The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and began, in a voice sometimes choked with sobs, to sing this:—­

    `Beautiful Soup, so rich and green,
    Waiting in a hot tureen! 
    Who for such dainties would not stoop? 
    Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup! 
    Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup! 
        Beau—­ootiful Soo—­oop! 
        Beau—­ootiful Soo—­oop! 
    Soo—­oop of the e—­e—­evening,
        Beautiful, beautiful Soup!

    `Beautiful Soup!  Who cares for fish,
    Game, or any other dish? 
    Who would not give all else for two
    Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup? 
    Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup? 
        Beau—­ootiful Soo—­oop! 
        Beau—­ootiful Soo—­oop! 
    Soo—­oop of the e—­e—­evening,
        Beautiful, beauti—­FUL soup!’

`Chorus again!’ cried the Gryphon, and the Mock Turtle had just begun to repeat it, when a cry of `The trial’s beginning!’ was heard in the distance.

`Come on!’ cried the Gryphon, and, taking Alice by the hand, it hurried off, without waiting for the end of the song.

`What trial is it?’ Alice panted as she ran; but the Gryphon only answered `Come on!’ and ran the faster, while more and more faintly came, carried on the breeze that followed them, the melancholy words:—­

`Soo—­oop of the e—­e—­evening,
Beautiful, beautiful Soup!’

CHAPTER XI

Who Stole the Tarts?

The King and Queen of Hearts were seated on their throne when they arrived, with a great crowd assembled about them—­all sorts of little birds and beasts, as well as the whole pack of cards:  the Knave was standing before them, in chains, with a soldier on each side to guard him; and near the King was the White Rabbit, with a trumpet in one hand, and a scroll of parchment in the other.  In the very middle of the court was a table, with a large dish of tarts upon it:  they looked so good, that it made Alice quite hungry to look at them—­`I wish they’d get the trial done,’ she thought, `and hand round the refreshments!’ But there seemed to be no chance of this, so she began looking at everything about her, to pass away the time.

Alice had never been in a court of justice before, but she had read about them in books, and she was quite pleased to find that she knew the name of nearly everything there. `That’s the judge,’ she said to herself, `because of his great wig.’

The judge, by the way, was the King; and as he wore his crown over the wig, (look at the frontispiece if you want to see how he did it,) he did not look at all comfortable, and it was certainly not becoming.

`And that’s the jury-box,’ thought Alice, `and those twelve creatures,’ (she was obliged to say `creatures,’ you see, because some of them were animals, and some were birds,) `I suppose they are the jurors.’  She said this last word two or three times over to herself, being rather proud of it:  for she thought, and rightly too, that very few little girls of her age knew the meaning of it at all.  However, `jury-men’ would have done just as well.