belong to this railway journey at all--I was in a wood just now
--and I wish I could get back there.'

'You might make a joke on THAT,' said the little voice close to
her ear: 'something about "you WOULD if you could," you know.'

'Don't tease so,' said Alice, looking about in vain to see
where the voice came from; 'if you're so anxious to have a joke
made, why don't you make one yourself?'

The little voice sighed deeply: it was VERY unhappy,
evidently, and Alice would have said something pitying to comfort
it, 'If it would only sigh like other people!' she thought. But
this was such a wonderfully small sigh, that she wouldn't have
heard it at all, if it hadn't come QUITE close to her ear. The
consequence of this was that it tickled her ear very much, and
quite took off her thoughts from the unhappiness of the poor
little creature.

'I know you are a friend,' the little voice went on; 'a dear
friend, and an old friend. And you won't hurt me, though I AM an
insect.'

'What kind of insect?' Alice inquired a little anxiously. What
she really wanted to know was, whether it could sting or not, but
she thought this wouldn't be quite a civil question to ask.

'What, then you don't--' the little voice began, when it was
drowned by a shrill scream from the engine, and everybody jumped
up in alarm, Alice among the rest.