Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: HTML Edition

								

eyes anxiously fixed on it, for she felt sure she would catch a
bad cold if she did not get dry very soon.
'Ahem!' said the Mouse with an important air, 'are you all
ready? This is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you
please! "William the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the
pope, was soon submitted to by the English, who wanted leaders,
and had been of late much accustomed to usurpation and conquest.
Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria--"'
'Ugh!' said the Lory, with a shiver.
'I beg your pardon!' said the Mouse, frowning, but very
politely: 'Did you speak?'
'Not I!' said the Lory hastily.
'I thought you did,' said the Mouse. '--I proceed. "Edwin and
Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared for him:
and even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found
it advisable--"'
'Found what?' said the Duck.
'Found it,' the Mouse replied rather crossly: 'of
course you know what "it" means.'
'I know what "it" means well enough, when I find a
thing,' said the Duck: 'it's generally a frog or a worm. The
question is, what did the archbishop find?'
The Mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedly went on,
'"--found it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet William
and offer him the crown. William's conduct at first was moderate.
But the insolence of his Normans--" How are you getting on now,
my dear?' it continued, turning to Alice as it spoke.
'As wet as ever,' said Alice in a melancholy tone: 'it doesn't
seem to dry me at all.'
'In that case,' said the Dodo solemnly, rising to its feet, 'I
move that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more
energetic remedies--'
'Speak English!' said the Eaglet. 'I don't know the meaning of
half those long words, and, what's more, I don't believe you do
either!' And the Eaglet bent down its head to hide a smile: some
of the other birds tittered audibly.
'What I was going to say,' said the Dodo in an offended tone,
'was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a
Caucus-race.'
'What is a Caucus-race?' said Alice; not that she
wanted much to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought
that somebody ought to speak, and no one else seemed
inclined to say anything.
'Why,' said the Dodo, 'the best way to explain it is to do
it.' (And, as you might like to try the thing yourself, some
winter day, I will tell you how the Dodo managed it.)
First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, ('the
exact shape doesn't matter,' it said,) and then all the party
were placed along the course, here and there. There was no 'One,
two, three, and away,' but they began running when they liked,
and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know
when the race was over. However, when they had been running half
an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called
out 'The race is over!' and they all crowded round it, panting,