The Garden of Live Flowers
'I should see the garden far better,' said Alice to herself, 'if I could get to the top of the hill: and here's a path that leads straight to it - at least no, it doesn't do that -' (after going a few yards along the path and turning several sharp corners) ‘but I suppose it will at last. But how curiously it twists! It’s more like a corkscrew than a path! Well this turn goes to the hill, I suppose - no, it doesn’t! This goes straight back to the house! Well then, I’ll try it the other way.’
And so she did: wandering up and down, and trying turn after turn, but always coming back to the house, do what she would…………….
'Oh its too bad!' she cried. 'I never saw such a house for getting in the way! Never!'
However there was a hill full in sight so there was nothing to be done but start again. this time she came upon a large flower bed, with a border of daisies and a willow-tree growing in the middle.
'O Tiger-lily,' said Alice, addressing herself to one that was waving gracefully in the wind,' I wish you could talk!'
'We can talk,' said the Tiger-lily: 'when there's anybody worth talking to.'
Alice was so astonished that she could not speak for a minute: it quite seemed to take her breath away. At length, as the Tiger-lily only went on waving about, she spoke again, in a timid voice-almost in a whisper. 'And can all the flowers talk?'
'As well as you can,' said the Tiger-lily. 'And a great deal louder.'
'It isn't manners for us to begin, you know,' said the Rose, 'and I was really wondering when you'd speak! said I to myself, " her face has got some sense in it, though it's not a clever one!" Still, you're a right colour, and that goes a long way.'
'I don't care about the colour ,' the Tiger-lily remarked, 'If only her petals curled up a little more, she'd be alright.'
Alice didn't like being criticised, so she began asking questions. 'Aren't you sometimes frightened at being planted out here, with nobody to take care of you?'
'There's the tree in the middle,' said the Rose:'what else is it good for?'
'But what good could it do, if any danger?' Alice asked.
"It could bark,' said the Rose.
'It says "Bough-wough!" 'cried a daisy 'that's why its branches are called boughs !'
'Didn't you know that?' cried another Daisy, and here they
all began shouting together, till the air seemed quite full
of little shrill voices. 'Silence, every one of you!' cried
the Tiger-lily, waving itself passionately from side to
side, and trembling with excitement. 'They know I can'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.
'Thats right!' said the Tiger-lily. 'When one speaks, they
all begin together, and its 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. 'Its 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.
Its my opinion that you never think at all the Rose said in
a rather severe tone.
'I never saw anyone look 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
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 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-' ('your
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.'
'Her petals are done up close all most like a dahlia,' the
Tiger-lily interrupted: 'not tumbled about anyhow, like
yours.'
'But that's not your fault,' the Rose added kindly; 'you're
beginning to fade, you know-and then one can't help ones
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 here soon,' said the Rose. 'She's one
of the thorny kind.'
'Where does she wear her thorns?' 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 of the rule.'
'She's coming!' said the Larkspur. 'I hear her footstep,
thump, thump, along the gravel-walk!'
Alice looked around eagerly, and found that it was the Red
Queen.
Extract from: ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’,
Lewis Carroll, first published 1872