"Cheshire Puss"

‘Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. `Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on. `Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

‘I don't much care where--' said Alice.

‘Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

‘--so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation.

‘Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, `if you only walk long enough.'

Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question. `What sort of people live about here?'

‘In that direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round, `lives a Hatter: and in that direction,' waving the other paw, `lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad.'

‘But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.

‘Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'

‘How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.

‘You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'

Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on `And how do you know that you're mad?'

‘To begin with,' said the Cat, `a dog's not mad. You grant that?'

‘I suppose so,' said Alice.

‘Well, then,' the Cat went on, `you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad.'

/From CHAPTER VI – Pig and Pepper/

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

© John Tenniel