Latest / Classic Adventure Books Library / 03 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

Transcript

03 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll · Classic Adventure Books Library

• 0:00
  Chapter three, A caucus race and a long Tale. They were indeed a
• 0:12
  queer looking party that assembled on the bank, the birds with draggled feathers,
• 0:21
  the animals with their fur clinging close to them, and all dripping, wet,
• 0:28
  cross and uncomfortable. The first question, of course, was how to
• 0:36
  get dry again. They had a consultation about this, and after a few
• 0:43
  minutes it seemed quite natural to Alice to find herself talking familiarly with them,
• 0:52
  as if she had known them all her life. Indeed, she had quite
• 0:59
  a long argue with the lory, who at last turned sulky and would only
• 1:06
  say, I am older than you and must know better. And this Alice
• 1:14
  would not allow, without knowing how old it was, And as the lory
• 1:22
  positively refused to tell its age, there was no more to be said.
• 1:32
  At last, the mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among
• 1:37
  them, called out, sit down, all of you and listen to me.
• 1:44
  I'll soon make you dry enough. They all sat down at once in
• 1:51
  a large ring, with the mouse in the middle. Alice kept her eyes
• 1:57
  anxiously thick on it, for she felt sure she would catch a bad cold
• 2:07
  if she did not get dry. Very soon ahem, said the mouse,
• 2:13
  with an important air. Are you already? This is the driest thing I
• 2:21
  know? Silence all round, if you please. William the conqueror, whose
• 2:30
  cause was favored by the Pope, was soon submitted to by the English,
• 2:36
  who wanted leaders and had been of late much accustomed to usurpation, and conquest
• 2:46
  Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria. Ugh said the lory
• 2:54
  with a shiver. I beg your pardon, said the mouse, frowning,
• 3:00
  but very politely. Did you speak not, I said the lorry hastily.
• 3:09
  I thought you did, said the mouse. I proceed Edwin and Morcar,
• 3:19
  the earls of Mercia and Northumbria declared for him, and even stigand the patriotic
• 3:29
  Archbishop of Canterbury found it advisable. Found what, said the duck? Found
• 3:39
  it? The mouse replied, rather crossly. Of course you know what it
• 3:46
  means. I know what it means well enough. When I find a thing,
• 3:53
  said the duck, it's generally a frog or a worm. The question
• 4:00
  is what did the archbishop find? The mouse did not notice this question,
• 4:11
  but hurriedly went on. Found it advisable to go with Edgar, etheling to
• 4:20
  meet William and offer him the crown. William's conduct was at first moderate,
• 4:30
  but the insolence of his normans. How are you getting on now, my
• 4:35
  dear, it continued, turning to Alice as it spoke. As wet as
• 4:45
  ever, said Alice in a melancholy tone. It doesn't seem to dry me
• 4:50
  at all in that case, said the Dodo, solemnly, rising to its
• 4:59
  fear eat. I move that the meeting adjourned for the immediate adoption of more
• 5:06
  energetic remedies. Speak English, said the eaglet. I don't know the meaning
• 5:15
  of half those long words, and what's more, I don't believe you do
• 5:21
  either, And the eaglet bent down its head to hide a smile. Some
• 5:29
  of the other birds tittered audibly. What I was going to say, said
• 5:38
  the Dodo, in an offended tone, was that the best thing is to
• 5:44
  get us dry would be a caucus race. What is a caucus race?
• 5:54
  Said Alice, not that she wanted much to know, but that Dodo had
• 6:00
  paused as if it thought that somebody ought to speak, and no one else
• 6:09
  seemed inclined to say anything. Why, said the Dodo. The best way
• 6:16
  to explain it is to do it, and you might like to try the
• 6:24
  thing yourself some winter day. I will tell you how the Dodo managed it.
• 6:32
  First it marked out a race course in a sort of circle. The
• 6:41
  exact shape doesn't matter, it said, And then all the party were placed
• 6:47
  along the course. Here and there there was no one, two, three,
• 6:57
  and away. But they began running when they liked and left off when
• 7:03
  they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was
• 7:10
  over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so and
• 7:15
  were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out the race is over,
• 7:23
  and they all crowded round it, panting and asking, but who has won?
• 7:30
  This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought,
• 7:36
  and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead,
• 7:45
  the position in which you usually see Shakespeare in the pictures of him, while
• 7:50
  the rest waited in silence. At last, the Dodo said, everybody has
• 7:58
  won, and all must have prizes. But who is to give the prizes?
• 8:07
  Quite a chorus of voices asked why she, of course, said the
• 8:13
  Dodo, pointing to Alice with one finger, and the whole party at once
• 8:20
  crowded round her, calling out in a confused way, prizes, prizes.
• 8:30
  Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair, she put her
• 8:37
  hand in her pocket and pulled out a box of comfits, luckily the salt
• 8:45
