The Queen's Croquet-Ground 

A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily painting them red. Alice thought this a very curious thing, and she went nearer to watch them, and just as she came up to them she heard one of them say, `Look out now, Five! Don't go splashing paint over me like that!'

`I couldn't help it,' said Five, in a sulky tone; `Seven jogged my elbow.'

On which Seven looked up and said, `That's right, Five! Always lay the blame on others!'

`YOU'D better not talk!' said Five. `I heard the Queen say only yesterday you deserved to be beheaded!'

`What for?' said the one who had spoken first.

`That's none of YOUR business, Two!' said Seven.

`Yes, it IS his business!' said Five, `and I'll tell him--it was for bringing the cook tulip-roots instead of onions.'

Seven flung down his brush, and had just begun `Well, of all the unjust things--' when his eye chanced to fall upon Alice, as she stood watching them, and he checked himself suddenly: the others looked round also, and all of them bowed low.

`Would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, `why you are painting those roses?'

Five and Seven said nothing, but looked at Two. Two began in a low voice, `Why the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to have been a RED rose-tree, and we put a white one in by mistake; and if the Queen was to find it out, we should all have our heads cut off, you know. So you see, Miss, we're doing our best, afore she comes, to--' At this moment Five, who had been anxiously looking across the garden, called out `The Queen! The Queen!' and the three gardeners instantly threw themselves flat upon their faces. There was a sound of many footsteps, and Alice looked round, eager to see the Queen.

First came ten soldiers carrying clubs; these were all shaped like the three gardeners, oblong and flat, with their hands and feet at the corners: next the ten courtiers; these were ornamented² all over with diamonds, and walked two and two, as the soldiers did. After these came the royal children; there were ten of them, and the little dears came jumping merrily along hand in hand, in couples: they were all ornamented with hearts. Next came the guests, mostly Kings and Queens, and among them Alice recognised the White Rabbit: it was talking in a hurried nervous manner, smiling at everything that was said, and went by without noticing her. Then followed the Knave³ of Hearts, carrying the King's crown on a crimson⁴ velvet⁵ cushion; and, last of all this grand procession, came THE KING AND QUEEN OF HEARTS.

Alice was rather doubtful whether she ought not to lie down on her face like the three gardeners, but she could not remember ever having heard of such a rule at processions; `and besides, what would be the use of a procession,' thought she, `if people had all to lie down upon their faces, so that they couldn't see it?' So she stood still where she was, and waited.

When the procession came opposite to Alice, they all stopped and looked at her, and the Queen said severely⁶ `Who is this?' She said it to the Knave of Hearts, who only bowed and smiled in reply.

`Idiot!' said the Queen, tossing her head impatiently; and, turning to Alice, she went on, `What's your name, child?'

`My name is Alice, so please your Majesty<sup>7</sup>,' said Alice very politely; but she added, to herself, `Why, they're only a pack of cards, after all. I needn't be afraid of them!'

`And who are THESE?' said the Queen, pointing to the three gardeners who were lying round the rosetree; for, you see, as they were lying on their faces, and the pattern on their backs was the same as the rest of the pack, she could not tell whether they were gardeners, or soldiers, or courtiers, or three of her own children.

`How should I know?' said Alice, surprised at her own courage. `It's no business of MINE.'

The Queen turned crimson with fury, and, after glaring at her for a moment like a wild beast, screamed `Off with her head! Off--'

`Nonsense!' said Alice, very loudly and decidedly, and the Queen was silent.

The King laid his hand upon her arm, and timidly said `Consider, my dear: she is only a child!'

The Queen turned angrily away from him, and said to the Knave `Turn them over!'

The Knave did so, very carefully, with one foot.

`Get up!' said the Queen, in a shrill⁸, loud voice, and the three gardeners instantly jumped up, and began bowing to the King, the Queen, the royal children, and everybody else.

`Leave off that!' screamed the Queen. `You make me giddy.' And then, turning to the rose-tree, she went on, `What HAVE you been doing here?'

`May it please your Majesty,' said Two, in a very humble<sup>9</sup> tone, going down on one knee as he spoke<sup>1</sup>, `we were trying--'

`I see!' said the Queen, who had meanwhile been examining the roses. `Off with their heads!' and the procession moved on, three of the soldiers remaining behind to execute the unfortunate gardeners, who ran to Alice for protection.

`You shan't be beheaded!' said Alice, and she put them into a large flower-pot that stood near. The three soldiers wandered about for a minute or two, looking for them, and then quietly marched off after the others.

