Alice laughed loud: but she managed to turn it into a cough, for fear of hurting his feelings.
'Do I look very pale?' said Tweedledum, coming up to have his helmet tied on. (He called it a helmet, though it certainly looked much more like a saucepan.)
'Well – yes – a little,' Alice replied gently.
'I'm very brave generally,' he went on in a low voice: 'only to-day I happen to have a headache.'
'And I've got a toothache!' said Tweedledee, who had overheard the remark. 'I'm far worse than you!'
'Then you'd better not fight to-day,' said Alice thinking it a good opportunity to make peace.
'We must have a bit of a fight, but I don't care about going on long,' said Tweedledum. 'What's the time now?'
'Tweedledee looked at his watch, and said 'Half-past four.'
'Let's fight till six, and then have dinner,' said Tweedledum.
'Very well,' the other said, rather sadly: 'and she can watch us – only you'd better not come very close,' he added: 'I generally hit everything I can see – when I get really excited.'
'And I hit everything within reach,' cried Tweedledum, 'whether I can see it or not.'
Alice laughed. 'You must hit the trees pretty often, I should think,' she said.
Tweedledum looked round him with a satisfied smile. 'I don't suppose,' he said, 'there'll be a tree
