Journeys Through Bookland, Volume 3 | Page 7

his wily,

flattering words, Came slowly flitting by: With buzzing wings she hung
aloft, Then near and nearer drew-- Thought only of her brilliant eyes
And green and purple hue; Thought only of her crested head-- Poor
foolish thing! At last Up jumped the cunning spider, And fiercely held
her fast.
He dragged her up his winding stair, Into his dismal den, Within his
little parlor--but She ne'er came out again! And now, dear little children
Who may this story read, To idle, silly, flattering words, I pray you,
ne'er give heed: Unto an evil counsellor Close heart and ear and eye,
And learn a lesson from this tale Of the spider and the fly.

A FAREWELL
By CHARLES KINGSLEY
My fairest child, I have no song to give you; No lark could pipe to skies
so dull and gray; Yet, ere we part, one lesson I can leave you For every
day.
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do noble things, not
dream them, all day long: And so make life, death, and that vast forever
One grand sweet song.

QUEEN ALICE
By LEWIS CARROLL
Alice threw herself down to rest on a lawn as soft as moss, with little
flower beds dotted about it here and there. "Oh, how glad I am to get
here! And what IS this on my head?" she exclaimed, as she put her
hands up to something very heavy, that fitted tight all round her head.
"But how CAN it have got there without my knowing it?" she said to
herself, as she lifted it off, and set it on her lap to make out what it
could possibly be. It was a golden crown.
"Well, this IS grand!" said Alice. "I never expected I should be a queen
so soon--and I'll tell you what it is, your majesty," she went on in a
severe tone (she was always rather fond of scolding herself), "it'll never
do for you to be lolling about on the grass like that! Queens have to be
dignified, you know!"
So she got up and walked about--rather stiffly just at first, as she was
afraid that the crown might come off: but she comforted herself with

the thought that there was nobody to see her; "and if I really am a
queen," she said, as she sat down again, "I shall be able to manage it
quite well in time."
Everything was happening so oddly that she didn't feel a bit surprised at
finding the Red Queen and the White Queen sitting close to her, one on
each side: she would have liked very much to ask them how they came
there, but she feared it would not be quite civil. However, there would
be no harm, she thought, in asking if the game was over.
[Illustration: IT WAS A GOLDEN CROWN]
"Please, would you tell me--" she began, looking timidly at the Red
Queen.
"Speak when you're spoken to!" the Queen sharply interrupted her.
"But if everybody obeyed that rule," said Alice, who was always ready
for a little argument, "and if you only spoke when you were spoken to,
and the other person always waited for YOU to begin, you see nobody
would ever say anything, so--"
"Ridiculous!" cried the Queen. "Why, don't you see, child--" here she
broke off with a frown, and, after thinking for a minute, suddenly
changed the subject of the conversation. "What do you mean by 'If you
really are a queen?' What right have you to call yourself so? You can't
be a queen, you know, till you've passed the proper examination. And
the sooner we begin it, the better."
"I only said 'if'," poor Alice pleaded in a piteous tone.
The two queens looked at each other, and the Red Queen remarked,
with a little shudder, "She SAYS she only said 'if'--"
"But she said a great deal more than that," the White Queen moaned,
wringing her hands. "Oh, ever so much more than that."
"So you did, you know," the Red Queen said to Alice. "Always speak
the truth--think before you speak--and write it down afterward."
"I'm sure I didn't mean--" Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen
interrupted her impatiently.
"That's just what I complain of. You SHOULD have meant! What do
you suppose is the use of a child without any meaning? Even a joke
should have some meaning--and a child's more important than a joke, I
hope. You couldn't deny that, even if you tried with both hands."
"I don't deny things with my HANDS," Alice objected. "Nobody said
you did," said the Red Queen. "I said you couldn't if you tried."

"She's in that state of mind," said the White Queen, "that she wants to
deny SOMETHING--only she doesn't know what