Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking Glass

CHAPTER 3: Looking-Glass Insects (continued)

Alice thought, but nothing came of it. `Please, would you tell me what YOU call yourself?' she said timidly. `I think that might help a little.'

`I'll tell you, if you'll move a little further on,' the Fawn said. `I can't remember here.'

So they walked on together though the wood, Alice with her arms clasped lovingly round the soft neck of the Fawn, till they came out into another open field, and here the Fawn gave a sudden bound into the air, and shook itself free from Alice's arms. `I'm a Fawn!' it cried out in a voice of delight, `and, dear me! you're a human child!' A sudden look of alarm came into its beautiful brown eyes, and in another moment it had darted away at full speed.

Alice stood looking after it, almost ready to cry with vexation at having lost her dear little fellow-traveller so suddenly. `However, I know my name now.' she said, `that's SOME comfort. Alice--Alice--I won't forget it again. And now, which of these finger-posts ought I to follow, I wonder?'

It was not a very difficult question to answer, as there was only one road through the wood, and the two finger-posts both pointed along it. `I'll settle it,' Alice said to herself, `when the road divides and they point different ways.'

But this did not seem likely to happen. She went on and on, a long way, but wherever the road divided there were sure to be two finger-posts pointing the same way, one marked `TO TWEEDLEDUM'S HOUSE' and the other `TO THE HOUSE OF TWEEDLEDEE.'

`I do believe,' said Alice at last, `that they live in the same house! I wonder I never thought of that before--But I can't stay there long. I'll just call and say "how d'you do?" and ask them the way out of the wood. If I could only get to the Eighth Square before it gets dark!' So she wandered on, talking to herself as she went, till, on turning a sharp corner, she came upon two fat little men, so suddenly that she could not help starting back, but in another moment she recovered herself, feeling sure that they must be