== Which Dreamed it?
“Your majesty shouldn't purr so loud,” pov/S 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 (pov/S had once made the
remark) that, whatever you say to them, they #emph[always] purr. “If
they would only purr for ‘yes' and mew for ‘no,' or any rule of that
sort,” pov/s had said, “so that one could keep up a conversation! But
how #emph[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 pov/S hunted among the chessmen on the table till pov/s had found the
Red Queen: then pov/s went down on pov/p knees on the hearth-rug, and
put the kitten and the Queen to look at each other. “Now, Kitty!” pov/s
cried, clapping pov/p hands triumphantly. “Confess that was what you
turned into!”

(“But it wouldn't look at it,” pov/s said, when pov/s vrb/be/ explaining
the thing afterwards to pov/p sister: “it turned away its head, and
pretended not to see it: but it looked a #emph[little] ashamed of
itself, so I think it #emph[must] have been the Red Queen.”)

“Sit up a little more stiffly, dear!” pov/S cried with a merry laugh.
“And curtsey while you're thinking what to---what to purr. It saves
time, remember!” And pov/s caught it up and gave it one little kiss,
“just in honour of having been a Red Queen.”

“Snowdrop, my pet!” pov/s went on, looking over pov/p shoulder at the
White Kitten, which was still patiently undergoing its toilet, “when
#emph[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 #emph[Dinah] turn to, I wonder?” pov/s prattled on, as
pov/s settled comfortably down, with one elbow in the rug, and pov/p
chin in her hand, to watch the kittens. “Tell me, Dinah, did you turn to
Humpty Dumpty? I #emph[think] you did---however, you'd better not
mention it to your friends just yet, for I'm not sure.

“By the way, Kitty, if only you'd been really with me in my dream, there
was one thing you #emph[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 #emph[not] go on licking your
paw like that---as if Dinah hadn't washed you this morning! You see,
Kitty, it #emph[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!
#emph[Was] it the Red King, Kitty? You were his wife, my dear, so you
ought to know---Oh, Kitty, #emph[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 #emph[you] think it was?

#line(length: 100%)

#include "poems/a-boat-beneath-a-sunny-sky.typ"