White Pawn (Alice) to play, and win in eleven moves.
1. Alice meets R. Q.
1. R. Q. to K. R.’s 4th
2. Alice through Q.’s 3d (by railway) to 4th (Tweedledum and Tweedledee)
2. W. Q. to Q. B.’s 4th (after shawl)
3. Alice meets W. Q. (with shawl)
3. W. Q. to Q.B.’s 5th (becomes sheep)
4. Alice to Q.’s 5th (shop, river, shop)
4. W. Q. to K. B.’s 8th (leaves egg on shelf)
5. Alice to Q.’s 6th (Humpty Dumpty)
5. W. Q. to Q. B.’s 8th (flying from R. Kt.)
6. Alice to Q.’s 7th (forest)
6. R. Kt. to K.’s 2nd (ch.)
7. W.Kt. takes R.Kt.
7. W. Kt. to K. B’s 5th
8. Alice to Q.’s 8th (coronation)
8. R. Q. to K.’s sq. (examination)
9. Alice becomes Queen
9. Queens castle
10. Alice castles (feast)
10. W.Q. to Q.R.’s 6th (soup)
11. Alice takes R.Q. & wins
Child of the pure unclouded brow
And dreaming eyes of wonder!
Though time be fleet, and I and thou
Are half a life asunder,
Thy loving smile will surely hail
The love-gift of a fairy-tale.
I have not seen thy sunny face,
Nor heard thy silver laughter;
No thought of me shall find a place
In thy young life’s hereafter—
Enough that now thou wilt not fail
To listen to my fairy-tale.
A tale begun in other days,
When summer suns were glowing—
A simple chime, that served to time
The rhythm of oar rowing—
Whose echoes live in memory yet,
Though envious years would say ‘forget.’
Come, hearken then, ere voice of dread.
With bitter tidings laden,
Shall summon to unwelcome bed
A melancholy maiden!
We are but older children, dear,
Who fret to find our bedtime near.
Without, the frost, the blinding snow.
The storm-wind’s moody madness—
Within, the firelight’s ruddy glow,
And childhood’s nest of gladness.
The magic words shall hold thee fast:
Thou shalt not heed the raving blast.
And though the shadow of a sigh
May tremble through the story,
For ‘happy summer days’ gone by,
And vanish’d summer glory—
It shall not touch with breath of bale
The pleasance of our fairy-tale.
Contents
CHAPTER I.
Looking-Glass House
One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it:—it was the black kitten’s fault entirely. For the white kitten had been having its face washed by the old cat for the last quarter of an hour (and bearing it pretty well, considering); so you see that it couldn’t have had any hand in the mischief.
The way Dinah washed her children’s faces was this: first she held the poor thing down by its ear with one paw, and then with the other paw she rubbed its face all over, the wrong way, beginning at the nose: and just now, as I said, she was hard at work on the white kitten, which was lying quite still and trying to purr—no doubt feeling that it was all meant for its good.
But the black kitten had been finished with earlier in the afternoon, and so, while Alice was sitting curled up in a corner of the great arm-chair, half talking to herself and half asleep, the kitten had been having a grand game of romps with the ball of worsted Alice had been trying to wind up, and had been rolling it up and down till it had all come undone again; and there it was, spread over the hearth-rug, all knots and tangles, with the kitten running after its own tail in the middle.