`Are their heads off?' shouted the Queen.

`Their heads are gone, if it please your Majesty!' the soldiers shouted in reply.

`That's right!' shouted the Queen. `Can you play croquet?'

The soldiers were silent, and looked at Alice, as the question was evidently meant for her.

`Yes!' shouted Alice.

`Come on, then!' roared the Queen, and Alice joined the procession, wondering very much what would happen next.

`It's--it's a very fine day!' said a timid voice at her side. She was walking by the White Rabbit, who was peeping anxiously into her face.

`Very,' said Alice: `--where's the Duchess?'

`Hush<sup>10</sup>! Hush!' said the Rabbit in a low, hurried tone. He looked anxiously over his shoulder as he spoke, and then raised himself upon tiptoe, put his mouth close to her ear, and whispered `She's under sentence of execution.'

`What for?' said Alice.

`Did you say "What a pity!"?' the Rabbit asked.

`No, I didn't,' said Alice: `I don't think it's at all a pity. I said "What for?"'

`She boxed the Queen's ears--' the Rabbit began. Alice gave a little scream of laughter. `Oh, hush!' the Rabbit whispered in a frightened tone. `The Queen will hear you! You see, she came rather late, and the Queen said--'

`Get to your places!' shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder, and people began running about in all directions, tumbling up against each other; however, they got settled down in a minute or two, and the game began. Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges¹² and furrows¹⁴; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.

The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo¹⁵: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it WOULD twist itself round and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge¹¹ or furrow¹³ in the way wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed.

The players all played at once without waiting for turns, quarrelling all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and shouting `Off with his head!' or `Off with her head!' about once in a minute.

Alice began to feel very uneasy: to be sure, she had not as yet had any dispute with the Queen, but she knew that it might happen any minute, `and then,' thought she, `what would become of me? They're dreadfully fond of beheading people here; the great wonder is, that there's any one left alive!'

She was looking about for some way of escape, and wondering whether she could get away without being seen, when she noticed a curious appearance in the air: it puzzled her very much at first, but, after watching it a minute or two, she made it out to be a grin, and she said to herself `It's the Cheshire Cat: now I shall have somebody to talk to.'

`How are you getting on?' said the Cat, as soon as there was mouth enough for it to speak with.

Alice waited till the eyes appeared, and then nodded. `It's no use speaking to it,' she thought, `till its ears have come, or at least one of them.' In another minute the whole head appeared, and then Alice put down her flamingo, and began an account of the game, feeling very glad she had someone to listen to her. The Cat seemed to think that there was enough of it now in sight, and no more of it appeared.

`I don't think they play at all fairly,' Alice began, in rather a complaining tone, `and they all quarrel so dreadfully one can't hear oneself speak--and they don't seem to have any rules in particular; at least, if there are, nobody attends to them--and you've no idea how confusing it is all the things being alive; for instance, there's the arch I've got to go through next walking about at the other end of the ground--and I should have croqueted the Queen's hedgehog just now, only it ran away when it saw mine coming!'

`How do you like the Queen?' said the Cat in a low voice.

`Not at all,' said Alice: `she's so extremely--' Just then she noticed that the Queen was close behind her, listening: so she went on, `--likely to win, that it's hardly worth while finishing the game.'

The Queen smiled and passed on.

`Who ARE you talking to?' said the King, going up to Alice, and looking at the Cat's head with great curiosity.

`It's a friend of mine--a Cheshire Cat,' said Alice: `allow me to introduce it.'

`I don't like the look of it at all,' said the King: `however, it may kiss my hand if it likes.'

`I'd rather not,' the Cat remarked.

`Don't be impertinent,' said the King, `and don't look at me like that!' He got behind Alice as he spoke.

`A cat may look at a king,' said Alice. `I've read that in some book, but I don't remember where.'

`Well, it must be removed,' said the King very decidedly, and he called the Queen, who was passing at the moment, `My dear! I wish you would have this cat removed!'

The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. `Off with his head!' she said, without even looking round.

`I'll fetch the executioner myself,' said the King eagerly, and he hurried off.

Alice thought she might as well go back, and see how the game was going on, as she heard the Queen's voice in the distance, screaming with passion. She had already heard her sentence three of the players to be executed for having missed their turns, and she did not like the look of things at all, as the game was in such confusion that she never knew whether it was her turn or not. So she went in search of her hedgehog.

The hedgehog was engaged in a fight with another hedgehog, which seemed to Alice an excellent opportunity for croqueting one of them with the other: the only difficulty was, that her flamingo was gone across to the other side of the garden, where Alice could see it trying in a helpless sort of way to fly up into a tree.

