Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in all her life : it was all in ridges and furrows : the croquet-balls were live hedgehogs , the mallets live ostriches , and the soldiers had to double themselves up , and stand on their feet and hands , to make the arches . -LSB- Illustration -RSB- -LSB- Illustration -RSB- The chief difficulty which Alice found at first was to manage her ostrich : she got its body tucked away , comfortably enough , under her arm , with its legs hanging down , but generally , just as she had got its neck straightened out nicely , and was going to give a blow with its head , it would twist itself round , and look up into her face , with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing : and when she had got its head down , and was going to begin again , it was very confusing to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself , and was in the act of crawling away : besides all this , there was generally a ridge or a furrow in her way , wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to , and as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground , Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed . The players all played at once without waiting for turns , and quarrelled all the while at the tops of their voices , and in a very few minutes the Queen was in a furious passion , and went stamping about and shouting `` off with his head ! '' of `` off with her head ! '' about once in a minute . All those whom she sentenced were taken into custody by the soldiers , who of course had to leave off being arches to do this , so that , by the end of half an hour or so , there were no arches left , and all the players , except the King , the Queen , and Alice , were in custody , and under sentence of execution . Then the Queen left off , quite out of breath , and said to Alice `` have you seen the Mock Turtle ? '' `` No , '' said Alice , `` I do n't even know what a Mock Turtle is . '' `` Come on then , '' said the Queen , `` and it shall tell you its history . '' As they walked off together , Alice heard the King say in a low voice , to the company generally , `` you are all pardoned . '' `` Come , that 's a good thing ! '' thought Alice , who had felt quite grieved at the number of executions which the Queen had ordered . -LSB- Illustration -RSB- They very soon came upon a Gryphon , which lay fast asleep in the sun : -LRB- if you do n't know what a Gryphon is , look at the picture -RRB- : `` Up , lazy thing ! '' said the Queen , `` and take this young lady to see the Mock Turtle , and to hear its history . I must go back and see after some executions I ordered , '' and she walked off , leaving Alice with the Gryphon . Alice did not quite like the look of the creature , but on the whole she thought it quite as safe to stay as to go after that savage Queen : so she waited . The Gryphon sat up and rubbed its eyes : then it watched the Queen till she was out of sight : then it chuckled . `` What fun ! '' said the Gryphon , half to itself , half to Alice . `` What is the fun ? ''
said XXXXX .
Alice Queen execution executions first hedgehog hour minutes ostrich ostriches