After the fourth or fifth tumble he reached the turn, and
then she waved her handkerchief to him, and waited till he was out of
sight.
`I hope it encouraged him,' she said, as he turned to run down the
hill: `and now for the last brook, and to be a Queen! How grand it
sounds!' A very few steps brought her to the edge of the brook.
`The Eighth Square at last!' she cried as she bounded across, and
threw herself down to rest on a lawn as soft as moss, with little
flower-beds dotted about it here and there. `Oh, how glad I am to
get here! And what IS this on my head?' she exclaimed in a tone of
dismay, as she put her hands up to something very heavy, and fitted
tight all round her head.
`But how CAN it have got there without my knowing it?' she said to
herself, as she lifted it off, and set it on her lap to make out what
it could possibly be.
It was a golden crown.
CHAPTER IX
Queen Alice
`Well, this IS grand!' said Alice. `I never expected I should be a
Queen so soon -- and I'll tell you what it is, your majesty,' she
went on in a severe tone (she was always rather fond of scolding
herself), `it'll never do for you to be lolling about on the grass
like that! Queens have to be dignified, you know!'
So she got up and walked about -- rather stiffly just at first, as
she was afraid that the crown might come off: but she comforted
herself with the thought that there was nobody to see her, `and if I
really am a Queen,' she said as she sat down again, `I shall be able
to manage it quite well in time.
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