‘Please would you tell me,’ said Alice, a little timidly, for she was not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, ‘why your cat grins like that?’

‘It’s a Cheshire cat,’ said the Duchess, ‘and that’s why. Pig!’

She said the last word with such sudden violence that Alice quite jumped; but she saw in another moment that it was addressed to the baby, and not to her, so she took courage, and went on again: —

‘I didn’t know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn’t know that cats could grin.

’

‘They all can,’ said the Duchess; ‘and most of ‘em do.’