Alice should be careful what she says in the odd world of Bertieland

ALICE had been invited to play croquet with the Duchess. The King and Queen of Hearts would be coming and Alice was so looking forward to it.

A lot of strange things had happened to Alice since she had followed the White Rabbit into Bertieland. She had met all sorts of odd people, especially when she went to the big tent at the races. Albert the Cheshire Cat was there, always grinning and saying 'howya'. There was Charlie the Mock Turtle, telling everyone they could 'feck off if they wanted any money'. The Walrus and the Carpenter, John from Kerry and Jim from Donegal, had made a lugubrious couple.

But it would be exciting to meet the King and Queen of Hearts. To be sure, nobody was sure any more who the Queen was, but the Duchess had been very certain that everything would be all right. Duchess Mary was always certain of everything, of course, talking so fast about enterprise and competitiveness that Alice always had difficulty keeping up with her. But Alice thought that even though most of what she had to say sounded like jabberwocky, the Duchess was always so sincere she must be speaking the truth.