were carefully rolled up, and the little arms were plunged in
elbow-deep to get the rushes a good long way down before breaking them
off and for a while Alice forgot all about the Sheep and the knitting,
as she bent over the side of the boat, with just the ends of her
tangled hair dipping into the water while with bright eager eyes she
caught at one bunch after another of the darling scented rushes.
I only hope the boat won t tipple over! she said to herself. Oh,
_what_ a lovely one! Only I couldn t quite reach it. And it certainly
_did_ seem a little provoking ( almost as if it happened on purpose,
she thought) that, though she managed to pick plenty of beautiful
rushes as the boat glided by, there was always a more lovely one that
she couldn t reach.
The prettiest are always further! she said at last, with a sigh at
the obstinacy of the rushes in growing so far off, as, with flushed
cheeks and dripping hair and hands, she scrambled back into her place,
and began to arrange her new-found treasures.
What mattered it to her just then that the rushes had begun to fade,
and to lose all their scent and beauty, from the very moment that she
picked them? Even real scented rushes, you know, last only a very
little while and these, being dream-rushes, melted away almost like
snow, as they lay in heaps at her feet but Alice hardly noticed this,
there were so many other curious things to think about.
They hadn t gone much farther before the blade of one of the oars got
fast in the water and _wouldn t_ come out again (so Alice explained it
afterwards), and the consequence was that the handle of it caught her
under the chin, and, in spite of a series of little shrieks of Oh, oh,
oh! from poor Alice, it swept her straight off the seat, and down
among the heap of rushes.
However, she wasn t hurt, and was soon up again: the Sheep went on with
her knitting all the while, just as if nothing had happened. That was
a nice crab you caught! she remarked, as Alice got back into her
place, very much relieved to find herself still in the boat.
Was it? I didn t see it, Said Alice, peeping cautiously over the side
of the boat into the dark water. I wish it hadn t let go I should so
50