  water had not got into it, and handed them round as prizes. There
• 8:52
  was exactly one a piece all round. But she should but she must have
• 9:01
  a prize herself, you know, said the mouse. Of course, the
• 9:07
  Dodo replied, very gravely. What else have you got in your pocket?
• 9:13
  He went on, turning to Alice, Only a thimble, said Alice.
• 9:20
  Sadly, hand it over here, said the Dodo. Then they all crowded
• 9:28
  around her once more, while the Dodo solemnly presented the thimble, saying,
• 9:35
  we beg your acceptance of this elegant thimble. And when it had finished this
• 9:43
  short speech, they all cheered. Alice thought the whole thing very absurd,
• 9:54
  but they all looked so grave that she did not dare to laugh, And
• 10:00
  as she could not think of anything to say, she simply bowed and took
• 10:07
  the thimble, looking as solemn as she could. The next thing was to
• 10:13
  eat the comfits. This caused some noise and confusion, as the large birds
• 10:22
  complained that they could not taste theirs, and the small ones choked and had
• 10:28
  to be petted on the back. However, it was over at last,
• 10:35
  and they sat down again in a ring and begged the mouse to tell them
• 10:41
  something more. You promised to tell me your history, you know, said
• 10:48
  Alice. And why it is you hate C and D? She added in
• 10:56
  a whisper, half afraid that it would be a fed again. Mine is
• 11:03
  a long and a sad tale, said the mouse, turning to Alice and
• 11:09
  sighing. It is a long tail, certainly, said Alice, looking down
• 11:16
  with wonder at the mouse's tail. But why do you call it sad?
• 11:24
  And she kept on puzzling about it while the mouse was speaking, so that
• 11:31
  her idea of the tale was something like this. Here the words are written
• 11:39
  on the page one, two, four on a line, and the lines
• 11:46
  are offset, so they snake down the page in a wavy fashion. And
• 11:52
  here's what they say. Fury said to a mouse that he met in the
• 12:00
  house. Let us both go to law. I will prosecute you. Come,
• 12:09
  I'll take no denial. We must have a trial. For really this
• 12:16
  morning, I've nothing to do, said the mouse to the cur Such a
• 12:24
  trial. Dear sir, with no jury or judge would be wasting our breath.
• 12:33
  I'll be judge. I'll be jury, said cunning old fury. I'll
• 12:39
  try the whole cause and condemn you to death. And there's where the snaky
• 12:48
  text ends, continuing. You are not attending, said the mouse to Alice
• 12:56
  severely. What are you thinking of? I beg your pardon, said Alice,
• 13:03
  very humbly. You had got to the fifth bend I think I had
• 13:11
  not, cried the mouse, sharply and very angrily. A knot, said
• 13:18
  Alice, always ready to make herself useful, and looking anxiously about her.
• 13:26
  Oh do let me help to undo it. I shall do nothing of the
• 13:31
  sort, said the mouse, getting up and walking away. You insult me
• 13:37
  by talking such nonsense. I didn't mean it, pleaded poor Alice. But
• 13:43
  you're so easily offended, you know. The mouse only growled in reply.
• 13:52
  Please come back and finish your story, Alice called after it, and the
• 14:00
  all joined in chorus. Yes, please do. But the mouse only shook
• 14:07
  its head impatiently and walked a little quicker. What a pity it wouldn't stay,
• 14:13
  sighed the lory as soon as it was quite out of sight, and
• 14:18
  an old crab took the opportunity of saying to her daughter, Ah, my
• 14:24
  dear, let this be a lesson to you, never to lose your temper
• 14:31
  hold your tongue, ma, said the young crab a little snappishly. You're
• 14:37
  enough to try the patience of an oyster. Oh I wish I had our
• 14:43
  Dinah here, I know I do, said Alice aloud, addressing nobody in
• 14:50
  particular. She'd soon fetch it back. And who is Dinah? If I
• 14:56
  might venture to ask the questions? Said the lory, Alice replied eagerly,
• 15:03
  for she was always ready to talk about her pet. Dinah's our cat,
• 15:11
  And she's such a capital one for catching mice, you can't think. And
• 15:18
  oh, I wish you could see her after the birds. Why she'll eat
• 15:22
  a little bird as soon as look at it. This speech caused a remarkable
• 15:30
  sensation among the party. Some of the birds hurried off at once. One
• 15:37
  old magpie began wrapping itself up very carefully, remarking, I really must be
• 15:43
  getting home. The night air doesn't suit my throat. And the canary called
• 15:50
  out in a trembling voice to its children, come away, my DearS,
• 15:56
  it's high time you were all in bed. On various pretexts, they all
• 16:03
  moved off, and Alice was soon left alone. Oh I wish I hadn't
• 16:11
  mentioned Dinah, she said to herself in a melancholy tone. Nobody seems to
• 16:18
  like her down here, and I'm sure she's the best cat in the world.
• 16:26
  Oh my dear Dinah, I wonder if I shall ever see you anymore.
• 16:32
  And here poor Alice began to cry again, for she felt very lonely
• 16:38
  and low spirited. In a little while, however, she again heard a
• 16:45
  little pattering of footsteps in the distance, and she looked up eagerly, half
• 16:52
  hoping that the mouse had changed his mind and was coming back to finish his
• 16:59
  story. This is the end of chapter three.