Chapter 8: Who Stole the Tarts?🔎❓️🥧

After long hours of playing the croquet game, Y was seated on her throne when she arrived, with a great crowd assembled about her-all sorts of little birds and beasts, as well as the whole pack of cards: 3 was standing before them, in chains, with a soldier on each side to guard him; and near Y was N, with a trumpet in one hand, and a scroll of parchment in the other. In the very middle of the court was a table, with a large dish of tarts upon it: they looked so good, that it made F quite hungry to look at them-"I wish they'd get the trial done," he thought, "and hand round the refreshments!" But there seemed to be no chance of this, so he began looking at everything about him, to pass away the time.

F had never been in a court of justice before, but he had read about them in books, and he was quite pleased to find that he knew the name of nearly everything there. "That's a red frog-like number" he said to himself, "because of his great fire breathing."

He though about the Knave, who was 3; and as he was chained by the cards (look at the expression if you want to see how he did it,) he did not look at all comfortable, and it was certainly not becoming.

"And that's the jury-box," thought F, "and those twelve creatures," (he was obliged to say "creatures," you see, because some of them were animals, and some were birds,) "I suppose they are the jurors." He said this last word two or three times over to himself, being rather proud of it: for he thought, and rightly too, that very few letters of him knew the meaning of it at all. However, "jury-men" would have done just as well.

The twelve jurors were all writing very busily on slates. "What are they doing?" F said to N "They can't have anything to put down yet, before the trial's begun."

"They're putting down their names," N whispered in reply, "for fear they should forget them before the end of the trial."

"Stupid things!" F began in a loud, indignant voice, but he stopped hastily, for N cried out, "Silence in the court, F! I'm about to read the scroll." F could see, as well as if he were looking over their shoulders, that all the jurors were writing down "stupid things!" on their slates, and he could even make out that one of them didn't know how to spell "stupid," and that he had to ask his neighbour to tell him. "A nice muddle their slates'll be in before the the trial's over!" thought F.

One of the jurors had a pencil that squeaked. This of course, F could not stand, and he went round the court and got behind him, and very soon found an opportunity of taking it away. He did it so quickly that the poor little juror (it was a random lizard) could not make out at all what had become of it; so, after hunting all about for it, he was obliged to write with one finger for the rest of the day; and this was of very little use, as it left no mark on the slate.

"Read the accusation!" said Y.

On this, N blew three blasts on the trumpet, and then unrolled the parchment scroll, and read as follows:-

"Y, the Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, All on a summer day:But 3, the Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts, And took them quite away!"

"Consider your verdict," Y said to the jury.

"Not yet, not yet!" N hastily interrupted. "There's a great deal to come before that!"

"Call the first witness," said Y, and N blew three blasts on the trumpet, and called out, "First witness!"

The first witness was L. He came in with a teacup in one hand and a piece of bread-and-butter in the other. "I beg pardon, your Majesty," he began, "for bringing these in: but I hadn't quite finished my tea when I was sent for."

"You ought to have finished," said Y. "When did you begin?"

L looked at O, who had followed him into the court, arm-in-arm with Z. "Fourteenth of March, I think it was," he said.

"Fifteenth," said O.

"Sixteenth," added Z.

"Write that down," Y said to the jury, and the jury eagerly wrote down all three dates on their slates, and then added them up, and reduced the answer to shillings and pence.

"Take off your hat," she said to L.

"It isn't mine," said L.

"Stolen!" Y exclaimed, turning to the jury, who instantly made a memorandum of the fact.

"I keep them to sell," L added as an explanation; "I've none of my own. I'm a letter and a hatter."

Here Y put on her spectacles, and began staring at L, who turned pale and fidgeted.

"Give your evidence," she said, "and don't be nervous, or I'll have you executed on the spot."

This did not seem to encourage the witness at all: he kept shifting from one foot to the other, looking so uneasily, and in his confusion he bit a large piece out of his teacup instead of the bread-and-butter.

In the bird-like cage are the letters that were guests in L's tea party; A, B, C, D, E, G, I, J, K, M, P, R, S, T, U, V, the W twins, and X. They were very frightened about Y since she jailed them. F looked at the letters unconsciously, and then began to look around to Y. "Release them!" he shouted out loud, but Y didn't say any word; but a minute later she stared at him and became even more angry.

