Kitabı oku: «Алиса в Стране чудес / Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Алиса в Зазеркалье / Through the Looking-glass, and What Alice Found There», sayfa 7

“Now I’m back to my right size: the next thing is to get into that beautiful garden – how can I do that, I wonder?” As she said this, she suddenly came to a little house about four feet high. “It’s not a good idea to come to those who live here THIS size – they will be very frightened!” So she started nibbling at the piece of the mushroom in her right hand again and soon she was only nine inches high.

Chapter 6. Pig and Pepper

For a minute or two Alice stood looking at the house, and thinking what to do next, when suddenly a footman in livery ran out of the wood (actually it was a fish in livery) and knocked loudly at the door.The door was opened by another footman⁸⁵ in livery, with large eyes like a frog’s;⁸⁶ and both footmen, Alice noticed, had curled powdered hair. She felt very curious, and walked a little out of the wood to listen.⁸⁷

The Fish-Footman took a great letter from under his arm and gave it to the other footman, saying, in a solemn tone, “For the Duchess. An invitation from the Queen to play croquet.” The Frog-Footman repeated, in the same solemn tone, “From the Queen. An invitation for the Duchess to play croquet.”

Then they both bowed low, andtheir curls got entangled together.⁸⁸

Alice laughed so much at this thatshe had to⁸⁹ run back into the wood because the creatures could hear her. When she looked out of the wood again she saw only the Frog-footman sitting on the ground near the door.

Alice went shyly up to the door and knocked.

“There’s no use in knocking,⁹⁰” said the Footman, “for two reasons. Firstly, because I’m on the same side of the door as you are; secondly, because they’re making such a noise inside, no one could hear you.” And really there was a great noise in the house.

“Please,” said Alice, “how can I get in?”

“I shall sit here,” the Footman said, “till tomorrow – ”

At this moment the door of the house opened, and a large plate came flying out and broke to pieces against one of the trees behind the Footman.

“ – or next day, maybe,” the Footman continued in the same tone.

“But what am I to do?⁹¹” said Alice.

“Anything you like,⁹²” replied the Footman, and began whistling.

“Oh, there’s no use in talking to him!” said Alice, opened the door and went in.

Behind the door was a large kitchen full of smoke. The Duchess was sitting on a stool in the middle, nursing a baby; the cook was cooking soup.

“There’s too much pepper in that soup!” Alice remarked to herself sneezing.

There was too much pepper in the air too. Even the Duchess sneezed sometimes; and the baby was sneezing and crying all the time.The only things in the kitchen that did not sneeze⁹³ were the cook and a large cat which was grinning widely.⁹⁴

“Please could you tell me,” said Alice, a little modestly, “why your cat grins like that?”

“It’s a Cheshire cat,” said the Duchess, “andthat’s why.⁹⁵ Pig!”

Alice saw that the Duchess addressed the baby and not her so she decided to continue:

“I didn’t know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn’t know that cats COULD grin.”

“They all can,” remarked the Duchess; “and most of them do.”

“Hey!You may nurse it a bit,⁹⁶ if you like!” the Duchess said to Alice, throwing the baby to her. “I must go and get ready to play croquet with the Queen,” and she hurried out of the room.

Alice caught the baby with some difficulty. And it took her some time to start nursing it becauseit was wriggling and grunting all the time.⁹⁷ As soon as she could keep it tight in her hands⁹⁸ she took it out into the open air.

Alice was just beginning to think to herself, “Now, what will I do with this creature when I get it home?” when it grunted again, so loudly, that she looked down into its face in some alarm.There could be NO mistake about it:⁹⁹ it was a pig, and she felt quite absurd to keep it in her hands.

So she put the little creature down and it trotted away into the wood. Suddenly she saw the Cheshire cat sitting in a tree. The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice.

“Cheshire Puss,” she began shyly. The Cat only grinned a little wider. “Could you please tell me which way to go from here?”