“Oh,” said Ranulf, “wouldn’t it be nice if we could! Only the funniest thing is how she got through the wall. I don’t see how being asleep would help her to do that.”
Norval, the eldest, broke in—“Oh, you big stupid! she didn’t go through it; she only thought she did.”
“Well, then,” said Jaques, “I want to think it too. Last night when I was in bed I tried to go to sleep, and to get through the wall; but when I fell asleep I forgot all about it, and dreamed that I was sick, and that the doctor gave me a big glass of something horrid.”
“Ah, but,” said Norval, “that was because you tried. Alice didn’t try, you know. She knew nothing about being asleep till she woke up.”
“Well, I didn’t know I was asleep till I woke up, either,” answered Jaques.
Ranulf looked very wise, although he was the smallest, and said, “Perhaps if Alice was here, she would tell us how to do it.”
HOW TO DO IT.
“Of course I would,” said a sweet voice behind them; and, turning round, who should they see but little Alice herself, looking exactly as she does on page 35, where she is getting her thimble from the Dodo?
“Oh, how awfully jolly!” cried Norval; “will you help us?” He was very much surprised, not at seeing Alice, but at not being surprised.
“Indeed I will,” said she, “although I don’t know, you know, whether boys can manage it.”