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TURTLES STORY. 137
were taken into custody by the soldiers, who
of course had to leave off being arches to do this,
so that by the end of half an hour or so there
were no arches left, and all the players, except
the King, the Queen, and Alice, were in custody
and under sentence of execution.
Then the Queen left off, quite out of breath, and
said to Alice, “Have you seen the Mock Turtle
yet?”
“No, said Alice. “I don’t even know what
a Mock Turtle is.”
“It's the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made
from,’ said the Queen.
“| never saw one, or heard of one,” said Alice.
“Come on, then,” said the Queen, “and he
shall tell you his history.”
As they walked off together, Alice heard the
King say in a low voice, to the company gene¬
rally, “You are all pardoned.” “Come, that’s a
good thing!” she said to herself, for she had felt
quite unhappy at the number of executions the
Queen had ordered.