Just at this moment F felt a very curious sensation, which puzzled him a good deal until he made out what it was: he was beginning to grow larger again, and he thought at first he would get up and leave the court; but on second thoughts he decided to remain where he was as long as there was room for him.

"I wish you wouldn't squeeze so." said Z, who was sitting next to him. "I can hardly breathe."

"I can't help it," said F very meekly: "I'm growing."

"You've no right to grow here," said G.

"Don't talk nonsense, G" said F more boldly: "you know that you're one of my former enemies."

"Yes, but we are your friends" said U: "not in that ridiculous fashion." And he got up very sulkily and stayed consciously while being trapped in a cage.

By this time Y had never left off staring at L, and, just as Z crossed the court, she said to one of the officers of the court, "Bring me the list of the singers in the last concert!" on which L trembled so, that he shook both his shoes off.

"Give your evidence," Y repeated angrily, "or I'll have you executed, whether you're nervous or not."

"I'm a poor man, your Majesty," L began, in a trembling voice, "-and I hadn't begun my tea-not above a week or so-and what with the bread-and-butter getting so thin-and the twinkling of the tea-"

"The twinkling of the what?" said Y.

"It began with the tea," L replied.

"Of course twinkling begins with my name!" said T. "Do you take me for a dunce?"

Y looked at T and said angrily; "No! Silence! I'm trying to talk to L!", then she turned back to L, continuing his sentence.

"I'm a poor man," L went on, "and most things twinkled after that-only O said-"

"I didn't!" O interrupted in a great hurry.

"You did!" said L.

"I deny it!" said O.

"You denied it, huh?" said Y: "leave out that part."

"Well, at any rate, Z said-L went on, looking anxiously round to see if he would deny it too: but Z denied nothing, being fast asleep.

"After that," continued L, "I cut some more bread-and-butter-"

"But what did Z say?" one of the jury asked.

"That I can't remember," said L.

"You must remember," remarked Y, "or I'll have you executed."

L dropped his teacup and bread-and-butter, and went down on one knee. "I'm a poor man, your Majesty," he began.

"You're a very poor speaker," said Y.

Here one of the guinea-pigs cheered, and was immediately suppressed by the officers of the court. (As that is rather a hard word, I will just explain to you how it was done. They had a large canvas bag, which tied up at the mouth with strings: into this they slipped the guinea-pig, head first, and then sat upon it.)

"I'm glad I've seen that done," thought F. "I've so often read in the newspapers, at the end of trials, "There was some attempts at applause, which was immediately suppressed by the officers of the court," and I never understood what it meant till now."

"If that's all you know about it, you may stand down," continued Y.

"I can't go no lower," said L: "I'm on the floor, as it is."

"Then you may sit down," Y replied.

Here the other guinea-pig cheered, and was suppressed.

"Come, that finished the guinea-pigs!" thought F. "Now we shall get on better."

"I'd rather finish my tea," said L, with an anxious look at Y, with the list of singers on her hand.

"You may go," said Y, and L hurriedly left the court, without even waiting to put his shoes on.

"-and just take his head off outside," Y added to one of the officers: but L was out of sight before the officer could get to the door.

"Collar that letter planet," Y shrieked out. "Behead Z! Turn him out of court! Suppress him! Pinch him! Off with his head!"

For some minutes the whole court was in confusion, getting Z turned out, and, by the time they had settled down again, there was silence for a while.

"Welp, guess Z looks like he's about to sleep in peace again." said Y, with an air of great relief. "Call the next witness."

F watched N as he fumbled over the list, feeling very curious to see what the next witness would be like, "-for they haven't got much evidence yet," he said to himself. Imagine him surprise, when N read out, at the top of his shrill little voice, the name "F!"

THIS STORY HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED SINCE 3 MONTHS, BECAUSE I WAS BUSY ;-;

Srry for caps, but hope you like the story, it will end in several pages♥️

Stay tuned for Chapter 9........

°~Kholeen~°