Ah, cruel Three!  In such an hour,
          Beneath such dreamy weather,
        To beg a tale of breath too weak
          To stir the tiniest feather! 
        Yet what can one poor voice avail
          Against three tongues together?

        Imperious Prima flashes forth
          Her edict “to begin it”—­
        In gentler tones Secunda hopes
          “There will be nonsense in it!”
        While Tertia interrupts the tale
          Not more than once a minute.

        Anon, to sudden silence won,
          In fancy they pursue
        The dream-child moving through a land
          Of wonders wild and new,
        In friendly chat with bird or beast—­
          And half believe it true.

        And ever, as the story drained
          The wells of fancy dry,
        And faintly strove that weary one
          To put the subject by,
        “The rest next time”—­“It is next time!”
          The happy voices cry.

        Thus grew the tale of Wonderland: 
          Thus slowly, one by one,
        Its quaint events were hammered out—­
          And now the tale is done,
        And home we steer, a merry crew,
          Beneath the setting sun.

“Alice” herself (Mrs. Reginald Hargreaves) has given an account of the scene, from which what follows is quoted:—­

Most of Mr. Dodgson’s stories were told to us on river expeditions to Nuneham or Godstow, near Oxford.  My eldest sister, now Mrs. Skene, was “Prima,” I was “Secunda,” and “Tertia” was my sister Edith.  I believe the beginning of “Alice” was told one summer afternoon when the sun was so burning that we had landed in the meadows down the river, deserting the boat to take refuge in the only bit of shade to be found, which was under a new-made hayrick.  Here from all three came the old petition of “Tell us a story,” and so began the ever-delightful tale.  Sometimes to tease us—­and perhaps being really tired—­Mr. Dodgson would stop suddenly and say, “And that’s all till next time.”  “Ah, but it is next time,” would be the exclamation from all three; and after some persuasion the story would start afresh.  Another day, perhaps, the story would begin in the boat, and Mr. Dodgson, in the middle of telling a thrilling adventure, would pretend to go fast asleep, to our great dismay.

“Alice’s Adventures Underground” was the original name of the story; later on it became “Alice’s Hour in Elfland.”  It was not until June 18, 1864, that he finally decided upon “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”  The illustrating of the manuscript book gave him some trouble.  He had to borrow a “Natural History” from the Deanery to learn the correct shapes of some of the strange animals with which Alice conversed; the Mock Turtle he must have evolved out of his inner consciousness, for it is, I think, a species unknown to naturalists.