I soon recognized him as being the bird who had behaved so impertinently to me on my first arrival at Why.
“Well!” he exclaimed, squeezing himself through the iron bars, and staring at me over the tops of his spectacles. “You have got yourself into a pretty now, I must say. I should think you are ashamed of yourself, aren’t you?”
“Indeed, I’m not,” I replied. “I’m not conscious of having done anything to be ashamed of, and as for that trial, why it was a , and absurd,” and I laughed at the recollection of it.
“H’m! I’m glad you find it so amusing,” remarked the bird sententiously. “You won’t be so light-hearted about it to-morrow if they treat you as the papers say they purpose doing.”
“Why, what do they intend to do then?” I exclaimed, my curiosity thoroughly aroused.
“Execute you,” said the Crow solemnly. “And serve you jolly well right, too.”
“What nonsense!” I cried, “they can’t execute me for doing nothing.”
“Oh, you think so, do you? Didn’t you the Wallypug to become a , and sell the kingdom for the sake of a horse?” said the Crow, referring to his paper.
“Certainly not!” I cried emphatically.
“Well, they say you did, anyhow,” said the Crow, “and they intend to chop off your head and the Wallypug’s too. It won’t matter you not having a hat then,” he continued grimly.
“But you don’t mean it, surely!” I exclaimed. “They certainly can’t be so ridiculous as to treat the affair seriously.”
“Well, you see,” said the bird, “things without doubt look very black against you. In the first place what did you want to come here at all for?”
“I’m sure I wish I hadn’t,” I remarked.
“Just so! So does every one else,” said the Crow rudely. “Then, when you did come, you were without a hat, which is in itself a very suspicious circumstance.”
“Why?” I interrupted.
“Respectable people don’t go about without hats,” said the bird contemptuously, turning up his . “And then, the first morning[86] after your arrival you must needs go prowling about the grounds before any one else was up.”
“What are you going to leave me in your will?” he continued .
“Nothing at all,” I declared. “And besides, I’m not going to make a will. I don’t intend to let them kill me without a good struggle, I can tell you.”
“H’m, you might as well let me have your watch and chain. It will only go to the Doctor-in-Law if you don’t. He is sure to want to grab everything. I expect he will want to seize the throne when the Wallypug is executed. I saw him just now trying on the crown, and and about in front of the looking-glass.”
“The Doctor-in-Law is an little monster,” I exclaimed.
“Oh, very well,” cried the Crow, through the bars, “I’ll just go and tell him what you say. I’ve no doubt he will be delighted to hear your opinion of him—and perhaps it will induce him to add something to your punishment. I hope so, I’m sure—ha—ha!”
And the wretched ill-omened bird flew away laughing .
I could not help feeling rather uncomfortable at the turn which events had taken, for there was no knowing to what lengths the extraordinary inhabitants of this
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CHAPTER VI.HIS MAJESTY IS DEPOSED.
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CHAPTER VIII.THE LITTLE BLUE PEOPLE.
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