Dormouse, and repeated her question.  `Why did they live at the

bottom of a well?'

  The Dormouse again took a minute or two to think about it, and

then said, `It was a treacle-well.'

  `There's no such thing!'  Alice was beginning very angrily, but

the Hatter and the March Hare went `Sh! sh!' and the Dormouse

sulkily remarked, `If you can't be civil, you'd better finish the

story for yourself.'

  `No, please go on!' Alice said very humbly; `I won't interrupt

again.  I dare say there may be ONE.'

  `One, indeed!' said the Dormouse indignantly.  However, he

consented to go on.  `And so these three little sisters--they

were learning to draw, you know--'

  `What did they draw?' said Alice, quite forgetting her promise.

  `Treacle,' said the Dormouse, without considering at all this

time.

  `I want a clean cup,' interrupted the Hatter:  `let's all move

one place on.'

  He moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him:  the

March Hare moved into the Dormouse's place, and Alice rather

unwillingly took the place of the March Hare.  The Hatter was the

only one who got any advantage from the change:  and Alice was a

good deal worse off than before, as the March Hare had just upset

the milk-jug into his plate.

  Alice did not wish to offend the Dormouse again, so she began

very cautiously:  `But I don't understand.  Where did they draw

the treacle from?'

  `You can draw water out of a water-well,' said the Hatter; `so

I should think you could draw treacle out of a treacle-well--eh,

stupid?'

  `But they were IN the well,' Alice said to the Dormouse, not

choosing to notice this last remark.

  `Of course they were', said the Dormouse; `--well in.'

  This answer so confused poor Alice, that she let the Dormouse

go on for some time without interrupting it.

  `They were learning to draw,' the Dormouse went on, yawning and

rubbing its eyes, for it was getting very sleepy; `and they drew

all manner of things--everything that begins with an M--'

  `Why with an M?' said Alice.

  `Why not?' said the March Hare.

  Alice was silent.

  The Dormouse had closed its eyes by this time, and was going

off into a doze; but, on being pinched by the Hatter, it woke up

again with a little shriek, and went on:  `--that begins with an

M, such as mouse-traps, and the moon, and memory, and muchness-- ()