“What is the matter?” she said.... “Have you pricked your finger?”
“I haven’t pricked it yet,” the Queen said, “but I soon shall—oh, oh, oh!”
“When do you expect to do it?” Alice asked, feeling very much inclined to laugh.
“When I fasten my shawl again,” the poor Queen groaned out, “the brooch will come undone directly. Oh, oh!” As she said the words the brooch flew open, and the Queen clutched wildly at it and tried to clasp it again.
“Take care!” cried Alice, “you’re holding it all crooked!” and she caught at the brooch; but it was too late; the pin had slipped, and the Queen had pricked her finger.
“That accounts for the bleeding, you see,” she said to Alice, with a smile. “Now you understand the way things happen here.”
Alice’s meeting with Humpty-Dumpty in the sixth square has gone down in history. It has been played in nurseries and in private theatricals, and many ingenious Humpty-Dumptys have been fashioned by clever people.
Possibly the dear old rhyme which generations of childhood have handed about as a riddle is responsible for our great interest in Humpty-Dumpty.
Humpty-Dumpty sat on the wall,
Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall,
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men,
Couldn’t put Humpty-Dumpty in his place again.
This is an old version, but modern children have made a better ending, thus: