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Friday 18 November 2005
The treacle well: Saturday's food quotation
'Once upon a time there were three little sisters,' the Dormouse began
..., '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.'
'So they were,' said
the Dormouse; ' very ill.'
Alice tried a little to fancy to
herself what such an extraordinary way of living would have been like,
but it puzzled her too much, so she went on: 'But 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 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 you again. I dare say there may be one.'
1865 Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland chapter 7