Ahab's Adventure's In Wonderland; or The Rabbit

Chapter Fifty-Six

Once his leg was finished and properly and tightly fastened into place where once his true leg stood, Ahab was ready to resume his chase of the White Rabbit. But he had not gotten far when the Queen sighted him and called him over.

'Let's go on with the game,' the Queen said to Ahab; and Ahab was too much frightened to say a word, but slowly followed her back to the croquet-ground.

The other guests had taken advantage of the Queen's absence, and were resting in the shade: however, the moment they saw her, they hurried back to the game, the Queen merely remarking that a moment's delay would cost them their lives.

All the time they were playing the Queen never left off quarrelling with the other players, and shouting 'Off with his head!' or 'Off with her head!' Those whom she sentenced 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 Ahab, were in custody and under sentence of execution, and that included Franklin, Starbuck, and myself, with each of us in turn having offended the Queen in some way.

Finally the Queen left off, quite out of breath, and said to Ahab, 'Have you seen the Mock Turtle yet?'

'No,' said Ahab. 'I don't even know what a Mock Turtle is.'

'It's the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from,' said the Queen.

'I never saw one, or heard of one,' said Ahab.

'Come on, then,' said the Queen, 'and he shall tell you his history,'

As they walked off together, Ahab heard the King say in a low voice, to the company generally, 'You are all pardoned.' 'Come, THAT'S a good thing!' he said, for he had felt quite unhappy at the number of executions the Queen had ordered, though I'm sure not nearly as unhappy as we had been, nor quite as relieved at our reprieve.

The pair very soon came upon a Gryphon, lying fast asleep in the sun. (IF you don't know what a Gryphon is, look at the picture.) 'Up, lazy thing!' said the Queen, 'and take this old man to see the Mock Turtle, and to hear his history. I must go back and see after some executions I have ordered'; and she walked off, leaving Ahab alone with the Gryphon. Ahab did not quite like the look of the creature, but on the whole he thought it would be quite as safe to stay with it as to go

after that savage Queen: so he waited.

The Gryphon sat up and rubbed its eyes: then it watched the Queen till she was out of sight: then it chuckled. 'What fun!' said the Gryphon, half to itself, half to Ahab.

'What IS the fun?' said Ahab.

'Why, SHE,' said the Gryphon. 'It's all her fancy, that: they never executes nobody, you know. Come on!'

'Everybody says 'come on!' here,' thought Ahab, as he went slowly after it: 'I never was so ordered about in all my life, never!'

They had not gone far before they saw the Mock Turtle in the distance, sitting sad and lonely on a little ledge of rock, and, as they came nearer, Ahab could hear him sighing as if his heart would break. 'What is his sorrow?' he asked the Gryphon, and the Gryphon answered, very nearly in the same words as before, 'It's all his fancy, that: he hasn't got no sorrow, you know. Come on!'

So they went up to the Mock Turtle, who looked at them with large eyes full of tears, but said nothing.

'This here old man,' said the Gryphon, 'he wants for to know your history, he do.'