there s a dear! And Alice got the Red Queen off the table, and set it
up before the kitten as a model for it to imitate: however, the thing
didn t succeed, principally, Alice said, because the kitten wouldn t
fold its arms properly. So, to punish it, she held it up to the
Looking-glass, that it might see how sulky it was and if you re not
good directly, she added, I ll put you through into Looking-glass
House. How would you like _that_?
Now, if you ll only attend, Kitty, and not talk so much, I ll tell you
all my ideas about Looking-glass House. First, there s the room you can
see through the glass that s just the same as our drawing room, only
the things go the other way. I can see all of it when I get upon a
chair all but the bit behind the fireplace. Oh! I do so wish I could
see _that_ bit! I want so much to know whether they ve a fire in the
winter: you never _can_ tell, you know, unless our fire smokes, and
then smoke comes up in that room too but that may be only pretence,
just to make it look as if they had a fire. Well then, the books are
something like our books, only the words go the wrong way; I know that,
because I ve held up one of our books to the glass, and then they hold
up one in the other room.
How would you like to live in Looking-glass House, Kitty? I wonder if
they d give you milk in there? Perhaps Looking-glass milk isn t good to
drink But oh, Kitty! now we come to the passage. You can just see a
little _peep_ of the passage in Looking-glass House, if you leave the
door of our drawing-room wide open: and it s very like our passage as
far as you can see, only you know it may be quite different on beyond.
Oh, Kitty! how nice it would be if we could only get through into
Looking-glass House! I m sure it s got, oh! such beautiful things in
it! Let s pretend there s a way of getting through into it, somehow,
Kitty. Let s pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we
can get through. Why, it s turning into a sort of mist now, I declare!
It ll be easy enough to get through She was up on the chimney-piece
while she said this, though she hardly knew how she had got there. And
certainly the glass _was_ beginning to melt away, just like a bright
silvery mist.
In another moment Alice was through the glass, and had jumped lightly
down into the Looking-glass room. The very first thing she did was to
look whether there was a fire in the fireplace, and she was quite
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