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Through
the Looking-Glass
and what Alice
found there
Kapitel 3:
Looking-glass insects, Lewis Carroll, Seite 2 ( von 5 )
"So young a child," said the gentleman sitting opposite to her, (he
was dressed in white paper,) "ought to know which way she's going, even if
she doesn't know her own name!"
A Goat, that was sitting next to the gentleman in white, shut his eyes and said
in a loud voice, "She ought to know her way to the ticket-office, even if
she doesn't know her alphabet!"
There was a Beetle sitting next the Goat (it was a very queer carriage-full of
passengers altogether), and, as the rule seemed to be that they should all
speak in turn, he went on with
"She'll have to go back from here as luggage!"
Alice couldn't see who was sitting beyond the Beetle, but a hoarse voice spoke
next. "Change engines -" it said, and there it choked and was obliged
to leave off.
"It sounds like a horse," Alice thought to herself. And an extremely
small voice, close to her ear, said,
"You might make
a joke on that - something about 'horse' and 'hoarse', you know."
Then a very gentle voice in the distance said, "She must be labelled
'Lass, with care,' you know -"
And after that other voices went on ("What a number of people there are in
the carriage!" thought Alice), saying, "She must go by post, as she's
got a head on her -" "She must be sent as a message by the telegraph
-" "She must draw the train herself the rest of the way -," and
so on.
But the gentleman dressed in white paper leaned forwards and whispered in her
ear, "Never mind what they all say, my dear, but take a return-ticket
every time the train stops."
"Indeed I shan't!" Alice said rather impatiently. "I don't
belong to this railway journey at all - I was in a wood just now - and I wish I
could get back there!"
"You might make
a joke on that," said the little voice close to her ear:
"something
about 'you would if you could,' you know."
"Don't tease so," said Alice, looking about in vain to see where the
voice came from; "if you're so anxious to have a joke made, why don't you
make one yourself?"
The little voice sighed deeply: it was
very unhappy,
evidently, and Alice would have said something pitying to comfort it, "if
it would only sigh like other people!" she thought. But this was such a
wonderfully small sigh, that she wouldn't have heard it at all, if it hadn't
come quite close
to her ear. The consequence of this was that it tickled her ear very much, and
quite took off her thoughts from the unhappiness of the poor little creature.
"I know you are
a friend," the little voice went on;
"a dear friend,
and an old friend. And you won't hurt me, though I am an insect."
"What kind of insect?" Alice inquired a little anxiously. What she
really wanted to know was, whether it could sting or not, but she thought this
wouldn't be quite a civil question to ask.
"What, then you
don't -" the little voice began, when it was drowned by a shrill
scream from the engine, and everybody jumped up in alarm, Alice among the rest.
The Horse, who had put his head out of the window, quietly drew it in and said,
"It's only a brook we have to jump over." Everybody seemed satisfied
with this, though Alice felt a little nervous at the idea of trains jumping at
all. "However, it'll take us into the Fourth Square, that's some
comfort!" she said to herself. In another moment she felt the carriage
rise straight up into the air, and in her fright she caught at the thing
nearest to her hand, which happend to be the Goat's beard.
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