CHORUS.
Wow! wow! wow!
Here! you may nurse it a bit, if you like! the Duchess said to Alice,
flinging the baby at her as she spoke. I must go and get ready to play
croquet with the Queen, and she hurried out of the room. The cook
threw a frying-pan after her as she went out, but it just missed her.
Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was a queer-shaped
little creature, and held out its arms and legs in all directions,
just like a star-fish, thought Alice. The poor little thing was
snorting like a steam-engine when she caught it, and kept doubling
itself up and straightening itself out again, so that altogether, for
the first minute or two, it was as much as she could do to hold it.
As soon as she had made out the proper way of nursing it, (which was to
twist it up into a sort of knot, and then keep tight hold of its right
ear and left foot, so as to prevent its undoing itself,) she carried it
out into the open air. If I don t take this child away with me,
thought Alice, they re sure to kill it in a day or two: wouldn t it be
murder to leave it behind? She said the last words out loud, and the
little thing grunted in reply (it had left off sneezing by this time).
Don t grunt, said Alice; that s not at all a proper way of
expressing yourself.
The baby grunted again, and Alice looked very anxiously into its face
to see what was the matter with it. There could be no doubt that it had
a _very_ turn-up nose, much more like a snout than a real nose; also
its eyes were getting extremely small for a baby: altogether Alice did
not like the look of the thing at all. But perhaps it was only
sobbing, she thought, and looked into its eyes again, to see if there
were any tears.
No, there were no tears. If you re going to turn into a pig, my dear,
said Alice, seriously, I ll have nothing more to do with you. Mind
now! The poor little thing sobbed again (or grunted, it was impossible
to say which), and they went on for some while in silence.
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