A Mad Tea Party
There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it; a Dormouse was sitting between them fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head.
The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner.
"No room! No room!" they cried out when they saw Alice coming.
"There's plenty of room!" said Alice indignantly. And she sat down in a large armchair at one end of the table.
"What day of the month is it?" asked the Hatter, turning to Alice.
He had taken his watch out of his pocket and was looking at it uneasily, shaking it every now and then, and holding it to his ear.
Alice considered a little, and said, "The fourth."
"Two days wrong," sighed the Hatter. "I told you butter wouldn't suit the works," he added, looking angrily at the March Hare.
"It was the best butter," the March Hare meekly replied.
"It's always tea-time with us here," explained the Hatter, "and we've no time to wash the things between whiles."
"Then you keep moving round, I suppose?" said Alice.
"Exactly so," said the Hatter; "as the things get used up."
"But when you come to the beginning again?" Alice ventured to ask.
The March Hare interrupted, yawning. "I vote the young lady tells us a story."
"I'm afraid I don't know one," said Alice, rather alarmed at the proposal.
"Then the Dormouse shall!" they both cried. "Wake up the Dormouse!" And they pinched it on both sides.
The Dormouse slowly opened its eyes. "I wasn't asleep," it said, in a hoarse, feeble voice.
"Tell us a story," said the March Hare.
"Yes, please do!" pleaded Alice.
"Once upon a time there were three little sisters," the Dormouse began, "and their names were Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie and they lived at the bottom of a well - "
"What did they live on?" said Alice.
"They lived on treacle," said the Dormouse, after thinking a minute or two.
Alice gently remarked, "They'd have been ill."
"So they were very ill."
"I want a clean cup," interrupted the Hatter. "Let's all move one place on."
"They were learning to draw," the Dormouse went on, yawning and rubbing its eyes, "and they drew all manner of things - everything that begins with an M. such as mouse-traps, and the moon, and memory, and muchness - you know you say things are 'much of a muchness' - did you ever see such a thing as a drawing of a muchness?"
"Really," said Alice, confused, "I don't think- "
"Then you shouldn't talk," said the Hatter.
This piece of rudeness was more than Alice could bear; she got up in disgust, and walked off. The Dormouse fell asleep instantly, and the last time she saw them, they were trying to put the Dormouse into the teapot.
