LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter 3

      Looking-Glass Insects

      Alice wanted to go to the Third Square. So she ran down the hill and got on a train.

      “Tickets, please!” said the Guard. “Now then! Show your ticket, child!” the Guard went on, looking angrily at Alice.

      “I haven’t got a ticket,” Alice said, “there wasn’t a ticket-office [16]where I came from.”

      “Don’t make excuses[17],” said the Guard.

      He was looking at her, first through a telescope, then through a microscope, and then through an opera-glass[18]. At last he said, “You’re travelling the wrong way,” and went away.

      “A child,” said the gentleman sitting next to her (he was dressed in white paper), “should know which way she’s going, even if she doesn’t know her own name!”

      A Goat, that was sitting next to the gentleman, said in a loud voice, “She has to know her way to the ticket-office, even if she doesn’t know her alphabet!”

      And after that other voices went on, “She must go by post …”, “She must be sent as a message by the telegraph …” and so on.

      Alice began. “I was in a wood just now, and I wish I could get back there.”

      But at that moment there was a shrill scream from the engine[19], and everybody jumped up.

      The Horse said, “It’s only a brook and we have to jump it over.” Alice was nervous. In another moment the carriage rose up into the air …

      And the next moment she was sitting under a tree with the Gnat [20]from the train. It was sitting on a branch over her head. It was an enormous Gnat. “About the size of a chicken,” Alice thought.

      “You don’t like insects?” the Gnat asked.

      “I like them when they can talk,” Alice said. “They don’t talk, where I come from.”

      “What kind of insects do you like from where you come from?” the Gnat asked.

      “I don’t like them at all,” Alice explained, “because I’m afraid of them … at least the large kinds. But I can tell you the names of some of them.”

      “Do they answer to their names?” the Gnat asked.

      “I don’t know …”

      “What’s the use of having names[21]” the Gnat said, “if they won’t answer to them?”

      “It’s useful to the people who name them. If not, why do things have names at all?”

      “I can’t say,” the Gnat said. “Here they’ve got no names.”

      After this, Alice was silent for a minute or two. The Gnat asked, “I think you don’t want to lose your name.”

      “No, I don’t,” Alice said. She was a little nervous.

      “Only think how nice it would be if you could go home without a name! For example, if the governess wanted to call you to your lessons, she would say “come here … ,” and there she would have to stop, because she didn’t know your name, and of course you wouldn’t have to go, you know.”

      “That would never happen, I’m sure,” said Alice. “If she couldn’t remember my name, she’d call me ‘Miss!’.”

      “Well, if she said ‘Miss,’ and didn’t say anything more,” the Gnat said, “of course you’d miss [22]your lessons. That’s a joke.”

      Alice looked up, but the Gnat wasn’t there! Alice got up and walked on.

      Soon she came to an open field, with a wood on the other side: it looked much darker than the last wood, and Alice was a little afraid. However, she decided to go on. This was the only way to the Eighth Square.

      “Maybe this is the wood,” she said to herself, “where things have no names. I wonder what’ll become of my name when I go in?”

      She reached the wood. It was very cool there. Once in the wood, she suddenly realized that she forgot her name!

      Just then a Fawn [23]came out. It looked at Alice with its large gentle eyes. It wasn’t frightened.

      “What’s your name?” the Fawn said at last.

      “I wish I knew!” thought poor Alice. She answered, rather sadly, “I don’t know.”

      “Think again,” it said, “that won’t do[24].”

      Alice thought, but nothing came of it. “Please, would you tell me what is your name?” she said. “I think it can help me.”

      “I’ll tell you, but not here,” the Fawn said. “I can’t remember.”

      So they walked on together through the wood. They came out into another field, and here the Fawn said, “I’m a Fawn! And you’re a human child!” and in another moment it ran away.

      Alice stood looking after it. “I know my name now.” she said, “Alice … Alice … I won’t forget it again! And now, which way should I go?”

      It was not very difficult, because there was only one road through the wood. She went on and on, but then she saw two finger-posts [25]which were pointing the same way. One was marked “To Tweedledum’s house and the other “To the house of Tweedledee. “I think,” said Alice at last, “that they live in the same house!” So she went on, till she saw two fat little men. It was so sudden! But in another moment she understood that they were Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

      Exercises

      1. Choose the right statement:

      1. Alice didn’t like the Fawn.

      2. Alice lost her ticket to the train.

      3. Alice forgot her name in the wood.

      4. Alice loved the insects very much.