Page:Alice's adventures in Wonderland - (IA alicesadventures00carr 21).djvu/64

54 "May-be not," she said, "but I know I have to beat time when I learn to sing."

"Oh! that's it," said the Hat-ter. "He won't stand beat-ing. Now if you kept on good terms with him, he would do an-y-thing you liked with the clock. Say it was nine o'clock, just time to go to school; you'd have but to give a hint to Time, and round goes the clock! Half-past one, time for lunch."

"I wish it was," the March Hare said to it-self.

"That would be grand, I'm sure," said Al-ice: "but then—I shouldn't be hun-gry for it, you know."

"Not at first, per-haps, but you could keep it to half-past one as long as you liked," said the Hat-ter.

"Is that the way you do?" asked Al-ice.

The Hat-ter shook his head and sighed. "Not I," he said. "Time and I fell out last March. It was at the great con-cert giv-en by the Queen of Hearts and I had to sing:

Twin-kle, twin-kle, lit-tle bat! How I wonder what you're at!'

You know the song, per-haps?"