"Fool!" said the Queen with a toss of her head; then she turned to
Al-ice and asked, "What's your name, child?"
"My name is Al-ice, so please your ma-jes-ty," said Al-ice, but she
thought to her-self, "Why they're a mere pack of cards. I need have no
fears of them."
"And who are these?" asked the Queen, as she point-ed to the three men
who still lay round the rose tree; for you see as they all lay on their
faces and their backs were the same as the rest of the pack, she could
not tell who they were.
"How should I know?" said Al-ice, and thought it strange that she should
speak to a Queen in that way.
The Queen turned red with rage, glared at her for a mo-ment like a wild
beast, then screamed, "Off with her head! Off--"
"Non-sense!" said Al-ice, in a loud, firm voice, and the Queen said no
more.
The King laid his hand on the Queen's arm and said, "Think, my dear, she
is but a child!"
The Queen turned from him with a scowl and said to the Knave, "Turn them
o-ver!"
The Knave did so, with one foot.
"Get up!" said the Queen in a shrill loud voice, and the three men
jumped up, at once, and bowed to the King, and Queen and to the whole
crowd.
"Leave off that!" screamed the Queen; "you make me gid-dy." Then she
turned to the rose tree and asked, "What have you been do-ing here?"
"May it please your ma-jes-ty," said Two, and went down on one knee as
he spoke, "we were try-ing--"
"I see!" said the Queen, who in the mean time had seen that some of the
ros-es were paint-ed red and some were still white.
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