It turned into a pig, Alice quietly said, just as if it had come back
in a natural way.
I thought it would, said the Cat, and vanished again.
Alice waited a little, half expecting to see it again, but it did not
appear, and after a minute or two she walked on in the direction in
which the March Hare was said to live. I ve seen hatters before, she
said to herself; the March Hare will be much the most interesting, and
perhaps as this is May it won t be raving mad at least not so mad as it
was in March. As she said this, she looked up, and there was the Cat
again, sitting on a branch of a tree.
Did you say pig, or fig? said the Cat.
I said pig, replied Alice; and I wish you wouldn t keep appearing
and vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy.
All right, said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly,
beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which
remained some time after the rest of it had gone.
Well! I ve often seen a cat without a grin, thought Alice; but a
grin without a cat! It s the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!
She had not gone much farther before she came in sight of the house of
the March Hare: she thought it must be the right house, because the
chimneys were shaped like ears and the roof was thatched with fur. It
was so large a house, that she did not like to go nearer till she had
nibbled some more of the lefthand bit of mushroom, and raised herself
to about two feet high: even then she walked up towards it rather
timidly, saying to herself Suppose it should be raving mad after all!
I almost wish I d gone to see the Hatter instead!
CHAPTER VII.
A Mad Tea-Party
39