Oldal 143 [143]
CROQUET-GROUND. 127
doesn’t matter much,” thought Alice, “as all the
arches are gone from this side of the ground.”
So she tucked it away under her arm, that it
might not escape again, and went back to have
a little more conversation with her friend.
When she got back to the Cheshire Cat, she
was surprised to find quite a large crowd col¬
lected round it: there was a dispute going on
between the executioner, the King, and the
Queen, who were all talking at once, while all
the rest were quite silent, and looked very "
uncomfortable.
The moment Alice appeared, she was appealed
to by all three to settle the question, and they
repeated their arguments to her, though, as they
all spoke at once, she found it very hard to
make out exactly what they said.
The executioners argument was, that you
couldnt cut off a head unless there was a body
to cut it off from: that he had never had to
do such a thing before, and he wasn’t going to
begin at fis time of life.