`What sort of things do YOU remember best?' Alice ventured to ask.
`Oh, things that happened the week after next,' the Queen replied
in a careless tone. `For instance, now,' she went on, sticking a
large piece of plaster [band-aid] on her finger as she spoke,
`there's the King's Messenger. He's in prison now, being punished:
and the trial doesn't even begin till next Wednesday: and of course
the crime comes last of all.'
`Suppose he never commits the crime?' said Alice.
`That would be all the better wouldn't it?' the Queen said, as she
bound the plaster round her finger with a bit of ribbon.
Alice felt there was no denying THAT. `Of course it would be all
the better,' she said: `but it wouldn't be all the better his being
punished.'
`You're wrong THERE, at any rate,' said the Queen: `were YOU ever
punished?'
`Only for faults,' said Alice.
`And you were all the better for it, I know!' the Queen said
triumphantly.
`Yes, but then I HAD done the things I was punished for,' said
Alice: `that makes all the difference.'
`But if you HADN'T done them,' the Queen said, `that would have
been better still; better, and better, and better!' Her voice went
higher with each `better,' till it got quite to a squeak at last.
Pages:
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69