was, “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”


“Come, we shall have some fun now!” thought Alice. “I’m

glad they’ve begun asking riddles.—I believe I can guess

that,” she added aloud.


“Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?”

said the March Hare.


“Exactly so,” said Alice.


“Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on.


“I do,” Alice hastily replied; “at least—at least I

mean what I say—that’s the same thing, you know.”


“Not the same thing a bit!” said the Hatter. “You might just

as well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I

eat what I see’!”


“You might just as well say,” added the March Hare, “that

‘I like what I get’ is the same thing as ‘I get what I

like’!”


“You might just as well say,” added the Dormouse, who seemed to be

talking in his sleep, “that ‘I breathe when I sleep’ is the

same thing as ‘I sleep when I breathe’!”


“It is the same thing with you,” said the Hatter, and here

the conversation dropped, and the party sat silent for a minute, while Alice

thought over all she could remember about ravens and writing-desks, which

wasn’t much.


The Hatter was the first to break the silence. “What day of the month is

it?” he said, turning to Alice: he had taken his watch out of his pocket,

and was looking at it uneasily, shaking it every now and then, and holding it

to his ear.


Alice considered a little, and then said “The fourth.”


“Two days wrong!” sighed the Hatter. “I told you butter

wouldn’t suit the works!” he added looking angrily at the March

Hare.


“It was the best butter,” the March Hare meekly replied.


“Yes, but some crumbs must have got in as well,” the Hatter

grumbled: “you shouldn’t have put it in with the

bread-knife.”


The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into

his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to