`You ought to return thanks in a neat speech,' the Red Queen said,
frowning at Alice as she spoke.
`We must support you, you know,' the White Queen whispered, as
Alice got up to do it, very obediently, but a little frightened.
`Thank you very much,' she whispered in reply, `but I can do quite
well without.'
`That wouldn't be at all the thing,' the Red Queen said very
decidedly: so Alice tried to submit to it with a good grace.
(And they DID push so!' she said afterwards, when she was telling
her sister the history of the feast. `You would have thought they
wanted to squeeze me flat!')
In fact it was rather difficult for her to keep in her place while
she made her speech: the two Queens pushed her so, one on each side,
that they nearly lifted her up into the air: `I rise to return thanks
-- ' Alice began: and she really DID rise as she spoke, several
inches; but she got hold of the edge of the table, and managed to
pull herself down again.
`Take care of yourself!' screamed the White Queen, seizing Alice's
hair with both her hands. `Something's going to happen!'
And then (as Alice afterwards described it) all sorts of thing
happened in a moment.
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