Alice was just beginning to think to herself, Now, what am I to do
with this creature when I get it home? when it grunted again, so
violently, that she looked down into its face in some alarm. This time
there could be _no_ mistake about it: it was neither more nor less than
a pig, and she felt that it would be quite absurd for her to carry it
further.
So she set the little creature down, and felt quite relieved to see it
trot away quietly into the wood. If it had grown up, she said to
herself, it would have made a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes
rather a handsome pig, I think. And she began thinking over other
children she knew, who might do very well as pigs, and was just saying
to herself, if one only knew the right way to change them when she
was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of
a tree a few yards off.
The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she
thought: still it had _very_ long claws and a great many teeth, so she
felt that it ought to be treated with respect.
Cheshire Puss, she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know
whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little
wider. Come, it s pleased so far, thought Alice, and she went on.
Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
That depends a good deal on where you want to get to, said the Cat.
I don t much care where said Alice.
Then it doesn t matter which way you go, said the Cat.
so long as I get _somewhere_, Alice added as an explanation.
Oh, you re sure to do that, said the Cat, if you only walk long
enough.
Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another
question. What sort of people live about here?
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