X. SHAKING

. WAKING
WHICH DREAMED IT ?
CHRISTMAS GREETINGS
ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
S = » 4 Pee
saat Reentase
PREFACE
All in the golden afternoon Full leisurely we glide:
For both our oars, with Itttle skill, By little arms are plied,
While little hands make vain pretence Our wanderings to guide.
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 tt’”’— In gentler tone Secunda hopes
“ There will be nonsense in tt !”— While Tertia interrupts the tale
Not more than once a minute.
Anon, to sudden silence won, In fancy they pursue The dveam-child moving through a land
Of wonders wild and new, 7
PREFACE
In friendly chat with bird or beast And half believe tt 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 votces cry.
Thus grew the tale of Wonderland : Thus slowly, one by one,
Its quaint evenis were hammered out And now the tale ts done,
And home we steer, a merry crew, Beneath the seiting sun.
Alice! a childish story take, And with a gentle hand
Lay tt where Childhood's dreams ave twined In Memory’s mystic band,
Like pilgrim’s wither'd wreath of flowers Pluck'd in a far-off land.