By the time she had caught the flamingo and brought it back, the fight was over, and both the hedgehogs were out of sight: `but it 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 for a little more conversation with her friend.

When she got back to the Cheshire Cat, she was surprised to find quite a large crowd collected 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 indeed to make out exactly what they said.

The executioner's argument was, that you couldn't 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 HIS time of life.

The King's argument was, that anything that had a head could be beheaded, and that you weren't to talk nonsense.

The Queen's argument was, that if something wasn't done about it in less than no time she'd have everybody executed, all round. (It was this last remark that had made the whole party look so grave and anxious.)

Alice could think of nothing else to say but `It belongs to the Duchess: you'd better ask HER about it.'

`She's in prison,' the Queen said to the executioner: `fetch her here.' And the executioner went off like an arrow.

The Cat's head began fading away the moment he was gone, and, by the time he had come back with the Dutchess, it had entirely¹⁶ disappeared; so the King and the executioner ran wildly up and down looking for it, while the rest of the party went back to the game.

靠近花园门口有一棵大玫瑰树，花是白色的，三个园丁正忙着把白花染红。爱丽丝觉得很奇怪，走过去想看看。当她正朝他们走过去的时候，其中一个人说：“小心点，老五！别这样把颜料溅到我身上。”
“不是我不小心，”老五生气地说，“是老七碰了我的胳膊。”

这时老七抬起头说：“得啦！老五，你老是把责任推给别人。”
“你最好别多说了，”老五说，“我昨天刚听王后说，你该受斩头的惩罚！”

“为什么？”第一个说话的人问。
“这与你无关，老二！”老七说。
“不，与他有关！”老五说，“我要告诉他——这是由于你没给厨师拿去洋葱，而拿去了郁金香根！”

老七扔掉了手上的刷子说，“哦，说起不公平的事……”他突然看到了爱丽丝，爱丽丝正站着注视他们呢。他随即不说了，那两个也回过头来看。然后三人都深深地鞠了一躬。

“请你们告诉我，”爱丽丝胆怯地说，“为什么染玫瑰花呢？”

老五和老七都望着老二，老二低声说：“哦，小姐，你知道，这里应该种红玫瑰的，我们弄错了，种了白玫瑰，如果王后发现，我们全都得被杀头。小姐，你看，我们正在尽最大努力，要在王后驾临前，把……”就在这时，一直在焦虑地张望的老五，突然喊道：“王后！王后！”这三个园丁立即脸朝下地趴下了。这时传来了许多脚步声，爱丽丝好奇地审视着，想看看王后。

首先，来了十个手拿狼牙棒的士兵，他们的样子全都和三个园丁一样，都是长方形的平板，手和脚长在板的四角上。接着来了十名侍臣，这些人全都用钻石装饰着，像那些士兵一样，两个两个并排着走。侍臣的后面是王室的孩子们，这些可爱的小家伙，一对对手拉着手愉快地跳着跑来了，他们全都用红心（红心和侍臣的钻石，士兵的狼牙棒，是纸牌中的三种花色。即：红桃、方块、草花，英文原意为红心、钻石、棒子。）装饰着。后面是宾客，大多数宾客也是国王和王后。在那些宾客中，爱丽丝认出了那只白兔，它正慌忙而神经质地说着话，对别人说的话都点头微笑，却没注意到爱丽丝。接着，是个红心武士，双手托着放在紫红色垫子上的王冠。这庞大的队伍之后，才是红心国王和王后。

爱丽丝不知道该不该像那三个园丁那样，脸朝地的趴下，她根本不记得王室行列经过时，还有这么一个规矩。“人们都脸朝下趴着，谁来看呢？这样，这个行列有什么用呢？”也这样想着，仍站在那里，等着瞧。

队伍走到爱丽丝面前时，全都停下来注视着她。王后严厉地问红心武上：“这是谁呀！”红心武士只是用鞠躬和微笑作为回答。

“傻瓜！”王后不耐烦地摇摇头说，然后向爱丽丝问道：“你叫什么名字？小孩？”
“我叫爱丽丝，陛下。”爱丽丝很有礼貌地说，可她又自己嘀咕了句：“哼！说来说去，他们只不过是一副纸牌，用不着怕他们！”
“他们是谁呢？”皇后指着三个园丁问。那三个园丁围着一株玫瑰趴着，背上的图案同这副纸牌的其他成员一样，看不出这三个是园丁呢？还是士兵、侍臣，或者是她自己的三个孩子了。
“我怎么知道呢？这不干我的事！”爱丽丝回答，连她自己都对自己的勇气感到惊奇。

