bow, not knowing whether to be frightened or amused.
May I give you a slice? she said, taking up the knife and fork, and
looking from one Queen to the other.
Certainly not, the Red Queen said, very decidedly: it isn t
etiquette to cut any one you ve been introduced to. Remove the joint!
And the waiters carried it off, and brought a large plum-pudding in its
place.
I won t be introduced to the pudding, please, Alice said rather
hastily, or we shall get no dinner at all. May I give you some?
But the Red Queen looked sulky, and growled Pudding Alice;
Alice Pudding. Remove the pudding! and the waiters took it away so
quickly that Alice couldn t return its bow.
However, she didn t see why the Red Queen should be the only one to
give orders, so, as an experiment, she called out Waiter! Bring back
the pudding! and there it was again in a moment like a
conjuring-trick. It was so large that she couldn t help feeling a
_little_ shy with it, as she had been with the mutton; however, she
conquered her shyness by a great effort and cut a slice and handed it
to the Red Queen.
What impertinence! said the Pudding. I wonder how you d like it, if
I were to cut a slice out of _you_, you creature!
It spoke in a thick, suety sort of voice, and Alice hadn t a word to
say in reply: she could only sit and look at it and gasp.
Make a remark, said the Red Queen: it s ridiculous to leave all the
conversation to the pudding!
Do you know, I ve had such a quantity of poetry repeated to me
to-day, Alice began, a little frightened at finding that, the moment
she opened her lips, there was dead silence, and all eyes were fixed
upon her; and it s a very curious thing, I think every poem was about
fishes in some way. Do you know why they re so fond of fishes, all
about here?
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