--- title: Alice in Wonderland, chapter VI, part 2: The baby, the pig and the Cheshire Cat — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Alice in Wonderland, chapter VI, part 2: The baby, the pig and the Cheshire Cat», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The Duchess flings the baby at Alice and rushes off to get ready for croquet with the Queen; --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/) / Alice in Wonderland, chapter VI, part… # Alice in Wonderland, chapter VI, part 2: The baby, the pig and the Cheshire Cat Lesson 12 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 21 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/0/) — The Duchess flings the baby at Alice and rushes off to get ready for croquet with the Queen; Alice carries the squirming, star-fish-shaped baby outside, afraid that in that house they would kill it. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/1/) — But the baby keeps grunting, its nose turns into a snout and its eyes get tiny, until it is quite plainly a pig, so Alice puts it down and it trots off happily into the wood. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/2/) — The Cheshire Cat is grinning on a branch; Alice asks it which way to go, and it says that depends on where she wants to get to, then tells her that everyone round here is mad, the Hatter and the March Hare, the Cat and Alice too. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/3/) — The Cat keeps vanishing and appearing, and at last fades away slowly, starting with its tail and ending with its grin, which hangs in the air on its own. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/4/) — Alice heads for the March Hare's house, with ear-shaped chimneys and a fur roof, makes herself two feet tall and walks up nervously: a strange, dreamy part, both funny and a bit creepy. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/5/) — The Duchess says "Here! you may nurse it a bit, if you like!", flinging the baby at Alice, and goes to get ready to play croquet with the Queen; the cook throws a frying-pan after her but misses. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/6/) — The baby holds out its arms and legs "just like a star-fish", is "snorting like a steam-engine", and keeps doubling up and straightening out. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/7/) — The "proper way of nursing it" is to twist it into a sort of knot and hold tight to its right ear and left foot. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/9/) — The baby grunts, and Alice tells it "Don't grunt, that's not at all a proper way of expressing yourself." - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/11/) — Alice sets the pig down and feels "quite relieved" to see it trot away into the wood; she says "If it had grown up, it would have made a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think." - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/12/) — The Cheshire Cat is sitting on a bough (a branch) of a tree; it looks good-natured but has "very long claws and a great many teeth", so Alice thinks it "ought to be treated with respect", and calls it "Cheshire Puss". - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/13/) — Alice asks "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?", and the Cat answers "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."; Alice says "I don't much care where—so long as I get somewhere", and the Cat says "Then it doesn't matter which way you go." - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/14/) — The Cat says a Hatter lives one way and a March Hare the other: "Visit either you like: they're both mad", and "we're all mad here"; Alice must be mad too, it says, "or you wouldn't have come here"; "mad as a hatter" and "mad as a March hare" were old sayings, because hares leap and box wildly in spring. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/15/) — "Mad" in this book means crazy and silly; calling real people "mad" because they are ill is unkind. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/16/) — The Cat's proof: a dog "growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased", but "I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/17/) — Therefore I'm mad." Alice says "I call it purring, not growling." - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/18/) — The Cat asks if Alice plays croquet with the Queen today; she has not been invited yet, and the Cat says "You'll see me there", and vanishes (that is the first time); it appears again to ask "what became of the baby?", and when Alice says "It turned into a pig" it says "I thought it would" and vanishes again (the second time); Alice is not much surprised, "she was getting so used to queer things happening". - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/19/) — Alice thinks that "as this is May" the March Hare "won't be raving mad—at least not so mad as it was in March". - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/20/) — The Cat asks "Did you say pig, or fig?", then vanishes slowly, "beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin"; before that Alice asks it not to "keep appearing and vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy", and afterwards thinks "I've often seen a cat without a grin, but a grin without a cat!" - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/21/) — The March Hare's house is so large that Alice does not like to go nearer till she has nibbled some more of the left-hand bit and grown to about two feet high. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/12-alice-ch6-part2-the-cheshire-cat/22/) — Old words in today's English: "by-the-bye" = by the way, "giddy" = dizzy, "you grant that?" = do you agree?, "thatched" = roofed (usually with straw, here with fur). - ← previous: [Alice in Wonderland, chapter VI, part 1: The footmen and the Duchess's kitchen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/) - next →: [Alice in Wonderland, chapter VII, part 1: A Mad Tea-Party (no room, riddles and Time)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/13-alice-a-mad-tea-party-1/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)