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 say than his first remark, `It

was the BEST butter, you know.'

  Alice had been looking over his shoulder with some curiosity.

`What a funny watch!' she remarked.  `It tells the day of the

month, and doesn't tell what o'clock it is!'

  `Why should it?' muttered the Hatter.  `Does YOUR watch tell

you what year it is?'

  `Of course not,' Alice replied very readily:  `but that's

because it stays the same year for such a long time together.'

  `Which is just the case with MINE,' said the Hatter.

  Alice felt dreadfully puzzled.  The Hatter's remark seemed to

have no sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English.

`I don't quite understand you,' she said, as politely as she

could.

  `The Dormouse is asleep again,' said the Hatter, and he poured

a little hot tea upon its nose.

  The Dormouse shook its head impatiently, and said, without

opening its eyes, `Of course, of course; just what I was going to

remark myself.'

  `Have you guessed the riddle yet?' the Hatter said, turning to

Alice again.

  `No, I give it up,' Alice replied:  `what's the answer?'

  `I haven't the slightest idea,' said the Hatter.

  `Nor I,' said the March Hare.

  Alice sighed wearily.  `I think you might do something better

with the time,' she said, `than waste it in asking riddles that

have no answers.'

  `If you knew Time as well as I do,' said the Hatter, `you

wouldn't talk about wasting IT.  It's HIM.'

  `I don't know what you mean,' said Alice. ()