Page:Alice's adventures in Wonderland - (IA alicesadventures00carr 21).djvu/53

Rh "Do what you like," he said.

"Oh, there's no use to try to talk to him," said Al-ice; "he has no sense at all." And she o-pened the door and went in.

The door led right in-to a large room that was full of smoke from end to end: the Duch-ess sat on a stool and held a child in her arms; the cook stood near the fire and stirred a large pot which seemed to be full of soup.

"There's too much pep-per in that soup!" Al-ice said to her-self as well as she could for sneez-ing. There was too much of it in the air, for the Duch-ess sneezed now and then; and as for the child, it sneezed and howled all the time.

A large cat sat on the hearth grin-ning from ear to ear.

"Please, would you tell me," said Al-ice, not quite sure that it was right for her to speak first, "why your cat grins like that?"

"It's a Che-shire cat," said the Duch-ess, "and that's why. Pig!"

She said the last word so loud that Al-ice jumped; but she soon saw that the Duch-ess spoke to the child and not to her, so she went on:

"I didn't know that Che-shire cats grinned; in fact, I didn't know that cats could grin."

"They all can," said the Duch-ess; "and most of 'em do."

"I don't know of an-y that do," Al-ice said, quite pleased to have some one to talk with.