王后的脸气红了，两眼像野兽样瞪了爱丽丝一会儿，然后尖声叫道：“砍掉她的头！砍掉……”
“废话！”爱丽丝干脆大声说。而王后却不说话了。
国王用手拉了下王后的胳膊，小声地说：“冷静点，我亲爱的，她还只是个孩子啊！”
王后生气地从国王身边转身走开了，并对武士说：“把他们翻过来。”
武士用脚小心地把他们三个翻了过来。

“起来！”王后尖声叫道。那三个园丁赶紧爬起来，开始向国王、王后、王室的孩子们以及每个人一一鞠躬。
“停下来！”王后尖叫着，“把我的头都弄晕了！”她转身向着那株玫瑰继续问：“你们在于什么？”
“陛下，愿你开恩，”老二低声下气地跪下一条腿说，“我们正想……”
“我明白了！砍掉他们的头！，王后察看了一阵玫瑰花后说。队伍又继续前进了，留下三个士兵来处死这三个不幸的园丁。三个园丁急忙跑向爱韶丝，想得到她的保护。
“你们不会被砍头的！”爱丽丝说着就把他们藏进旁边的一个大花盆里。那三个士兵到处找，几分钟后还没找到，只得悄悄地去追赶自己的队伍了。

“把他们的头砍掉没有？”王后怒吼道。
“他们的头已经掉了，陛下！”士兵大声回答，
“好极了！”王后说，“你会玩槌球吗？”

士兵们都看着爱丽丝，这个问题显然是问爱丽丝的。

“会！”爱丽丝大声回答。
“那就过来！”王后喊道。于是爱丽丝就加入了这个队伍，她心里盘算着以后会发生什么事情呢？
“这……这真是一个好天气呵！”爱丽丝身旁一个胆怯的声音说。原来爱丽丝恰巧走在白兔的旁边，白兔正焦急地偷愉看着她的脸呢。
“是个好天气，”爱丽丝说，“公爵夫人在哪里呢？”
“嘘！嘘！”兔子急忙低声制止她，同时还担心地转过头向王后看看，然后踮起脚尖把嘴凑到爱丽丝的耳朵根上，悄悄地说：“她被判处了死刑。”
“为什么呢？”爱丽丝问。
“你是说真可怜吗？”兔子问。
“不，不是，”爱丽丝问，“我没想可怜不可怜的问题，我是说为什么？”
“她打了王后耳光……”兔子说。爱丽丝笑出声来了。“嘘！”兔子害怕地低声说，“王后会听到的！你知道，公爵夫人来晚了，王后说……”

“各就各位！”王后雷鸣般地喊了一声，人们就朝各个方向跑开了，撞来撞去的，一两分钟后总算都站好了自己的位置。于是游戏开始了。

爱丽丝想，可还从来没见过这样奇怪的槌球游戏呢？球场到处都是坎坷不平的，槌球是活刺猬，槌球棒是活红鹤（红鹤：Phoenicopterus科，趾间有蹼，因种不同羽色各异，有红、灰等色。虽称红鹤，但与鹤科Gruidae无关。中国无此鸟。），士兵们手脚着地当球门。

起初，爱丽丝很难摆弄红鹤，后来总算很成功地把红鹤的身子舒服地夹在胳膊底下，红鹤的腿垂在下面。可是，当她好不容易把红鹤的脖子弄直，准备用它的头去打那个刺猬时，红鹤却把脖子扭上来，用奇怪的表情看着爱丽丝的脸，惹得爱丽丝大声笑了。她只得把红鹤的头按下去，当她准备再一次打球的时候，恼火地发现刺猬已经展开了身子爬走了。此外，把刺猬球打过去的路上总有一些土坎或小沟，躬腰做球门的士兵常常站起来走到球场的其它地方去。爱丽丝不久就得出结论：这确实是一个非常困难的游戏。

参加游戏的人没等轮到自己，就一起打起球来了，不时地为了刺猬争吵和打架。不一会，王后就大发雷霆，跺着脚来回地走，大约一分钟叫喊一次：“砍掉他的头！”“砍掉她的头！”

爱丽丝感到非常不安，说真的她还没有同王后发生争吵，可是这是每分钟都可能发生的呀！“如果吵架的话，”她想，“我会怎么样呢？这儿的人太喜欢砍头了！可是很奇怪，现在还有人活着。”

