| |
Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland
Kapitel 12:
Alice's evidence, Lewis Carroll, Seite 1 ( von 4 )
"Here!"cried Alice, quite forgetting in the flurry of the moment how
large she had grown in the last few minutes, and she jumped up in such a hurry
that she tipped over the jury-box with the edge of her skirt, upsetting all the
jurymen on to the heads of the crowd below, and there they lay sprawling about,
reminding her very much of a globe of gold-fish she had accidently upset the
week before.
"Oh, I beg
your pardon!" she exclaimed in a tone of great dismay, and began picking
them up again as quickly as she could, for the accident of the gold-fish kept
running in her head, and she had a vague sort of idea that they must be
collected at once and put back into the jury-box, or they would die.
"The trial cannot proceed," said the King in a very grave voice,
"until all the jurymen are back in their proper places -
all," he
repeated with great emphasis, looking hard at Alice as he said so.
Alice looked at the jury-box, and saw that, in her haste, she had put the
Lizard in head downwards, and the poor little thing was waving its tail about
in a melancholy way, being quite unable to move. She soon got it out again, and
put it right; "not that it signifies much," she said to herself;
"I should think it would be
quite as much
use in the trial one way up as the other."
As soon as the jury had a little recovered from the shock of being upset, and
their slates and pencils had been found and handed back to them, they set to
work very diligently to write out a history of the accident, all except the
Lizard, who seemed too much overcome to do anything out sit with its mouth
open, gazing up into the roof of the court.
"What do you know about this business?" the King said to Alice.
"Nothing," said Alice.
"Nothing whatever?"
persisted the King.
"Nothing whatever," 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
interrupted: "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 hastily said, and went on to himself in an
undertone, "important - unimportant - unimportant - important -" as
if he were trying which word sounded best.
Some of the jury wrote it down "important," and some
"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.
At this moment the King, who had been for some time busily writing in his
note-book, called out "Silence!" and read out from his book,
"Rule Forty-two.
All persons more
than a mile high to leave the court."
Everybody looked at Alice.
"I'm not a
mile high," said Alice.
"You are," said the King.
"Nearly two miles high," added the Queen.
"Well, I shan't go, at any rate," said Alice: "besides, that's
not a regular rule: you invented it just now."
"It's the oldest rule in the book," said the King.
"Then it ought to be Number One," said Alice.
The King turned pale, and shut his note-book hastily. "Consider your
verdict," he said to the jury, in a low trembling voice.
|
|
