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The reason why the white queen was so puny is that Dinah was washing her during her dream. She wonders if Dinah turned into Humpty Dumpty. Alice tells them about all the poetry she heard and promise to recite some to them. She wonders who dreamed the dream, Alice or the red king. The kitty must know because she is the red queen and, therefore, married to him. It pretends not to hear the question.

Ch. 12 She calls the kitten your majesty and tells it that it went with her to the Looking Glass world. The kitten purrs but she wishes it would talk to her. She finds the red queen on the floor and asks the kitten to confess that’s what it was. To Alice, the kitten looks ashamed and refuses to look at the chess piece. She quotes obnoxious lines from the red queen to the kitten in a teasing way.

Ch. 10 and 11. As promised, Alice shakes the snot out of the queen and suddenly she transforms into a kitten with green eyes. Of course, they were green!

The queen shrinks to the size of a doll and Alice threatens to shake it. She is so much bigger that she is comfortable shaking the queen.

She resents how the queens squeeze her so. She begins to speak and they literally squeeze her. She grabs the table to pull herself down. The white queen warns her that something is going to happen. The tableware and candles grow as tall as rockets. The guests including the queen slips into the dishes. Alice has had enough and she pulls the tablecloth and things tumble to the ground.

It’s a poem about catching a fish, then buying it, then cooking it, and letting it lie in a dish. It ends with a riddle: which is easiet to undishcover the fish, or dishcover the riddle? The red queen announces that Alice must think about the riddle while everyone drinks. Unfortunately, the creatures resort to many odd strategies in order to drink. She suggests that Alice makes a speech. Alice stands to do her duty.

Alice is introduced to the mutton which bows to her and the waiter carries it away. The same thing happens to the pudding. Alice frets she will never eat. Alice order the pudding back and slices it. The pudding calls her rude. The red queen orders Alice to make a remark and Alice is tired of being put on the spot. The red queen asks the white queen to recite a poem about fish. The latter is delighted.

They are treacle and ink, cider mixed with sand, and wine mixed with wool. Alice is welcomed with 90 times 9 which scares her. She looks around, and there are 50 guests that include birds, animals, and flowers. There are three chairs at the head table. An empty seat for Queen Alice is between the two queens. She missed the fish and soup, and now it is time for the mutton joint but Alice does not know how to carve it.

The frog advises her that knocking on the door vexes it. The door opens and a shrill voice sings about Alice with her crown and scepter and the two queens. A chorus of 100 voices sings about odd stuff: put cats in coffee and mice and tea and greet her with 30 times 3. Alice ponders the math and the song says she invites all the looking glass creatures to the feast. The chorus sings about disgusting drinks.

She has a servant’s bell and a visitor’s bell. She is outside for some reason. She knocks on the door and a creature with a long beak opens the door and shuts it in her face. She knocks and knocks. An old frog dressed in yellow including boots walks up to her from under a tree. She asks why nobody answers the door. More puns on the word answer. The frog asks if the door speaks English.

The lullaby talks about taking a nap before the feast is ready and there being a ball after the feast. Then the red queen falls asleep while singing. Alice finds the heads of two queens on her lap. They snore and she tries to wake them up. Their snoring turns into a tune that Alice recognizes and, in true dreamlike state, the queens disappear. She sees “Quee Alice” written over her door.

The conversation switches to fish and rolls back to the thunderstorm which took off the roof and knocked around things. The white queen was frightened that she could not remember her name. The red queen makes excuses for the white queen and patronizes her about not being brought up properly. The white queen is sleepy and the red queen asks Alice to sing her a lullaby. Alice looks blank so the red queen sings.

She tries to correct herself. They tell her she must face the consequences. The queens share that they have several times at once. By having five nights of winter, it’s supposedly warmer. Five times as warm, is the same as five times as cold. It seems like a riddle with no answer to Alice. Then queen switches to talking to Humpty Dumpty who came to the door with a corkscrew in hand while looking for a hippopotamus.

One whispers that she can read one-letter words. They ask her how bread is made and they turn every word that she says into a pun and therefore they don’t understand it. They ask ridiculous questions like how to say fiddle-dee-dee in French. When she turns the tables on them, they say that queens don’t bargain. They play gotcha with a question about lightning.

She comments that she is the one to do the inviting and they call her bad-manner because she didn’t. Then there’s a long conversation about her abilities in basic math. It’s clear from their questions that they are ignorant about school lessons. When Alice tells them they are talking nonsense and asks them a question to tease that out, they get huffy. They ask her about knowing her ABCs.

The queens decide to examine Alice to see if she is a proper queen. Alice said if but to the queens if means a lot. I guess they don’t want her intruding on their turf. When she makes an excuse about what she didn’t mean, they jump all over her. One accuses her of being in denial, the other of having a nasty, vicious temper. They both invite each other to Alice’s dinner party but she has no idea she would have one.

