Alice watched the White King as he slowly struggled up from bar to bar , till at last she said , ` Why , you 'll be hours and hours getting to the table , at that rate . I 'd far better help you , had n't I ? ' But the King took no notice of the question : it was quite clear that he could neither hear her nor see her . So Alice picked him up very gently , and lifted him across more slowly than she had lifted the Queen , that she might n't take his breath away : but , before she put him on the table , she thought she might as well dust him a little , he was so covered with ashes . She said afterwards that she had never seen in all her life such a face as the King made , when he found himself held in the air by an invisible hand , and being dusted : he was far too much astonished to cry out , but his eyes and his mouth went on getting larger and larger , and rounder and rounder , till her hand shook so with laughing that she nearly let him drop upon the floor . ` Oh ! PLEASE do n't make such faces , my dear ! ' she cried out , quite forgetting that the King could n't hear her . ` You make me laugh so that I can hardly hold you ! And do n't keep your mouth so wide open ! All the ashes will get into it -- there , now I think you 're tidy enough ! ' she added , as she smoothed his hair , and set him upon the table near the Queen . The King immediately fell flat on his back , and lay perfectly still : and Alice was a little alarmed at what she had done , and went round the room to see if she could find any water to throw over him . However , she could find nothing but a bottle of ink , and when she got back with it she found he had recovered , and he and the Queen were talking together in a frightened whisper -- so low , that Alice could hardly hear what they said . The King was saying , ' I assure , you my dear , I turned cold to the very ends of my whiskers ! ' To which the Queen replied , ` You have n't got any whiskers . ' ` The horror of that moment , ' the King went on , ' I shall never , NEVER forget ! ' ` You will , though , ' the Queen said , ` if you do n't make a memorandum of it . ' Alice looked on with great interest as the King took an enormous memorandum-book out of his pocket , and began writing . A sudden thought struck her , and she took hold of the end of the pencil , which came some way over his shoulder , and began writing for him .
The poor XXXXX looked puzzled and unhappy , and struggled with the pencil for some time without saying anything ; but Alice was too strong for him , and at last he panted out , ` My dear !
Alice King Queen White air hours laugh memorandum memorandum-book rounder