Alice gave a little scream of laughter . ` Oh , hush ! ' the Rabbit whispered in a frightened tone . ` The Queen will hear you ! You see , she came rather late , and the Queen said -- ' ` Get to your places ! ' shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder , and people began running about in all directions , tumbling up against each other ; however , they got settled down in a minute or two , and the game began . Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life ; it was all ridges and furrows ; the balls were live hedgehogs , the mallets live flamingoes , and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet , to make the arches . The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo : she succeeded in getting its body tucked away , comfortably enough , under her arm , with its legs hanging down , but generally , just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out , and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head , it WOULD twist itself round and look up in 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 provoking 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 furrow in the 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 , quarrelling all the while , and fighting for the hedgehogs ; and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion , and went stamping about , and shouting ` Off with his head ! ' or ` Off with her head ! ' about once in a minute . Alice began to feel very uneasy : to be sure , she had not as yet had any dispute with the Queen , but she knew that it might happen any minute , ` and then , ' thought she , ` what would become of me ? They 're dreadfully fond of beheading people here ; the great wonder is , that there 's any one left alive ! ' She was looking about for some way of escape , and wondering whether she could get away without being seen , when she noticed a curious appearance in the air : it puzzled her very much at first , but , after watching it a minute or two , she made it out to be a grin , and she said to herself ` It 's the Cheshire Cat : now I shall have somebody to talk to . ' ` How are you getting on ? ' said the Cat , as soon as there was mouth enough for it to speak with . Alice waited till the eyes appeared , and then nodded . ` It 's no use speaking to it , ' she thought , 'till its ears have come , or at least one of them . ' In another minute the whole head appeared , and then Alice put down her flamingo , and began an account of the game , feeling very glad she had someone to listen to her . The Cat seemed to think that there was enough of it now in sight , and no more of it appeared . '
I do n't think they play at all fairly , ' Alice began , XXXXX rather a complaining tone , ` and they all quarrel so dreadfully one ca n't hear oneself speak -- and they do n't seem to have any rules in particular ; at least , if there are , nobody attends to them -- and you 've no idea how confusing it is all the things being alive ; for instance , there 's the arch I 've got to go through next walking about at the other end of the ground -- and I should have croqueted the Queen 's hedgehog just now , only it ran away when it saw mine coming ! '
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