"Oh dear me," she said. "If only I hadn't teased my nurse so! 'Oh nurse! Let's play a game! You be the bone, and I shall be the hyena!' Whatever made me think of that, I'm sure I'll never know. And now I'll never recite my lessons, and I shall forget them all. That is why they call them lessons you know, because each day you forget to do them, the less and less you'll remember from each one."
Dinah came up along her side, purring as if trying to comfort her mistress.
"But Dinah, it IS my own fault! And now I'm being properly punished for it too! Oh Dinah, what a terrible thing to tell one's nurse. And to think, Mr. Dodgson had promised to come to-day to tell me a story! I suppose I shall never hear it now."
Dinah meowed, as if to sympathize with her.
"But it's of no use now, is it Dinah?"
Dinah gave a short 'meow' and hopped up upon the mantel piece, nearly knocking a vase onto the ground.
"Dinah!" Alice cried, jumping to catch the vase, which was swaying back and forth. "This had better not break, Dinah, or I shall tell Father that you broke it, because I'm in enough trouble--"
Alice did not get to finish her lecture however, as the vase fell toward the mirror over the mantle place and fell directly into it. "Why Dinah!" Alice said in shock and amazement. "I do believe that the mirror has swallowed the vase, just as if it were tea cake! Oh! Maybe I don't have to stay in this dreadful room after all having to listen to everyone play out side."
Alice climbed on top of the mantle place. "Oh Dinah, you had best not follow me. I'll need you to stay here and tell my nurse that I have gone straight to bed without my tea, because I feel just awful for upsetting her so. She will not think of checking up on me, if I am up in my room, so terribly upset. Then I can spend all day on the other side of the mirror, and not be in worse trouble for it! Don't you think, Dinah? But I shall be extra careful to check the room before I come back in. Think about how queer it would be to see a young girl pop out from the inside of a mirror! Don't you think it would be quite queer Dinah?"
Dinah meowed.
"You are right, Dinah," Alice said. "It'll do me no good to sit on this mantle and get caught about to go into a mirror. Then I will surely be punished for that too!"
Alice slipped into the mirror before she could get caught.
