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- “While you’re refreshing yourself,” said the Queen, “I’ll just take the
- measurements.” And she took a ribbon out of her pocket, marked in
- inches, and began measuring the ground, and sticking little pegs in
- here and there.
- “At the end of two yards,” she said, putting in a peg to mark the
- distance, “I shall give you your directions—have another biscuit?”
- “No, thank you,” said Alice: “one’s _quite_ enough!”
- “Thirst quenched, I hope?” said the Queen.
- Alice did not know what to say to this, but luckily the Queen did not
- wait for an answer, but went on. “At the end of _three_ yards I shall
- repeat them—for fear of your forgetting them. At the end of _four_, I
- shall say good-bye. And at the end of _five_, I shall go!”
- She had got all the pegs put in by this time, and Alice looked on with
- great interest as she returned to the tree, and then began slowly
- walking down the row.
- At the two-yard peg she faced round, and said, “A pawn goes two squares
- in its first move, you know. So you’ll go _very_ quickly through the
- Third Square—by railway, I should think—and you’ll find yourself in the
- Fourth Square in no time. Well, _that_ square belongs to Tweedledum and
- Tweedledee—the Fifth is mostly water—the Sixth belongs to Humpty
- Dumpty—But you make no remark?”
- “I—I didn’t know I had to make one—just then,” Alice faltered out.
- “You _should_ have said, ‘It’s extremely kind of you to tell me all
- this’—however, we’ll suppose it said—the Seventh Square is all
- forest—however, one of the Knights will show you the way—and in the
- Eighth Square we shall be Queens together, and it’s all feasting and
- fun!” Alice got up and curtseyed, and sat down again.
- At the next peg the Queen turned again, and this time she said, “Speak
- in French when you can’t think of the English for a thing—turn out your
- toes as you walk—and remember who you are!” She did not wait for Alice
- to curtsey this time, but walked on quickly to the next peg, where she
- turned for a moment to say “good-bye,” and then hurried on to the last.
- How it happened, Alice never knew, but exactly as she came to the last
- peg, she was gone. Whether she vanished into the air, or whether she
- ran quickly into the wood (“and she _can_ run very fast!” thought
- Alice), there was no way of guessing, but she was gone, and Alice began
- to remember that she was a Pawn, and that it would soon be time for her
- to move.
- Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, Chapter 2 - The Garden of Live Flowers
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