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Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland
Kapitel 6:
Pig and pepper, Lewis Carroll, Seite 3 ( von 5 )
"Speak roughly
to your little boy,
And beat him when he sneezes:
He only does it to annoy,
Because he knows it teases."
Chorus.
(In which the cook and the baby joined): -
"Wow! wow!
wow!"
While the Duchess sang the second verse of the song, she kept tossing the baby
violently up and down, and the poor little thing howled so, that Alice could
hardly hear the words: -
"I speak
severely to my boy,
I beat him when he sneezes;
For he can thoroughly enjoy
The pepper when he pleases!"
Chorus.
"Wow! wow!
wow!"
"Here! you may nurse it a bit, if you like!" the Duchess said to
Alice, flinging the baby at her as she spoke. "I must go and get ready to
play croquet with the Queen," and she hurried out of the room. The cook
threw a frying-pan after her as she went, but it just missed her.
Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was a queer-shaped little
creature, and held out its arms and legs in all directions, "just like a
star-fish," thought Alice. The poor little thing was snorting like a
steam-engine when she caught it, and kept doubling itself up and straightening
itself out again, so that altogether, for the first minute or two, it was as
much as she could do to hold it.
As soon as she had made out the proper way of nursing it, (which was to twist
it up into a sort of knot, and then keep tight hold of its right ear and left
foot, so as to prevent its undoing itself,) she carried it out into the open
air. "If I don't take this child away with me," thought Alice,
"they're sure to kill it in a day or two: wouldn't it be murder to leave
it behind?" She said the last words out loud, and the little thing grunted
in reply (it had left off sneezing by this time). "Don't grunt," said
Alice; "that's not at all a proper way of expressing yourself."
The baby grunted again, and Alice looked very anxiously into its face to see
what was the matter with it. There could be no doubt that it had a
very turn-up
nose, much more like a snout than a real nose; also its eyes were getting
extremely small for a baby: altogether Alice did not like the look of the thing
at all. "But perhaps it was only sobbing," she thought, and looked
into its eyes again, to see if there were any tears.
No, there were no tears. "If you're going to turn into a pig, my
dear," said Alice, seriously, "I'll have nothing more to do with you.
Mind now!" The poor little thing sobbed again (or grunted, it was
impossible to say which), and they went on for some while in silence.
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