“But it may rain outside ?”

“It may⁠—if it chooses,” said Tweedledee: “we’ve no objection. Contrariwise.”

“Selfish things!” thought Alice, and she was just going to say “Good night” and leave them, when Tweedledum sprang out from under the umbrella and seized her by the wrist.

“Do you see that ?” he said, in a voice choking with passion, and his eyes grew large and yellow all in a moment, as he pointed with a trembling finger at a small white thing lying under the tree.

“It’s only a rattle,” Alice said, after a careful examination of the little white thing. “Not a rattle- snake , you know,” she added hastily, thinking that he was frightened: “only an old rattle⁠—quite old and broken.”