‘I’m afraid I don’t know one,’ said Alice, rather alarmed at the

proposal. 🔊

‘Then the Dormouse shall!’ they both cried. 🔊 ‘Wake up, Dormouse!’ And

they pinched it on both sides at once. 🔊

The Dormouse slowly opened his eyes. 🔊 ‘I wasn’t asleep,’ he said in a

hoarse, feeble voice: ‘I heard every word you fellows were saying.’ 🔊

‘Tell us a story!’ said the March Hare. 🔊

‘Yes, please do!’ pleaded Alice. 🔊

‘And be quick about it,’ added the Hatter, ‘or you’ll be asleep again

before it’s done.’ 🔊

‘Once upon a time there were three little sisters,’ the Dormouse began

in a great hurry; 🔊 ‘and their names were Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie; and

they lived at the bottom of a well--’ 🔊

‘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.’ 🔊