68 lines
3.3 KiB
XML
68 lines
3.3 KiB
XML
== Which Dreamed it?
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“Your majesty shouldn't purr so loud,” pov/S said, rubbing her eyes, and
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addressing the kitten, respectfully, yet with some severity. “You woke
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me out of oh! such a nice dream! And you've been along with me,
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Kitty---all through the Looking-Glass world. Did you know it, dear?”
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It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (pov/S had once made the
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remark) that, whatever you say to them, they #emph[always] purr. “If
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they would only purr for ‘yes' and mew for ‘no,' or any rule of that
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sort,” pov/s had said, “so that one could keep up a conversation! But
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how #emph[can] you talk with a person if they always say the same
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thing?”
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On this occasion the kitten only purred: and it was impossible to guess
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whether it meant “yes” or “no.”
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So pov/S hunted among the chessmen on the table till pov/s had found the
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Red Queen: then pov/s went down on pov/p knees on the hearth-rug, and
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put the kitten and the Queen to look at each other. “Now, Kitty!” pov/s
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cried, clapping pov/p hands triumphantly. “Confess that was what you
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turned into!”
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(“But it wouldn't look at it,” pov/s said, when pov/s vrb/be/ explaining
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the thing afterwards to pov/p sister: “it turned away its head, and
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pretended not to see it: but it looked a #emph[little] ashamed of
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itself, so I think it #emph[must] have been the Red Queen.”)
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“Sit up a little more stiffly, dear!” pov/S cried with a merry laugh.
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“And curtsey while you're thinking what to---what to purr. It saves
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time, remember!” And pov/s caught it up and gave it one little kiss,
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“just in honour of having been a Red Queen.”
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“Snowdrop, my pet!” pov/s went on, looking over pov/p shoulder at the
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White Kitten, which was still patiently undergoing its toilet, “when
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#emph[will] Dinah have finished with your White Majesty, I wonder? That
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must be the reason you were so untidy in my dream---Dinah! do you know
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that you're scrubbing a White Queen? Really, it's most disrespectful of
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you!
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“And what did #emph[Dinah] turn to, I wonder?” pov/s prattled on, as
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pov/s settled comfortably down, with one elbow in the rug, and pov/p
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chin in her hand, to watch the kittens. “Tell me, Dinah, did you turn to
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Humpty Dumpty? I #emph[think] you did---however, you'd better not
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mention it to your friends just yet, for I'm not sure.
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“By the way, Kitty, if only you'd been really with me in my dream, there
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was one thing you #emph[would] have enjoyed---I had such a quantity of
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poetry said to me, all about fishes! To-morrow morning you shall have a
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real treat. All the time you're eating your breakfast, I'll repeat ‘The
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Walrus and the Carpenter' to you; and then you can make believe it's
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oysters, dear!
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“Now, Kitty, let's consider who it was that dreamed it all. This is a
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serious question, my dear, and you should #emph[not] go on licking your
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paw like that---as if Dinah hadn't washed you this morning! You see,
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Kitty, it #emph[must] have been either me or the Red King. He was part
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of my dream, of course---but then I was part of his dream, too!
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#emph[Was] it the Red King, Kitty? You were his wife, my dear, so you
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ought to know---Oh, Kitty, #emph[do] help to settle it! I'm sure your
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paw can wait!” But the provoking kitten only began on the other paw, and
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pretended it hadn't heard the question.
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Which do #emph[you] think it was?
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#line(length: 100%)
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#include "poems/a-boat-beneath-a-sunny-sky.typ"
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