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LET'S PRETEND THE GLASS
Because the kitten wouldn't fold its arms properly. So, to punish it, she held it up to the Looking-glass, that it might see how sulky it was, « and if you're not good directly, she added, I'll put you through into Looking-glass House. How would you like that ? » « Now, if you'Il only attend, Kitty, and not talk so much, I'll tell you all my ideas about Looking-glass House. First, there's the room you can see through the glass - that's just the same as our drawing-room, only the things go the other way. I can see all of it when I get upon a chair - all but the bit just behind the fireplace. Oh ! I do so wish I could see that bit ! I want so much to know whether they've a fire in the winter : you never can tell, you know, unless our fire smokes, and then smoke comes up in that room too - but that may be only pretence, just to make it look as if they had a fire. Well then, the books are something like our books, only the words go the wrong way : I know that, because I've held up one of our books to the glass, and then they hold up one in the other room. »
« How would you like to live in Looking-glass House, Kitty ? I wonder if they'd give you milk in there ? Perhaps Looking-glass milk isn't good to drink - but oh, Kitty, now we come to the passage. (...) Oh, Kitty, how nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking-glass House ! I'm sure it's got, oh ! such beautiful things in it ! Let's pretend there's a way of getting through into it, somehow, Kitty. Let's pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through. Why, it's turning into a sort of mist now, I declare ! It'll be easy enough to, get through » She was up on the chimney-piece while she said this, though she hardly knew how she had got there. And certainly the glass was beginning to melt away, just like a bright silvery mist. In another moment Alice was throught the glass, and had jumped lightly down into the Looking-glass room.
Lewis Carrol, 1871 Illustration : Sir John TennielL, 1896
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