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Through
the Looking-Glass
and what Alice
found there
Kapitel 8:
"It's my own invention", Lewis Carroll, Seite 2 ( von 8 )
"Thank you very much," said Alice. "May I help you off with your
helmet?" It was evidently more than he could manage by himself; however
she managed to shake him out of it at last.
"Now one can breathe more easily," said the Knight, putting back his
shaggy hair with both hands, and turning his gentle face and large mild eyes to
Alice. She thought she had never seen such a strange-looking soldier in all her
life.
He was dressed in tin armour, which seemed to fit him very badly, and he had a
queer-shaped little deal box fastened across his shoulders, upside-down, and
with the lid hanging open. Alice looked at it with great curiosity.
"I see you're admiring my little box," the Knight said in a friendly
tone. "It's my own invention - to keep clothes and sandwiches in. You see
I carry it upside-down, so that the rain can't get in."
"But the things can get
out," Alice
gently remarked. "Do you know the lid's open?"
"I didn't know it," the Knight said, a shade of vexation passing over
his face. "Then all the things must have fallen out! And the box is no use
without them." He unfastened it as he spoke, and was just going to throw
it into the bushes, when a sudden thought seemed to stike him, and he hung it
carefully on a tree. "Can you guess why I did that?" he said to
Alice.
Alice shook her head.
"In hopes some bees may make a nest in it - then I should get the
honey."
"But you've got a bee-hive - or something like one - fastened to the
saddle," said Alice.
"Yes, it's a very good bee-hive," the Knight said in a discontented
tone, "one of the best kind. But not a single bee has come near it yet.
And the other thing is a mouse-trap. I suppose the mice keep the bees out - or
the bees keep the mice out, I don't know which."
"I was wondering what the mouse-trap was for," said Alice. "It
isn't very likely there would be any mice on the horse's back."
"Not very likely, perhaps," said the Knight; "but if they
do come, I don't
choose to have them running all about."
"You see," he went on after a pause, "it's as well to be
provided for everything. That's
the reason the horse has all those anklets round his feet."
"But what are they for?" Alice asked in a tone of great curiosity.
"To guard against the bites of sharks," the Knight replied.
"It's an invention of my own. And now help me on. I'll go with you to the
end of the wood - What's that dish for?"
"It's meant for plum-cake," said Alice.
"We'd better take it with us," the Knight said. "It'll come in
handy if we find any plum-cake. Help me to get it into this bag."
This took a long time to manage, though Alice held the bag open very carefully,
because the Knight was so
very awkward in
putting in the dish: the first two or three times that he tried he fell in
himself instead. "It's rather a tight fit, you see," he said, as they
got it in at last; "there are so many candlesticks in the bag." And
he hung it to the saddle, which was already loaded with bunches of carrots, and
fire-irons, and many other things.
"I hope you've got your hair well fastened on?" he continued, as they
set off.
"Only in the usual way," Alice said, smiling.
"That's hardly enough," he said, anxiously. "You see the wind is
so very strong
here. It's as strong as soup."
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