CHAPTER XII . Which Dreamed it ? ` Your majesty should n't purr so loud , ' Alice said , rubbing her eyes , and addressing the kitten , respectfully , yet with some severity . ` You woke me out of oh ! such a nice dream ! And you 've been along with me , Kitty -- all through the Looking-Glass world . Did you know it , dear ? ' It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens -LRB- Alice had once made the remark -RRB- that , whatever you say to them , they ALWAYS purr . ` If they would only purr for `` yes '' and mew for `` no , '' or any rule of that sort , ' she had said , ` so that one could keep up a conversation ! But how CAN you talk with a person if they always say the same thing ? ' On this occasion the kitten only purred : and it was impossible to guess whether it meant ` yes ' or ` no . ' So Alice hunted among the chessmen on the table till she had found the Red Queen : then she went down on her knees on the hearth-rug , and put the kitten and the Queen to look at each other . ` Now , Kitty ! ' she cried , clapping her hands triumphantly . ` Confess that was what you turned into ! ' -LRB- ` But it would n't look at it , ' she said , when she was explaining the thing afterwards to her sister : ` it turned away its head , and pretended not to see it : but it looked a LITTLE ashamed of itself , so I think it MUST have been the Red Queen . ' -RRB- ` Sit up a little more stiffly , dear ! ' Alice cried with a merry laugh . ` And curtsey while you 're thinking what to -- what to purr . It saves time , remember ! '
And she caught it up and gave it one little kiss , ` just in honour of having been a Red XXXXX . '
Alice Kitty Looking-Glass Queen XII chessmen curtsey hearth-rug majesty thing