Through the Looking Glass

But the black kitten had been finished with earlier in the afternoon, and so, while Alice was sittingcurled up in a corner of the great arm-chair, half talking to herself and half asleep, the kitten hadbeen having a grand game of romps with the ball of worsted Alice had been trying to wind up, andhad been rolling it up and down till it had all come undone again; and there it was, spread over thehearth-rug, all knots and tangles, with the kitten running after its own tail in the middle.'Oh, you wicked little thing!' cried Alice, catching up the kitten, and giving it a little kiss to make itunderstand that it was in disgrace. 'Really, Dinah ought to have taught you better manners! Youought, Dinah, you know you ought!' she added, looking reproachfully at the old cat, and speaking inas cross a voice as she could manage-and then she scrambled back into the arm-chair, taking thekitten and the worsted with her, and began winding up the ball again. But she didn't get on very fast, as she was talking all the time, sometimes to the kitten, and sometimes to herself. Kitty sat verydemurely on her knee, pretending to watch the progress of the winding, and now and then puttingout one paw and gently touching the ball, as if it would be glad to help, if it might.'Do you know what to-morrow is, Kitty?' Alice began. 'You'd have guessed if you'd been up inthe window with me-only Dinah was making you tidy, so you couldn't. I was watching the boysgetting in sticks for the bonfire-and it wants plenty of sticks, Kitty! Only it got so cold, and itsnowed so, they had to leave off. Never mind, Kitty, we'll go and see the bonfire to-morrow.' HereAlice wound two or three turns of the worsted round the kitten's neck, just to see how it wouldlook: this led to a scramble, in which the ball rolled down upon the floor, and yards and yards of itgot unwound again