of verses.'

  `Are they in the prisoner's handwriting?' asked another of

they jurymen.

  `No, they're not,' said the White Rabbit, `and that's the

queerest thing about it.'  (The jury all looked puzzled.)

  `He must have imitated somebody else's hand,' said the King.

(The jury all brightened up again.)

  `Please your Majesty,' said the Knave, `I didn't write it, and

they can't prove I did:  there's no name signed at the end.'

  `If you didn't sign it,' said the King, `that only makes the

matter worse.  You MUST have meant some mischief, or else you'd

have signed your name like an honest man.'

  There was a general clapping of hands at this:  it was the

first really clever thing the King had said that day.

  `That PROVES his guilt,' said the Queen.

  `It proves nothing of the sort!' said Alice.  `Why, you don't

even know what they're about!'

  `Read them,' said the King.

  The White Rabbit put on his spectacles.  `Where shall I begin,

please your Majesty?' he asked.

  `Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, `and go on

till you come to the end:  then stop.'

  These were the verses the White Rabbit read:--

        `They told me you had been to her,

          And mentioned me to him:

        She gave me a good character,

          But said I could not swim.

        He sent them word I had not gone

          (We know it to be true):

        If she should push the matter on,

          What would become of you?

        I gave her one, they gave him two,

          You gave us three or more;

        They all returned from him to you,

          Though they were mine before.

        If I or she should chance to be

          Involved in this affair,

        He trusts to you to set them free,

          Exactly as we were.

        My notion was that you had been ()