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Through
the Looking-Glass
and what Alice
found there
Kapitel 3:
Looking-glass insects, Lewis Carroll, Seite 4 ( von 5 )
"But that must happen very often," Alice remarked thoughtfully.
"It always happens," said the Gnat.
After this, Alice was silent for a minute or two, pondering. The Gnat amused
itself meanwhile by humming round and round her head: at last it settled again
and remarked, "I suppose you don't want to lose your name?"
"No, indeed," Alice said, a little anxiously.
"And yet I don't know," the Gnat went on in a careless tone:
"only think how convenient it would be if you could manage to go home
without it! For instance, if the governess wanted to call you to your lessons,
she would call out 'Come here -,' and there she would have to leave off,
because there wouldn't be any name for her to call, and of course you wouldn't
have to go, you know."
"That would never do, I'm sure," said Alice: "the governess
would never think of excusing me lessons for that. If she couldn't remember my
name, she'd call me 'Miss!' as the servants do."
"Well, if she said 'Miss,' and didn't say anything more," the Gnat
remarked, "of course you'd miss your lessons. That's a joke. I wish
you had made
it."
"Why do you wish
I had made
it?" Alice asked. "It's a very bad one."
But the Gnat only sighed deeply, while two large tears came rolling down its
cheeks.
"You shouldn't make jokes," Alice said, "if it makes you so
unhappy."
Then came another of those melancholy little sighs, and this time the poor Gnat
really seemed to have sighed itself away, for, when Alice looked up, there was
nothing whatever to be seen on the twig, and, as she was getting quite chilly
with sitting still so long, she got up and walked on.
She very soon came to an open field, with a wood on the other side of it: it
looked much darker than the last wood, and Alice felt a
little timid
about going into it. However, on second thoughts, she made up her mind to go
on: "for I certainly won't go
back," she
thought to herself, and this was the only way to the Eighth Square.
"This must be the wood," she said thoughtfully to herself,
"where things have no names. I wonder what'll become of
my name when I
go in? I shouldn't like to lose it at all - because they'd have to give me
another, and it would be almost certain to be an ugly one. But then the fun
would be, trying to find the creature that had got my old name! That's just
like the advertisements, you know, when people lose dogs -
'answers to the name
of "Dash:" had on a brass collar' - just fancy calling everything
you met 'Alice,' till one of them answered! Only they wouldn't answer at all,
if they were wise."
She was rambling on in this way when she reached the wood: it looked very cool
and shady. "Well, at any rate it's a great comfort," she said as she
stepped under the trees, "after being so hot, to get into the - into the -
into what?"
she went on, rather surprised at not being able to think of the word. "I
mean to get under the - under the - under
this, you
know!" putting her hand on the trunk of the tree. "What
does it call
itself, I wonder? I do believe it's got no name - why, to be sure it
hasn't!"
She stood silent for a minute, thinking: then she suddenly began again.
"Then it really has happened, after
all! And now, who am I? I
will remember,
if I can! I'm determined to do it!" But being determined didn't help her
much, and all she could say, after a great deal of puzzling, was, "L, I
know it begins
with L!"
Just then a Fawn came wandering by: it looked at Alice with its large gentle
eyes, but didn't seem at all frightened. "Here then! Here then!"
Alice said, as she held out her hand and tried to stroke it; but it only
started back a little, and then stood looking at her again.
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