'And that's the jury-box,' thought Alice, 'and those twelve creatures,' (she said 'creatures,' you see, because some of them were animals, and some were birds,) 'I suppose they are the jurors.' She said this last word two or three times over to herself. She was very proud of it: very few little girls of her age knew the meaning of it at all.

The twelve jurors were all writing very busily on slates.

'What are they doing?' Alice whispered to the Gryphon.

'They're putting down their names,' the Gryphon whispered in reply, 'they do not want to forget them before the end of the trial.'

'Fools!' Alice began in a loud, indignant voice, but she stopped hastily, because the White Rabbit cried out, 'Silence in the court!'

The King put on his spectacles and looked anxiously round.

One of the jurors had a pencil that squeaked. Alice went round the court and got behind him, and very soon found an opportunity to take it away. She did it so quickly that the poor little juror (it was Bill, the Lizard) did not understand anything.

So he began to write with his finger; but this was useless.

'Read the accusation!' said the King.

The White Rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet, and then unrolled the parchment scroll, and began to read:

'The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,

All on a summer day:

The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,

And took them quite away!'

'Consider your verdict,' the King said to the jury.

'No, no!' the Rabbit hastily interrupted. 'Let's…'

'Call the first witness,' said the King; and the White Rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet, and called out, 'First witness!'

The first witness was the Hatter. He came in with a teacup in one hand and a piece of bread-and-butter in the other.

'I beg pardon, your Majesty,' he began, 'but I was drinking my tea when they called me.'

'So what?' said the King. 'When did you begin?'

The Hatter looked at the March Hare, who entered, arm-in-arm with the Dormouse. 'Fourteenth of March, I think it was,' he said.

'Fifteenth,' said the March Hare.

'Sixteenth,' added the Dormouse.

'Write that down,' the King said to the jury, and the jury eagerly wrote down all three dates, and then added them up, and reduced the answer to shillings and pence.

'Take off your hat!' the King said to the Hatter.

'It isn't mine,' said the Hatter.

'You stole it!' the King exclaimed.

'I keep them to sell,' the Hatter added as an explanation; 'I do not have my own hats. I'm a hatter.'

Here the Queen put on her spectacles, and began to look at the Hatter. The Hatter turned pale.

The Hatter looked uneasily at the Queen, and in his confusion he bit a large piece out of his teacup instead of the bread-and-butter.

Just at this moment Alice felt a very curious sensation: she was beginning to grow larger again. She wanted to get up and leave the court; but then she decided to remain where she was.

'What are you doing?' asked the Dormouse, who was sitting next to her. 'I can't breathe.'

'Sorry,' said Alice very meekly: 'I'm growing.'

'You've no right to grow here,' said the Dormouse.

'Don't talk nonsense,' said Alice more boldly: 'you know you're growing too.'

'Yes, but not so fast,' said the Dormouse. And it got up very sulkily and crossed over to the other side of the court.

'Bring me the list of the singers in the last concert!' the Queen ordered.

'Tell what you know of this case,' the King said, 'or I'll have your head off.'

'I'm a poor man, your Majesty,' the Hatter began, in a trembling voice, 'and I did not finish my tea-and I took my bread-and-butter-and the tea…'

'What?' said the King.

'It began with the tea,' the Hatter replied.

'Of course with a T!' said the King sharply. 'Do you take me for a fool? Go on!'

'I'm a poor man,' the Hatter went on, 'and as the March Hare said…'

'I didn't!' the March Hare interrupted in a great hurry.

'You did!' said the Hatter.

'I deny it!' said the March Hare.

'He denies it,' said the King.

'Well, the Dormouse said…' the Hatter went on slowly, but the Dormouse denied nothing. It was asleep.

'After that,' continued the Hatter, 'I cut some more bread…'

'But what did the Dormouse say?' one of the jury asked.

'That I can't remember,' said the Hatter.

'You must remember,' remarked the King, 'or I'll have you executed.'

The miserable Hatter dropped his teacup and bread-and-butter, and went down on one knee.

'I'm a poor man, your Majesty,' he began.

'You're a very poor speaker,' said the King. 'If that's all you know about it, you may sit down.'

'I want to finish my tea,' said the Hatter, and looked at the Queen, who was reading the list of singers.

'You may go,' said the King, and the Hatter hurriedly left the court.

'…and just take his head off outside,' the Queen added to one of the officers: but the Hatter was far away.

'Call the next witness!' said the King.

The next witness was the Duchess's cook. She carried the pepper-box in her hand. The people near the door began to sneeze at once.

“Tell what you know of this case,” said the King.

'I shan't,' said the cook.

The King looked at the White Rabbit, who said in a low voice, 'Your Majesty must make her tell.'

“Well, if I must, I must,” said the King with a sad look. He folded his arms and frowned at the cook, then asked in a stern voice, 'What are tarts made of?'

'Pepper, mostly,' said the cook.

'Treacle,' said a sleepy voice behind her.

'Catch that Dormouse,' the Queen shrieked out. 'Off with its head! Turn him out of court! Pinch him! Off with his head!'

For some minutes the whole court was in confusion, they ran here and there, they were trying to catch the Dormouse. The cook disappeared.

'That's all right,' said the King. 'Call the next witness.'

Alice watched the White Rabbit. Imagine her surprise, when the White Rabbit called her name: 'Alice!'

Chapter XII

Alice's Evidence

'Here!' cried Alice, but she forgot how large she was, and jumped up. The edge of her skirt tipped the jury box and turned them all out on the heads of the crowd below.

'Oh, I beg your pardon!' she exclaimed in a tone of great dismay, and began to pick them up again.

'The trial cannot proceed,' said the King in a very grave voice, 'until all the jurymen are back in their proper places-all,' he repeated with great force and looked hard at Alice…

Alice looked at the jury-box, and saw that, in her haste, she put the Lizard in head downwards, and the poor little Lizard was waving its tail in the air, but could not move. She soon got it out again, and put it right; 'there's no big difference,' she said to herself.

'What do you know about this business?' the King said to Alice.

'Nothing,' said Alice.

'Nothing at all?' persisted the King.

'Nothing at all,' said Alice.

'That's very important,' the King said, and turned to the jury. They were just beginning to write this down, when the White Rabbit interrupted: 'UNimportant, your Majesty means, of course,' he said in a very respectful tone.

'UNimportant, of course, I meant,' the King hastily said, and went on, 'important-unimportant-unimportant-important'.

He was trying which word sounded best.

Some of the jury wrote it down 'important,' and some 'unimportant.' Alice could see this, she was near enough.