Ch. 10 Alice scolds herself (her majesty) for lolling about in the grass. She struggles walk with dignity but believes she’ll learn after practicing. Suddenly the red and white queens are sitting near here and she tries to ask if the game is over. She is told only to speak when spoken to and Alice is feisty so she explains that nobody would speak if that were true. One asks why she thinks she is really a queen.

The knight asks Alice to watch him leave and she agrees. She liked the song but did not cry as much as the knight expected. He only falls five time. Alice goes to the Eighth Square. After all this death and dream imagery, she makes it to the number that is the symbol of resurrection. I think I’m reading too much into it. LOL She throws herself on the moss to rest and is surprised to find a crown on her head.

He sang with his mild blue eyes and kindly smile. The reins hang loose on the horse’s neck as it quietly crops. The forest behind him has black shadows. Alice leans against a tree, shading her eyes, listening to the music in a hal dream. She recognizes the tune as Thomas Moore’s “I Give Thee All, I Can No More,” but tears do not come to her eyes. It’s a ballad. I’m terrible at poetry. I have no idea what it says.

The name is called “Haddocks’ Eyes” but its real name is “The Aged Aged Man” and the song is called “Ways and Means” but the tune is “A-sitting On A Gate” which the knight invented. Whatever it is, Alice is not thrilled. This is like reading hymnary.org. This scene has stuck with her the most. He begins to beat time with one hand. The setting sun gleams through his hair and reflects off his armor, dazzling her eyes.

He is upside down in a ditch. Alice runs to help him but he’s talking like he’s not hurt (just a flesh wound). His mind keeps working regardless of what happens to his body. Alice listens to him talk about his inventions to keep up his spirits: a new pudding made of blotting paper, gunpowder and sealing-wax for the meat course. Because he must leave, he sings a long and beautiful song for her.

He has to put his head on the gate and stand on his head. He doesn’t kow how to do the second part. He also invented a helmet made of a sugar loaf to soften the blow. The white knight thought it was his helmet and he took it. The red knight kicked him until he got his helmet back. It took hours and hours but he was fast as lightning, which is fast to him, but not to Alice. He gets excited and falls into a ditch.

While saying the great art of riding requires balance, he falls off the horse. Alice worries about him breaking bones but he is fine. Alice tells him that he is ridiculous and he needs a wooden horse. In all seriousness, he asks her if it’s easier to ride and she answers “yes” with a giggle. He says that he will get one or two to practice. While riding, he invents a new way to get over the gate.

It’s very windy and the knight has an ideo to prevent his hair from falling off. Tie it around a stick and hold it up. Nothing falls up. LOL Alice gives him a hard pass. The knight keeps falling off the horse and Alice keeps helping him. He’s so bad in falls off in all directions. She remarks about how poorly he rides, and he is insulted and he asks why. She says that people who practice don’t fall as much.

He hung it upside down so nothing would get out, but it backfired since everything fell out. He throws the box in the bushes, hoping that bees will make a hive in it. It could also be a mousetrap. He likes to be prepared so he put anklets on the horse to prevent shark bites. He suggests taking the cake plate in case they need it. He put it in his bag and hung it on his saddle with a bunch of carrots and fire irons.

The knights make a racket but the horses are quiet. The white knight claims victory. Alice says she doesn’t want to be a prisoner. She wants to be a queen. He promises to escort her out of the woods. When she crosses the brook, she will be queen. She helps him take off his helmet. He has a gentle face and mild eyes for a soldier. His armor is ill-fitting. He has a box hanging upside down off his neck--his invention.

Ch. 8 When Alice opens her eyes, everyone has vanished. Because she sees the plate, she knows it was not a dream. She sees a red knight who claims her as his prisoner. A white knight shows up to rescue her. They decide to fight for her following the rules of battle and she wonders what they are. She figures out some rules during the battle. One is that they always fall on their head.

She runs across the brook -- is that another reference to death? The lion and unicorn are angry about the feast being interrupted. She covers her hears to block out the noise.

The cake slices itself up and she hands out three slices. The unicorn tells her to slice up what is on the empty plate, which is nothing to go with nobody. The unicorn complains about the size of the slices and says the monter is unfair. Alice didn’t have any: only the king, unicorn, and lion ate. The lion asks her if she likes plum cake. Drums begin to beat and she runs away and crosses the brook.

The king does not want to sit with these fiersome creatures. Now the lion and unicorn start smack talking about the fight. The king is so nervous that his crown is shaking. He tries to change the subject so they won’t fight. He asks where they fought and they have no idea because of the dust cloud. Alice struggles with cutting so the unicorn tells her to pass out the cake first and then cut it.