爱丽丝就寻找逃走的路，而且还想不被人发现的逃开。这时，她注意到天空出现了一个怪东西，起初她惊奇极了，看了一两分钟后，她判断出这是一个笑容，并对自己说：“这是柴郡猫，现在我可有人说话了。”

“你好吗？”柴郡猫刚出现了能说话的嘴就问。

爱丽丝等到它的眼睛也出现了，才点点头。“现在跟它说话没用处，”她想，“应该等它的两只耳朵也来了，至少来，了一只，再说话。”过了一两分钟，整个头出现了，爱丽丝才放下红鹤，给它讲打槌球的情况。她对于有人听她说话非常高兴。那只猫似乎认为出现的部分已经够了，就没有显露出身子。

“他们玩得不公平，”爱丽丝抱怨地说，“他们吵得太厉害了，弄得人家连自己说的话都听不清了。而且他们好像没有一定的规则，就算有的话，也没人遵守。还有，你简直想象不到，所有的东西都是活的。真讨厌。譬如说，我马上就要把球打进球门，而那个球门却散步去了；再加我正要用自己的球碰王后的刺猾球，哼，它一见我的球来撒腿就跑掉啦！”
“你喜欢王后吗？”猫轻声说。
“一点都不喜欢，”爱丽丝说，“她非常……”正说到这里，她突然发觉王后就在她身后听呢？于是她马上改口说：“非常会玩椒球，别人简直不必要再同她比下去了。”
王后微笑着走开了。

“你在跟谁说话？”国王走来问爱丽丝，还很奇怪地看着那个猫头。
“请允许我介绍，这是我的朋友——柴郡猫。”爱丽丝说。
“我一点也不喜欢它的模样，不过，如果它愿意的话，可以吻我的手。”国王说。
“我不愿意。”猫回答。
“不要失礼！”国王说，“别这样看我了！”他一边说一边躲到爱丽丝的身后。
“猫是可以看国王的，我在一本书上见过这句话，不过不记得是哪本书了。”爱丽丝说。
“喂，必须把这只猫弄走！”国王坚决地说，接着就向刚来的王后喊道：“我亲爱的，我希望你来把这只猫弄走。”
王后解决各种困难的办法只有一种：“砍掉它的头！”她看也不看一下就这样说。
“我亲自去找刽子手。”国王殷勤地说着，急急忙忙走了。

爱丽丝听到王后在远处尖声吼叫，想起该去看看游戏进行得怎样了。爱丽丝已经听到王后又宣判了三个人死刑，原因是轮到他们打球而没有马上打。爱丽丝很不喜欢这个场面，整个游戏都是乱糟糟的，弄得她根本不知道什么时候轮到，什么时候不轮到。因此她就走了，找她的刺猬去了。

她的刺猬正同另一只刺猬打架，爱丽丝认为这真是用一只刺猬球去打中另一个刺猬球的好机会，可是她的红鹤却跑掉了，爱丽丝看到它正在花园的那边，在徒劳地向树上飞。

等她捉住红鹤回来，正在打架的两只刺猬都跑得无影无踪了。爱丽丝想：“这没多大关系，因为这里的球门都跑掉了。”为了不让红鹤再逃跑，爱丽丝把它夹在胳膊下，又跑回去想同她的朋友多谈一会儿。

爱丽丝走回柴郡猫那儿时，惊奇地看到一大群人围着它，刽子手、国王、王后正在激烈地辩论。他们同时说话，而旁边的人都静悄悄地呆着，看上去十分不安。

爱丽丝刚到，这三个人就立即让她作裁判，他们争先恐后地同时向她重复自己的理由，爱丽丝很难听清楚他们说的是什么。

刽子手的理由是：除非有身子，才能从身上砍头，光是一个头是没法砍掉的。他说他从来没做过这种事，这辈子也不打算做这样的事了。

国王的理由是：只要有头，就能砍，你刽子手执行就行了，少说废话。王后的理由是：谁不立即执行她的命令，她就要把每个人的头都砍掉，周围的人的头也都砍掉（正是她最后这句话，使这些人都吓得要命）。

爱丽丝想不出什么办法，只是说：“这猫是公爵夫人的，你们最好去问她。”
“她在监狱里，”王后对刽子手说，“把她带来！”刽子手好像离弦的箭似的跑去了。
就在刽子手走去的一刹那，猫头开始消失，刽子手带着公爵夫人来到时，猫头完全没有了。国王和刽子手就发疯似地跑来跑去到处找，而其他人又回去玩槌球了。

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