So she set the little creature down, and felt quite relieved to

see it trot away quietly into the wood. `If it had grown up,'

she said to herself, `it would have made a dreadfully ugly child:

but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think.' And she began

thinking over other children she knew, who might do very well as

pigs, and was just saying to herself, `if one only knew the right

way to change them--' when she was a little startled by seeing

the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off.

The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-

natured, she thought: still it had VERY long claws and a great

many teeth, so she felt that it ought to be treated with respect.

`Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she did not at

all know whether it would like the name: however, it only

grinned a little wider. `Come, it's pleased so far,' thought

Alice, and she went on. `Would you tell me, please, which way I

ought to go from here?'

`That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said

the Cat.

`I don't much care where--' said Alice.

`Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

`--so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.

`Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, `if you only walk

long enough.'

Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another

question. `What sort of people live about here?'

`In THAT direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round,

`lives a Hatter: and in THAT direction,' waving the other paw,

`lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad.'

`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.

`Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here.

I'm mad. You're mad.'

`How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.