from side to side, and trembling with excitement. `They know I ca'n't get at them!` it panted, bending its quivering head towards Alice, `or they wouldn't dare to do it!'

`Never mind!' Alice said in a soothing tone, and, stooping down to the daisies, who were just beginning again, she whispered `If you don't hold your tongues, I'll pick you!'

There was silence in a moment, and several of the pink daisies turned white.

`That's right!' said the Tiger-lily. `The daisies are worst of all. When one speaks, they all begin together, and it's enough to make one wither to hear the way they go on!'

`How is it you can all talk so nicely?' Alice said, hoping to get it into a better temper by a compliment. `I've been in many gardens before, but none of the flowers could talk.'

`Put your hand down, and feel the ground,' said the Tiger-lily. `Then you'll know why.'

Alice did so. `It's very hard,' she said; `but I don't see what that has to do with it.'

`In most gardens,' the Tiger-lily said, `they make the beds too soft--so that the flowers are always asleep.'

This sounded a very good reason, and Alice was quite pleased to know it. `I never thought of that before!' she said.

`It's my opinion that you never think at all,' the Rose said, in a rather severe tone.

`I never saw anybody that looked stupider,' a Violet said, so suddenly, that Alice quite jumped; for it hadn't spoken before.

`Hold your tongue!' cried the Tiger-lily. `As if you ever saw anybody! You keep your head under the leaves, and snore away there, till you know no more what's going on in the world, than if you were a bud!'

`Are there any more people in the garden besides me?' Alice said, not choosing to notice the Rose's last remark.

`There's one other flower in the garden that can move about like you,' said the Rose. `I wonder how you do it--' (`You're always wondering,' said the Tiger-lily), `but she's more bushy than you are.'

`Is she like me?' Alice asked eagerly, for the thought crossed her mind, `There's another little girl in the garden, somewhere!'

`Well, she has the same awkward shape as you,' the Rose said; `but she's redder--and her petals are shorter, I think.'

`They're done up close, like a dahlia,' said the Tiger-lily: `not tumbled about, like yours.'

`But that's not your fault,' the Rose added kindly. `You're beginning to fade, you know--and then one ca'n't help one's petals getting a little untidy.'

Alice didn't like this idea at all: so, to change the subject, she asked `Does she ever come out here?'

`I daresay you'll see her soon,' said the Rose. `She's one of the kind that has nine spikes, you know.'

`Where does she wear them?' Alice asked with some curiosity.

`Why, all round her head, of course,' the Rose replied. `I was wondering you hadn't got some too. I thought it was the regular rule.'