the English for a thing---turn out your toes as you walk---and remember who you are!” She did not wait for pov/O to curtsey this time, but walked on quickly to the next peg, where she turned for a moment to say “good-bye,” and then hurried on to the last. How it happened, pov/S never knew, but exactly as she came to the last peg, she was gone. Whether she vanished into the air, or whether she ran quickly into the wood (“and she #emph[can] run very fast!” alt/first and second or third/pov/S thought/thought pov/S/), there was no way of guessing, but she was gone, and pov/S began to remember that pov/s was a Pawn, and that it would soon be time for her to move.