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Through
the Looking-Glass
and what Alice
found there
Kapitel 12:
Which dreamed it?, Lewis Carroll, Seite 1 ( von 2 )
"Your Red Majesty shouldn't purr so loud," Alice said, rubbing her
eyes, and addressing the kitten, respectfully, yet with some severity.
"You woke me out of oh! such a nice dream! And you've been along with me,
Kitty - all through the Looking-Glass world. Did you know it, dear?"
It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice had once made the remark)
that, whatever you say to them, they
always purr.
"If they would only purr for 'yes,' and mew for 'no,' or any rule of that
sort," she had said, "so that one could keep up a conversation! But
how can you talk
with a person if they always say the same thing?"
On this occasion the kitten only purred: and it was impossible to guess whether
it meant 'yes' or 'no.'
So Alice hunted among the chessmen on the table till she had found the Red
Queen: then she went down on her knees on the hearth-rug, and put the kitten
and the Queen to look at each other. "Now, Kitty!" she cried,
clapping her hands triumphantly. "Confess that was what you turned
into!"
("But it wouldn't look at it," she said, when she was explaining the
thing afterwards to her sister: "it turned away its head, and pretended
not to see it: but it looked a
little ashamed
of itself, so I think it
must have been
the Red Queen.")
"Sit up a little more stiffly, dear!" Alice cried with a merry laugh.
"And curtsey while you're thinking what to - what to purr. It saves time,
remember!" And she caught it up and gave it one litlle kiss," just in
honour of its having been a Red Queen."
"Snowdrop, my pet!" she went on, looking over her shoulder at the
White Kitten, which was still patiently undergoing its toilet, "when
will Dinah have
finished with your White Majesty, I wonder? That must be the reason you were so
untidy in my dream. - Dinah! Do you know that you're scrubbing a White Queen?
Really, it's most disrespectful of you!
"And what did Dinah turn to, I
wonder?" she prattled on, as she settled comfortably down, with one elbow
on the rug, and her chin in her hand, to watch the kittens. "Tell me,
Dinah, did you turn to Humpty Dumpty? I
think you did -
however, you'd better not mention it to your friends just yet, for I'm not
sure.
"By the way, Kitty, if only you'd been really with me in my dream, there
was one thing you would have enjoyed
- I had such a quantity of poetry said to me, all about fishes! To-morrow
morning you shall have a real treat. All the time you're eating your breakfast,
I'll repeat 'The Walrus and the Carpenter' to you; and then you can make
believe it's oysters, dear!
"Now, Kitty, let's consider who it was that dreamed it all. This is a
serious question, my dear, and you should
not go on
licking your paw like that - as if Dinah hadn't washed you this morning! You
see, Kitty, it must have been
either me or the Red King. He was part of my dream, of course - but then I was
part of his dream, too!
Was it the Red
King, Kitty? You were his wife, my dear, so you ought to know - Oh, Kitty,
do help to
settle it! I'm sure your paw can wait!" But the provoking kitten only
began on the other paw, and pretended it hadn't heard the question.
Which do you
think it was?
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