That would be nonsense -- ' The Red Queen shook her head , ` You may call it `` nonsense '' if you like , ' she said , ` but I 'VE heard nonsense , compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary ! ' Alice curtseyed again , as she was afraid from the Queen 's tone that she was a LITTLE offended : and they walked on in silence till they got to the top of the little hill . For some minutes Alice stood without speaking , looking out in all directions over the country -- and a most curious country it was . There were a number of tiny little brooks running straight across it from side to side , and the ground between was divided up into squares by a number of little green hedges , that reached from brook to brook . ' I declare it 's marked out just like a large chessboard ! ' Alice said at last . ` There ought to be some men moving about somewhere -- and so there are ! ' She added in a tone of delight , and her heart began to beat quick with excitement as she went on . ` It 's a great huge game of chess that 's being played -- all over the world -- if this IS the world at all , you know . Oh , what fun it is ! How I WISH I was one of them ! I would n't mind being a Pawn , if only I might join -- though of course I should LIKE to be a Queen , best . ' She glanced rather shyly at the real Queen as she said this , but her companion only smiled pleasantly , and said , ` That 's easily managed . You can be the White Queen 's Pawn , if you like , as Lily 's too young to play ; and you 're in the Second Square to begin with : when you get to the Eighth Square you 'll be a Queen -- ' Just at this moment , somehow or other , they began to run . Alice never could quite make out , in thinking it over afterwards , how it was that they began : all she remembers is , that they were running hand in hand , and the Queen went so fast that it was all she could do to keep up with her : and still the Queen kept crying ` Faster ! Faster ! ' but Alice felt she COULD NOT go faster , though she had not breath left to say so . The most curious part of the thing was , that the trees and the other things round them never changed their places at all : however fast they went , they never seemed to pass anything . ' I wonder if all the things move along with us ? ' thought poor puzzled Alice .
And the XXXXX seemed to guess her thoughts , for she cried , ` Faster !
Alice Lily Queen Square breath chessboard hill left tone top