The Queen turned angrily away from him, and said to the Knave `Turn them over!' 

The Knave did so, very carefully, with one foot. 

`Get up!' said the Queen, in a shrill, loud voice, and the three gardeners instantly jumped up, and began bowing to the King, the Queen, the royal children, and everybody else. 

`Leave off that!' screamed the Queen. `You make me giddy.' And then, turning to the rose-tree, she went on, `What HAVE you been doing here?' 

`May it please your Majesty,' said Two, in a very humble tone, going down on one knee as he spoke, `we were trying--' 

`I see!' said the Queen, who had meanwhile been examining the roses. `Off with their heads!' and the procession moved on, three of the soldiers remaining behind to execute the unfortunate gardeners, who ran to Alice for protection.

`You shan't be beheaded!' said Alice, and she put them into a large flower-pot that stood near. The three soldiers wandered about for a minute or two, looking for them, and then quietly marched off after the others. 

`Are their heads off?' shouted the Queen. 

`Their heads are gone, if it please your Majesty!' the soldiers shouted in reply. 

`That's right!' shouted the Queen. `Can you play croquet?' 

The soldiers were silent, and looked at Alice, as the question was evidently meant for her. 

`Yes!' shouted Alice. 

`Come on, then!' roared the Queen, and Alice joined the procession, wondering very much what would happen next. 

`It's--it's a very fine day!' said a timid voice at her side. She was walking by the White Rabbit, who was peeping anxiously into her face. 

`Very,' said Alice: `--where's the Duchess?' 

`Hush! Hush!' said the Rabbit in a low, hurried tone. He looked anxiously over his shoulder as he spoke, and then raised himself upon tiptoe, put his mouth close to her ear, and whispered `She's under sentence of execution.'

`What for?' said Alice. 

`Did you say "What a pity!"?' the Rabbit asked. 

`No, I didn't,' said Alice: `I don't think it's at all a pity. I said "What for?"' 

`She boxed the Queen's ears--' the Rabbit began. Alice gave a little scream of laughter. `Oh, hush!' the Rabbit whispered in a frightened tone. `The Queen will hear you! You see, she came rather late, and the Queen said--' 

`Get to your places!' shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder, and people began running about in all directions, tumbling up against each other; however, they got settled down in a minute or two, and the game began. Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.