"Not I," he said. "Time and I
fell out last March. It was at the great con-cert giv-en by the Queen of
Hearts and I had to sing:
'Twin-kle, twin-kle, lit-tle bat!
How I wonder what you're at!'
You know the song, per-haps?"
"I've heard some-thing like it," said Alice.
"It goes on, you know," the Hat-ter said, "in this way:
'Up a-bove the world you fly,
Like a tea-tray in the sky,
Twin-kle, twin-kle----'"
Here the Dor-mouse shook it-self and sang in its sleep, "twin-kle,
twin-kle, twin-kle, twin-kle----" and went on so long that they had to
pinch it to make it stop.
"Well, while I sang the first verse," the Hat-ter went on, "the Queen
bawled out 'See how he mur-ders the time! Off with his head!' And ev-er
since that, he won't do a thing I ask! It's al-ways six o'clock now."
A bright thought came in-to Al-ice's head. "Is that why so man-y tea
things are put out here?" she asked.
"Yes, that's it," said the Hat-ter with a sigh: "it's al-ways tea-time,
and we've no time to wash the things."
"Then you keep mov-ing round, I guess," said Al-ice.
"Just so," said the Hat-ter; "as the things get used up."
"But when you come to the place where you started, what do you do then?"
Al-ice dared to ask.
"I'm tired of this," yawned the March Hare. "I vote you tell us a tale."
"_I_ fear I don't know one," said Al-ice.
"I want a clean cup," spoke up the Hat-ter.
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