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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chapter 12. Alice's Evidence
"Here!" cried Alice, quite forgetting in the hurry of the moment how big she had grown in the last few minutes.
She jumped up so quickly that she tipped over the jury-box with the edge of her skirt.
This upset all the jurymen onto the heads of the crowd below.
There they lay rolling about, reminding her very much of a bowl of goldfish she had accidentally upset the week before.
"Oh, I beg your pardon!" she said with great worry, and began picking them up again as fast as she could.
The accident with the goldfish kept running in her head.
And she had a strange idea that they must be collected at once and put back into the jury-box, or they'd die.
"The trial can't go on," said the King in a very serious voice.
"It can't go on until all the jurymen are back in their right places."
"All," he repeated with strong stress, looking hard at Alice as he said so.
Alice looked at the jury-box and saw that, in her hurry, she had put the Lizard with its head down.
The poor little thing was waving its tail about in a sad way and was quite unable to move.
She soon pulled it out again, and put it right.
"Not that it matters much," she said to herself.
"I think it would be just as useful in the trial upside down as the other way up."
As soon as the jury got over the shock, their slates and pencils were found and given back.
They began at once to write a history of the accident, all except the Lizard.
The Lizard seemed too upset to do anything but sit with its mouth open and look at the court roof.
"What do you know about this business?" the King said to Alice.
"Nothing," said Alice.
"Nothing at all?" asked the King.
"Nothing at all," said Alice.
"That's very important," the King said, turning to the jury.
They were just beginning to write this down on their slates, when the White Rabbit stopped him.
"Unimportant, your Majesty means, of course," he said in a very respectful tone, but frowning and making faces at him as he spoke.
"Unimportant, of course, I meant,"
The King quickly said, then in a low voice, "important, unimportant, unimportant, important" as if trying which word sounded best.
Some of the jury wrote it down "important,"
And some wrote "unimportant." Alice could see this, as she was near enough to look over their slates.
"But it doesn't matter a bit," she thought to herself.
Just then the King, who had been for some time busy writing in his note-book, cried "Silence!"
And read out from his book "Rule Forty-two. All persons more than a mile high to leave the court.".
Everybody in the court looked at Alice in sudden, silent surprise.
"I'm not a mile high," said Alice.
"You're," said the King.
"Nearly two miles high," added the Queen.
"Well, I won't go, at any rate," said Alice.
"Besides, that isn't a regular rule. You made it up just now."
"It's the oldest rule in the book," said the King.
"Then it should be Number One," said Alice.
The King turned pale, and shut his note-book quickly.
"Think about your verdict," he said to the jury in a low, shaking voice.
"There's more evidence to come yet, please your Majesty," said the White Rabbit, jumping up in a great hurry.
"This paper was just picked up."
"What's in it?" said the Queen.
"I haven't opened it yet," said the White Rabbit, "but it looks like a letter, written by the prisoner to, to somebody."
"It must have been that," said the King, "unless it was written to nobody, which isn't usual, you know."
"Who's it meant for?" said one of the jurymen.
"It isn't meant for anyone," said the White Rabbit.
"In fact, there's nothing written on the outside."
He opened the paper as he spoke, and added "It isn't a letter after all. It's a set of verses.".
"Are they in the prisoner's handwriting?" asked another juryman.
"No, they aren't," said the White Rabbit, "and that's the queerest thing about it." The jury all looked puzzled.
"He must have copied somebody else's hand," said the King.
The jury all looked pleased again.
"Please your Majesty," said the Knave, "I didn't write it, and they can't prove I did. There's no name signed at the end."
"If you didn't sign it," said the King.
"That only makes the matter worse. You must have meant some bad thing, or else you'd have signed your name like an honest man."
There was a general clap of hands at this.
It was the first clever thing the King had said that day.
"That proves he's guilty," said the Queen.
"It proves nothing of the sort!" said Alice.
"Why, you don't even know what they're about!"
"Read them," said the King.
The White Rabbit put on his glasses.
"Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?" he asked.
"Begin at the beginning," the King said seriously, "and go on till you come to the end. Then stop."
These were the verses the White Rabbit read
"They told me you had been to her, And mentioned me to him She gave me a good character But said I couldn't swim"
He sent word I hadn't gone
We know it's true
If she pushes on
What will become of you
I gave her one, they gave him two, you gave three, all came back from him to you, though mine.
If I or she should be part of this matter, he trusts you to free them as we were
My notion was that you had been Before she had this fit An obstacle that came between Him, and ourselves, and it
"Don't let him know she liked them best For this must ever be A secret, kept from all the rest Between yourself and me"
"That's the most important piece of evidence we have heard yet," said the King, rubbing his hands.
"So now let the jury, "
"If any one of them can explain it," said Alice.
