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Through
the Looking-Glass
and what Alice
found there
Kapitel 5:
Wool and water, Lewis Carroll, Seite 2 ( von 6 )
"I'm sure mine only works one
way," Alice remarked. "I can't remember things before they
happen."
"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards," the Queen
remarked.
"What sort of things do
you remember
best?" Alice ventured to ask.
"Oh, things that happened the week after next," the Queen replied in
a careless tone. "For instance, now," she went on, sticking a large
piece of plaster on her finger as she spoke, "there's the King's
Messenger. He's in prison now, being punished: and the trial doesn't even begin
till next Wednesday: and of course the crime comes last of all."
"Suppose he never commits the crime?" said Alice.
"That would be all the better, wouldn't it?" the Queen said, as she
bound the plaster round her finger with a bit of ribbon.
Alice felt there was no denying
that. "Of
course it would be all the better," she said: "but it wouldn't be all
the better his being punished."
"You're wrong there, at any
rate," said the Queen: "were
you ever
punished?"
"Only for faults," said Alice.
"And you were all the better for it, I know!" the Queen said
triumphantly.
"Yes, but then I
had done the
things I was punished for," said Alice: "that makes all the
difference."
"But if you hadn't done
them," the Queen said, "that would have been better still; better,
and better, and better!" Her voice went higher with each
"better," till it got quite to a squeak at last.
Alice was just beginning to say "There's a mistake somewhere -," when
the Queen began screaming, so loud that she had to leave the sentence
unfinished. "Oh, oh, oh!" shouted the Queen, shaking her hand about
as if she wanted to shake it off. "My finger's bleeding! Oh, oh, oh,
oh!"
Her screams were so exactly like the whistle of a steam-engine, that Alice had
to hold both her hands over her ears.
"What is
the matter?" she said, as soon as there was a chance of making herself
heard. "Have you pricked your finger?"
"I haven't pricked it
yet," the
Queen said, "but I soon shall - oh, oh, oh!"
"When do you expect to do it?" Alice asked, feeling very much
inclined to laugh.
"When I fasten my shawl again," the poor Queen groaned out: "the
brooch will come undone directly. Oh, oh!" As she said the words the
brooch flew open, and the Queen clutched wildly at it, and tried to clasp it
again.
"Take care!" cried Alice. "You're holding it all crooked!"
And she caught at the brooch; but it was too late: the pin had slipped, and the
Queen had pricked her finger.
"That accounts for the bleeding, you see," she said to Alice with a
smile. "Now you understand the way things happen here."
"But why don't you scream now?" Alice asked, holding her hands ready
to put over her ears again.
"Why, I've done all the screaming already," said the Queen.
"What would be the good of having it all over again?"
By this time it was getting light. "The crow must have flown away, I
think," said Alice: "I'm so glad it's gone. I thought it was the
night coming on."
"I wish I
could manage to be glad!" the Queen said. "Only I never can remember
the rule. You must be very happy, living in this wood, and being glad whenever
you like!"
"Only it is so very lonely
here!" Alice said in a melancholy voice; and at the thought of her
loneliness two large tears came rolling down her cheeks.
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