‘Indeed I shan’t!’ Alice said rather impatiently. ‘I don’t belong to this railway journey at all — I was in a wood just now — and I wish I could get back there.’

‘You might make a joke on that,’ said the little voice close to her ear: ‘something about “you would if you could,” you know.’

‘Don’t tease so,’ said Alice, looking about in vain to see where the voice came from; ‘if you’re so anxious to have a joke made, why don’t you make one yourself?’

The little voice sighed deeply: it was very unhappy, evidently, and Alice would have said something pitying to comfort it, ‘If it would only sigh like other people!’ she thought. But this was such a wonderfully small sigh, that she wouldn’t