Chapter: "Here!" cried Alice. She jumped up in such a hurry that she tipped over
the jury-box, upsetting all the jurymen on to the heads of the crowd
below.

"Oh, I _beg_ your pardon!" she exclaimed in a tone of great dismay.

"The trial cannot proceed," said the King, "until all the jurymen are
back in their proper places--_all_," he repeated with great emphasis,
looking hard at Alice.

"What do you know about this business?" the King said to Alice.

"Nothing whatever," said Alice.

The King then read from his book: "Rule forty-two. _All persons more
than a mile high to leave the court_."

"_I'm_ not a mile high," said Alice.

"Nearly two miles high," said the Queen.

[Illustration]

"Well, I sha'n't go, at any rate," said Alice.

The King turned pale and shut his note-book hastily. "Consider your
verdict," he said to the jury, in a low, trembling voice.

"There's more evidence to come yet, please Your Majesty," said the White
Rabbit, jumping up in a great hurry. "This paper has just been picked
up. It seems to be a letter written by the prisoner to--to somebody." He
unfolded the paper as he spoke and added, "It isn't a letter, after all;
it's a set of verses."

"Please, Your Majesty," said the Knave, "I didn't write it and they
can't prove that I did; there's no name signed at the end."

"You _must_ have meant some mischief, or else you'd have signed your
name like an honest man," said the King. There was a general clapping of
hands at this.

"Read them," he added, turning to the White Rabbit.

There was dead silence in the court whilst the White Rabbit read out the
verses.

"That's the most important piece of evidence we've heard yet," said the
King.

"_I_ don't believe there's an atom of meaning in it," ventured Alice.

"If there's no meaning in it," said the King, "that saves a world of
trouble, you know, as we needn't try to find any. Let the jury consider
their verdict."

"No, no!" said the Queen. "Sentence first--verdict afterwards."

"Stuff and nonsense!" said Alice loudly. "The idea of having the
sentence first!"

"Hold your tongue!" said the Queen, turning purple.

"I won't!" said Alice.

"Off with her head!" the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody
moved.

"Who cares for _you_?" said Alice (she had grown to her full size by
this time). "You're nothing but a pack of cards!"

At this, the whole pack rose up in the air and came flying down upon
her; she gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and
tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her
head in the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing away some dead
leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face.

"Wake up, Alice dear!" said her sister. "Why, what a long sleep you've
had!"

"Oh, I've had such a curious dream!" said Alice. And she told her
sister, as well as she could remember them, all these strange adventures
of hers that you have just been reading about. Alice got up and ran off,
thinking while she ran, as well she might, what a wonderful dream it had
been.

 In this chapter the Turtle describes a kind of line dance which is acted out between many assorted sea creatures each paired with a lobster for a partner. However, the principle part of this chapter is actually devoted to the Song sung during the quadrille. After singing the song of the Lobster-Quadrille, the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon speak with Alice. Finally the conversation comes around to Alice and she tells them her journeys up to that point. The story is stopped when Alice gets to the part about her misremembering "Old Father William." The Turtle asks her to try and repeat something else so he can see if everything is coming out wrong. They ask her to repeat a rhyme called "'Tis the voice of the sluggard." It all comes out wrong, so the Mock Turtle demands that it be explained. But Alice has no clue what it all means when it comes out so strangely. So, Alice finally stops her reciting and asks the Turtle to sing her a song, which he does. He sings "Turtle Soup." The chapter is finally cut short, part way through the Turtle's song, by an announcement. In the distance someone calls out "The trial is beginning!" Even without the Mock Turtle crying all of the time this would still be a very sad chapter. Basically this chapter is concerned with what has been lost. It's about the past, and about memory. The Mock Turtle seems to be equating his student days, his childhood, with the time when he was a Real Turtle. Now, as an adult, he doesn't feel as though he is alive or real anymore. The chapter ends with that very gruesome song about Turtle Soup. It is very strange because up to this point the great taboo of Wonderland for Alice is the discussion of eating animals because all of the animals don't want to face their own mortality. Now, however, it seems that the Mock Turtle feels an overpowering sense of nostalgia for his childhood and therefore is a bit obsessed with death as his only alternative. It seems to him that nothing makes much sense anymore, now that he is out of school. The fact that Alice can't seem to even remember her school lessons properly makes matters more pointed for the Turtle, making him feel even more alone perhaps.