She had grown so large in the last few minutes that she wasn't a bit afraid of stopping him.
"I'll give him sixpence. I don't believe there's an atom of meaning in it."
The jury all wrote on their slates, "She doesn't believe there's an atom of meaning in it,"
But none of them tried to explain the paper.
"If there's no meaning in it," said the King.
"That saves a world of trouble, you know, as we don't need to try to find any."
"And yet I don't know." He spread the verses on his knee and looked at them with one eye.
"I seem to see some meaning in them, after all. 'Said I couldn't swim' you can't swim, can you?"
He added, turning to the Knave.
The Knave shook his head sadly.
"Do I look like it?" he said.
He certainly didn't, being made entirely of cardboard.
"All right so far," said the King, and he went on softly over the verses to himself.
We know it true' that's the jury.
'I gave her one, they gave him two', must be what he did with the tarts.
'I gave her one, they gave him two', must be what he did with the tarts.
"But it goes on 'they all returned from him to you,'" said Alice.
"Why, there they're!" said the King with pride, pointing to the tarts on the table.
"Nothing can be clearer than that."
"Then again 'before she had this fit' you never had fits my dear I think?" He said to the Queen.
"Never!" said the Queen in anger, throwing an inkstand at the Lizard as she spoke.
The poor little Bill had stopped writing on his slate with one finger as he found it made no mark.
But he now began again, using the ink that was running down his face while it lasted.
"Then the words don't fit you," said the King, looking round the court with a smile.
There was a dead silence, and everyone stopped speaking or moving for a while.
"It's a pun!" the King added in an angry voice and everybody laughed.
"Let the jury think about their verdict," the King said for about the twentieth time that day.
"No no!" said the Queen.
"Sentence first verdict afterwards."
"Stuff and nonsense!" said Alice loudly.
"The idea of having the sentence first!"
"Shut up!" said the Queen, turning purple.
"I won't!" said Alice.
"Off with her head!" the Queen shouted at the top of her voice.
Nobody moved or spoke, all the people looked at Alice in fear.
"Who cares for you?" said Alice.
She had grown to her full size by this time.
"You're nothing but a pack of cards!"
At this the whole pack rose up into the air and came flying down on her.
She gave a little scream, half of fear and half of anger, and tried to beat them off.
She found herself lying on the bank with her head in the lap of her sister.
Her sister was gently brushing away some dead leaves that had fallen from the trees on her face.
"Wake up Alice dear!" said her sister.
"Why what a long sleep you have had!"
"Oh I have had such a strange dream!" said Alice.
"She then told her sister, as well as she could remember, all these odd adventures you have just been reading about."
When she had finished her sister kissed her and said,
"It was a strange dream dear certainly but now run in to your tea it's getting late."
So Alice got up and ran off, thinking as she ran what a wonderful dream it had been.
But her sister sat still just as Alice had left her, leaning her head on her hand.
She watched the setting sun and thought of little Alice and all her strange adventures.
She too began dreaming in a way, and this was her dream.
First she dreamed of little Alice herself.
Once more the small hands were held on her knee and the bright eager eyes looked up into hers.
She could hear the very sound of her voice.
She saw the strange little toss of her head to keep loose hair out of her eyes.
As she listened the whole place around her became alive with the strange creatures of her little sister's dream.
The long grass moved at her feet as the White Rabbit hurried by.
The frightened Mouse splashed through the near pool.
She could hear the rattle of the teacups as the March Hare and his friends shared their very long meal.
She could hear the Queen's high voice sending off her unlucky guests to death.
Once more the pig baby was sneezing on the Duchess's knee while plates and dishes crashed around it.
Again the Gryphon's cry, the Lizard's slate squeak, and the choking guinea pigs filled the air.
These sounds mixed with the far-away sobs of the sad Mock Turtle.
So she sat on with closed eyes and half believed she was in Wonderland.
She knew she had only to open them and all would change to dull reality.
The grass would be only moving in the wind and the pool making small waves with the reeds.
The rattling teacups would change to the small bells of sheep and the Queen's loud cries to the voice of the shepherd boy.
She knew the baby sneezes would turn the Gryphon's cry and the other odd noises into the farmyard's mixed noise.
The lowing of the cows in the distance would take the place of the Mock Turtle's heavy sobs.
At last she thought how this same little sister of hers would in the time to come be a grown woman.
She'd keep through all her older years the kind and loving heart of her childhood.
She'd gather other little children around her and make their eyes bright and eager with many strange tales.
She'd even tell them the dream of Wonderland from long ago.
She'd feel their sadness and find joy in their lives, remembering her childhood and happy summer days.
THE END. Alice's sister watched the sun and smiled, remembering the strange dream.