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`What did they live on?' said Alice, who always took a great
interest in questions of eating and drinking.

`They lived on treacle,' said the Dormouse, after thinking a
minute or two.

`They couldn't have done that, you know,' Alice gently
remarked; `they'd have been ill.'

`So they were,' said the Dormouse; `VERY ill.'

Alice tried to fancy to herself what such an extraordinary ways
of living would be like, but it puzzled her too much, so she went
on: `But why did they live at the bottom of a well?'

`Take some more tea,' the March Hare said to Alice, very
earnestly.

`I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone, `so
I can't take more.'

`You mean you can't take LESS,' said the Hatter: `it's very
easy to take MORE than nothing.'

`Nobody asked YOUR opinion,' said Alice.

`Who's making personal remarks now?' the Hatter asked
triumphantly.

Alice did not quite know what to say to this: so she helped
herself to some tea and bread-and-butter, and then turned to the
Dormouse, and repeated her question. `Why did they live at the
bottom of a well?'

The Dormouse again took a minute or two to think about it, and
then said, `It was a treacle-well.'

`There's no such thing!' Alice was beginning very angrily, but
the Hatter and the March Hare went `Sh! sh!' and the Dormouse
sulkily remarked, `If you can't be civil, you'd better finish the
story for yourself.'

`No, please go on!' Alice said very humbly; `I won't interrupt
again. I dare say there may be ONE.'

`One, indeed!' said the Dormouse indignantly. However, he
consented to go on. `And so these three little sisters--they
were learning to draw, you know--'

`What did they draw?' said Alice, quite forgetting her promise.

`Treacle,' said the Dormouse, without considering at all this
time.

`I want a clean cup,' interrupted the Hatter: `let's all move
one place on.'

He moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him: the
March Hare moved into the Dormouse's place, and Alice rather
unwillingly took the place of the March Hare. The Hatter was the
only one who got any advantage from the change: and Alice was a
good deal worse off than before, as the March Hare had just upset
the milk-jug into his plate.

Alice did not wish to offend the Dormouse again, so she began
very cautiously: `But I don't understand. Where did they draw
the treacle from?'

`You can draw water out of a water-well,' said the Hatter; `so
I should think you could draw treacle out of a treacle-well--eh,
stupid?'

`But they were IN the well,' Alice said to the Dormouse, not
choosing to notice this last remark.

`Of course they were', said the Dormouse; `--well in.'

This answer so confused poor Alice, that she let the Dormouse
go on for some time without interrupting it.

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