"Oh, please mind what you do!" cried Al-ice, as she jumped up and down
in great fear, lest she should be struck.
"Hold your tongue," said the Duch-ess; then she be-gan a sort of song to
the child, giv-ing it a hard shake at the end of each line.
At the end of the song she threw the child at Al-ice and said, "Here,
you may nurse it a bit if you like; I must go and get read-y to play
cro-quet with the Queen," and she left the room in great haste. The cook
threw a pan after her as she went, but it just missed her.
Al-ice caught the child, which held out its arms and legs on all sides,
"just like a star-fish," Al-ice thought. The poor thing snort-ed like a
steam en-gine when she caught it, and turned a-bout so much, it was as
much as she could do at first to hold it.
As soon as she found out the right way to nurse it, (which was to twist
it up in a sort of knot, then keep tight hold of its right ear and left
foot), she took it out in the fresh air. "If I don't take this child
with me," thought Al-ice, "they're sure to kill it in a day or two;
wouldn't it be wrong to leave it here?" She said the last words out
loud, and the child grunt-ed (it had left off sneez-ing by this time).
"Don't grunt," said Al-ice, "that is not at all the right way to do."
The child grunt-ed a-gain and Al-ice looked at its face to see what was
wrong with it. There could be no doubt that it had a turn-up nose, much
more like a snout than a child's nose.
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