Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking Glass

CHAPTER 4: TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE (continued)

Alice laughed aloud: but she managed to turn it into a cough, for fear of hurting his feelings.

`Do I look very pale?' said Tweedledum, coming up to have his helmet tied on. (He CALLED it a helmet, though it certainly looked much more like a saucepan.)

`Well--yes--a LITTLE,' Alice replied gently.

`I'm very brave generally,' he went on in a low voice: `only to-day I happen to have a headache.'

`And I'VE got a toothache!' said Tweedledee, who had overheard the remark. `I'm far worse off than you!'

`Then you'd better not fight to-day,' said Alice, thinking it a good opportunity to make peace.

`We MUST have a bit of a fight, but I don't care about going on long,' said Tweedledum. `What's the time now?'

Tweedledee looked at his watch, and said `Half-past four.'

`Let's fight till six, and then have dinner,' said Tweedledum.

`Very well,' the other said, rather sadly: `and SHE can watch us--only you'd better not come VERY close,' he added: `I generally hit everything I can see--when I get really excited.'

`And I hit everything within reach,' cried Tweedledum, `whether I can see it or not!'

Alice laughed. `You must hit the TREES pretty often, I should think,' she said.

Tweedledum looked round him with a satisfied smile. `I don't suppose,' he said, `there'll be a tree left standing, for ever so far round, by the time we've finished!'

`And all about a rattle!' said Alice, still hoping to make them a LITTLE ashamed of fighting for such a trifle.