The Dor-mouse shook its head, and said with its eyes still closed, "Of
course, of course; just what I want-ed to say my-self."
"Have you guessed the rid-dle yet?" the Hat-ter asked, turn-ing to
Al-ice.
"No, I give it up," she said. "What's the an-swer?"
"I do not know at all," said the Hat-ter.
"Nor I," said the March Hare.
Al-ice sighed. "I think you might do bet-ter with the time than to waste
it, by ask-ing rid-dles that have no an-swers."
"If you knew Time as well as I do, you wouldn't say 'waste _it_.' It's
_him_."
"I don't know what you mean," Al-ice said.
"Of course you don't!" said the Hat-ter with a toss of his head. "I dare
say you nev-er e-ven spoke to Time."
"May-be not," she said, "but I know I have to beat time when I learn to
sing."
"Oh! that's it," said the Hat-ter. "He won't stand beat-ing. Now if you
kept on good terms with him, he would do an-y-thing you liked with the
clock. Say it was nine o'clock, just time to go to school; you'd have
but to give a hint to Time, and round goes the clock! Half-past one,
time for lunch."
"I wish it was," the March Hare said to it-self.
[Illustration]
"That would be grand, I'm sure," said Al-ice: "but then--I shouldn't be
hun-gry for it, you know."
"Not at first, per-haps, but you could keep it to half-past one as long
as you liked," said the Hat-ter.
"Is that the way you do?" asked Al-ice.
The Hat-ter shook his head and sighed.
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