Ah, thank you. The card game went more the way of the Cheshire Cat than of the baby.
-KMO
"Wade T.Smith" wrote:
> `Here! you may nurse it a bit, if you like!' the Duchess said
> to Alice, flinging the baby at her as she spoke. `I must go and
> get ready to play croquet with the Queen,' and she hurried out of
> the room. The cook threw a frying-pan after her as she went out,
> but it just missed her.
>
> Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was a queer-
> shaped little creature, and held out its arms and legs in all
> directions, `just like a star-fish,' thought Alice. The poor
> little thing was snorting like a steam-engine when she caught it,
> and kept doubling itself up and straightening itself out again,
> so that altogether, for the first minute or two, it was as much
> as she could do to hold it.
>
> As soon as she had made out the proper way of nursing it,
> (which was to twist it up into a sort of knot, and then keep
> tight hold of its right ear and left foot, so as to prevent its
> undoing itself,) she carried it out into the open air. `IF I
> don't take this child away with me,' thought Alice, `they're sure
> to kill it in a day or two: wouldn't it be murder to leave it
> behind?' She said the last words out loud, and the little thing
> grunted in reply (it had left off sneezing by this time). `Don't
> grunt,' said Alice; `that's not at all a proper way of expressing
> yourself.'
>
> The baby grunted again, and Alice looked very anxiously into
> its face to see what was the matter with it. There could be no
> doubt that it had a VERY turn-up nose, much more like a snout
> than a real nose; also its eyes were getting extremely small for
> a baby: altogether Alice did not like the look of the thing at
> all. `But perhaps it was only sobbing,' she thought, and looked
> into its eyes again, to see if there were any tears.
>
> No, there were no tears. `If you're going to turn into a pig,
> my dear,' said Alice, seriously, `I'll have nothing more to do
> with you. Mind now!' The poor little thing sobbed again (or
> grunted, it was impossible to say which), and they went on for
> some while in silence.
>
> Alice was just beginning to think to herself, `Now, what am I
> to do with this creature when I get it home?' when it grunted
> again, so violently, that she looked down into its face in some
> alarm. This time there could be NO mistake about it: it was
> neither more nor less than a pig, and she felt that it would be
> quite absurd for her to carry it further.
>
> So she set the little creature down, and felt quite relieved to
> see it trot away quietly into the wood. `If it had grown up,'
> she said to herself, `it would have made a dreadfully ugly child:
> but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think.' And she began
> thinking over other children she knew, who might do very well as
> pigs, and was just saying to herself, `if one only knew the right
> way to change them--' when she was a little startled by seeing
> the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off.
>
> The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-
> natured, she thought: still it had VERY long claws and a great
> many teeth, so she felt that it ought to be treated with respect.
>
> `Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she did not at
> all know whether it would like the name: however, it only
> grinned a little wider. `Come, it's pleased so far,' thought
> Alice, and she went on. `Would you tell me, please, which way I
> ought to go from here?'
>
> `That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said
> the Cat.
>
> `I don't much care where--' said Alice.
>
> `Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
>
> `--so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.
>
> `Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, `if you only walk
> long enough.'
>
> Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another
> question. `What sort of people live about here?'
>
> `In THAT direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round,
> `lives a Hatter: and in THAT direction,' waving the other paw,
> `lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad.'
>
> `But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
>
> `Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here.
> I'm mad. You're mad.'
>
> `How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
>
> `You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'
>
> Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on
> `And how do you know that you're mad?'
>
> `To begin with,' said the Cat, `a dog's not mad. You grant
> that?'
>
> `I suppose so,' said Alice.
>
> `Well, then,' the Cat went on, `you see, a dog growls when it's
> angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm
> pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad.'
>
> `I call it purring, not growling,' said Alice.
>
> `Call it what you like,' said the Cat. `Do you play croquet
> with the Queen to-day?'
>
> `I should like it very much,' said Alice, `but I haven't been
> invited yet.'
>
> `You'll see me there,' said the Cat, and vanished.
>
> Alice was not much surprised at this, she was getting so used
> to queer things happening. While she was looking at the place
> where it had been, it suddenly appeared again.
>
> `By-the-bye, what became of the baby?' said the Cat. `I'd
> nearly forgotten to ask.'
>
> `It turned into a pig,' Alice quietly said, just as if it had
> come back in a natural way.
>
> `I thought it would,' said the Cat, and vanished again.
>
> Alice waited a little, half expecting to see it again, but it
> did not appear, and after a minute or two she walked on in the
> direction in which the March Hare was said to live. `I've seen
> hatters before,' she said to herself; `the March Hare will be
> much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won't be
> raving mad--at least not so mad as it was in March.' As she said
> this, she looked up, and there was the Cat again, sitting on a
> branch of a tree.
>
> `Did you say pig, or fig?' said the Cat.
>
> `I said pig,' replied Alice; `and I wish you wouldn't keep
> appearing and vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy.'
>
> `All right,' said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly,
> beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin,
> which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.
>
> `Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin,' thought Alice;
> `but a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever
> saw in my life!'