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Through
the Looking-Glass
and what Alice
found there
Kapitel 2:
The garden of live flowers, Lewis Carroll, Seite 1 ( von 5 )
"I should see the garden far better," said Alice to herself, "if
I could get to the top of that hill: and here's a path that leads straight to
it - at least, no, it doesn't do that -" (after going a few yards along
the path, and turning several sharp corners), "but I suppose it will at
last. But how curiously it twists! It's more like a corkscrew than a path!
Well, this turn
goes to the hill, I suppose - no, it doesn't! This goes straight back to the
house! Well then, I'll try it the other way."
And so she did: wandering up and down, and trying turn after turn, but always
coming back to the house, do what she would. Indeed, once, when she turned a
corner rather more quickly than usual, she ran against it before she could stop
herself.
"It's no use talking about it," Alice said, looking up at the house
and pretending it was agruing with her. "I'm
not going in
again yet. I know I should have to get through the Looking-glass again - back
into the old room - and there'd be an end of all my adventures!"
So, resolutely turning her back upon the house, she set out once more down the
path, determined to keep straight on till she got to the hill. For a few
minutes all went on well, and she was just saying, "I really
shall do it this
time -" when the path gave a sudden twist and shook itself (as she
described it afterwards), and the next moment she found herself actually
walking in at the door.
"Oh, it's too bad!" she cried. "I never saw such a house for
getting in the way! Never!"
However, there was the hill full in sight, so there was nothing to be done but
start again. This time she came upon a large flowerbed, with a border of
daisies, and a willow-tree growing in the middle.
"O Tiger-lily," said Alice, addressing herself to one that was waving
gracefully about in the wind, "I
wish you could
talk!"
"We can
talk," said the Tiger-lily: "when there's anybody worth talking
to."
Alice was so astonished that she couldn't speak for a minute: it quite seemed
to take her breath away. At length, as the Tiger-lily only went on waving
about, she spoke again, in a timid voice - almost in a whisper. "And can
all the flowers
talk?"
"As well as you can," said
the Tiger-lily. "And a great deal louder."
"It isn't manners for us to begin, you know," said the Rose,
"and I really was wondering when you'd speak! Said I to myself, 'Her face
has got some
sense in it, though it's not a clever one!' Still, you're the right colour, and
that goes a long way."
"I don't care about the colour," the Tiger-lily remarked. "If
only her petals curled up a little more, she'd be all right."
Alice didn't like being criticised, so she began asking questions. "Aren't
you sometimes frightened at being planted out here, with nobody to take care of
you?"
"There's the tree in the middle," said the Rose: "what else is
it good for?"
"But what could it do, if any danger came?" Alice asked.
"It could bark," said the Rose.
"It says 'Bough-wough!'" cried a Daisy: "that's why its branches
are called boughs!"
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