Алиса в Стране чудес / Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Льюис Кэрролл

The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and began, with sobs, to sing this:

'Chorus again!' cried the Gryphon, and the Mock Turtle began to repeat it, when they heard a cry: 'The trial's beginning!'

'Come on!' cried the Gryphon, and he took Alice by the hand, and hurried off.

'What trial is it?' Alice asked; but the Gryphon only answered 'Come on!' and ran faster and faster.

The King and Queen of Hearts were sitting on their throne when they arrived, with a great crowd assembled around them-many different birds and beasts, and the whole pack of cards. The Knave was standing before them, in chains, with a soldier on each side to guard him. Near the King was the White Rabbit, with a trumpet in one hand, and a scroll of parchment in the other. In the very middle of the court was a table, with a large dish of tarts upon it. They looked so good, that it made Alice quite hungry.

Alice was in a court for the first time. But she read about courts in books 'That's the judge,' she said to herself, 'because of his great wig.'

The judge was the King; and as he wore his crown over the wig, he did not look comfortable.

'And that's the jury-box,' thought Alice, 'and those twelve creatures,' (she said 'creatures,' you see, because some of them were animals, and some were birds,) 'I suppose they are the jurors.' She said this last word two or three times over to herself. She was very proud of it: very few little girls of her age knew the meaning of it at all.

The twelve jurors were all writing very busily on slates.

'What are they doing?' Alice whispered to the Gryphon.

'They're putting down their names,' the Gryphon whispered in reply, 'they do not want to forget them before the end of the trial.'

'Fools!' Alice began in a loud, indignant voice, but she stopped hastily, because the White Rabbit cried out, 'Silence in the court!'

The King put on his spectacles and looked anxiously round.

One of the jurors had a pencil that squeaked. Alice went round the court and got behind him, and very soon found an opportunity to take it away. She did it so quickly that the poor little juror (it was Bill, the Lizard) did not understand anything.

So he began to write with his finger; but this was useless.

'Read the accusation!' said the King.

The White Rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet, and then unrolled the parchment scroll, and began to read:

'Consider your verdict,' the King said to the jury.

'No, no!' the Rabbit hastily interrupted. 'Let's…'

'Call the first witness,' said the King; and the White Rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet, and called out, 'First witness!'

The first witness was the Hatter. He came in with a teacup in one hand and a piece of bread-and-butter in the other.

'I beg pardon, your Majesty,' he began, 'but I was drinking my tea when they called me.'

'So what?' said the King. 'When did you begin?'

The Hatter looked at the March Hare, who entered, arm-in-arm with the Dormouse. 'Fourteenth of March, I think it was,' he said.

'Fifteenth,' said the March Hare.

'Sixteenth,' added the Dormouse.

'Write that down,' the King said to the jury, and the jury eagerly wrote down all three dates, and then added them up, and reduced the answer to shillings and pence.

'Take off your hat!' the King said to the Hatter.

'It isn't mine,' said the Hatter.

'You stole it!' the King exclaimed.

'I keep them to sell,' the Hatter added as an explanation; 'I do not have my own hats. I'm a hatter.'

Here the Queen put on her spectacles, and began to look at the Hatter. The Hatter turned pale.

The Hatter looked uneasily at the Queen, and in his confusion he bit a large piece out of his teacup instead of the bread-and-butter.

Just at this moment Alice felt a very curious sensation: she was beginning to grow larger again. She wanted to get up and leave the court; but then she decided to remain where she was.

'What are you doing?' asked the Dormouse, who was sitting next to her. 'I can't breathe.'

'Sorry,' said Alice very meekly: 'I'm growing.'

'You've no right to grow here,' said the Dormouse.

'Don't talk nonsense,' said Alice more boldly: 'you know you're growing too.'

'Yes, but not so fast,' said the Dormouse. And it got up very sulkily and crossed over to the other side of the court.

'Bring me the list of the singers in the last concert!' the Queen ordered.

'Tell what you know of this case,' the King said, 'or I'll have your head off.'

'I'm a poor man, your Majesty,' the Hatter began, in a trembling voice, 'and I did not finish my tea-and I took my bread-and-butter-and the tea…'

'What?' said the King.

'It began with the tea,' the Hatter replied.

'Of course with a T!' said the King sharply. 'Do you take me for a fool? Go on!'

'I'm a poor man,' the Hatter went on, 'and as the March Hare said…'

'I didn't!' the March Hare interrupted in a