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Through
the Looking-Glass
and what Alice
found there
Kapitel 7:
The lion and the unicorn, Lewis Carroll, Seite 2 ( von 5 )
At this moment the Messenger arrived: he was far too much out of breath to say
a word, and could only wave his hands about, and make the most fearful faces at
the poor King.
"This young lady loves you with an H," the King said, introducing
Alice in the hope of turning off the Messenger's attention from himself - but
it was no use - the Anglo-Saxon attitudes only got more extraordinary every
moment, while the great eyes rolled wildly from side to side.
"You alarm me!" said the King. "I feel faint - Give me a ham
sandwich!"
On which the Messenger, to Alice's great amusement, opened a bag that hung
round his neck, and handed a sandwich to the King, who devoured it greedily.
"Another sandwich!" said the King.
"There's nothing but hay left now," the Messenger said, peeping into
the bag.
"Hay, then," the King murmured in a faint whisper.
Alice was glad to see that it revived him a good deal. "There's nothing
like eating hay when you're faint," he remarked to her, as he munched
away.
"I should think throwing cold water over you would be better," Alice
suggested: "- or some sal-volatile."
"I didn't say there was nothing
better,"
the King replied. "I said there was nothing
like it."
Which Alice did not venture to deny.
"Who did you pass on the road?" the King went on, holding out his
hand to the Messenger for some more hay.
"Nobody," said the Messenger.
"Quite right," said the King: "this young lady saw him too. So
of course Nobody walks slower than you."
"I do my best," the Messenger said in a sullen tone. "I'm sure
nobody walks much faster than I do!"
"He can't do that," said the King, "or else he'd have been here
first. However, now you've got your breath, you may tell us what's happened in
the town."
"I'll whisper it," said the Messenger, putting his hands to his mouth
in the shape of a trumpet, and stooping so as to get close to the King's ear.
Alice was sorry for this, as she wanted to hear the news too. However, instead
of whispering, he simply shouted at the top of his voice "They're at it
again!"
"Do you call that a
whisper?" cried the poor King, jumping up and shaking himself. "If
you do such a thing again, I'll have you buttered! It went through and through
my head like an earthquake!"
"It would have to be a very tiny earthquake!" thought Alice.
"Who are at it again?" she ventured to ask.
"Why, the Lion and the Unicorn, of course," said the King.
"Fighting for the crown?"
"Yes, to be sure," said the King: "and the best of the joke is,
that it's my
crown all the while! Let's run and see them." And they trotted off, Alice
repeated to herself, as she ran, the words of the old song: -
"The Lion and
the Unicorn were fighting for the crown:
The Lion beat the Unicorn all round the town.
Some gave them white bread, some gave them brown;
Some gave them plum-cake and drummed them out of town."
"Does - the one - that wins - get the crown?" she asked, as well as
she could, for the run was putting her quite out of breath.
"Dear me, no!" said the King. "What an idea!"
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