How is it you can all talk so nicely?' Alice said, hoping to get it into a better temper by a compliment. 'I've been in many gardens before, but none of the flowers could talk.' 'Put your hand down, and feel the ground,' said the Tiger-lily. 'Then you'll know why.' Alice did so. 'It's very hard,' she said, 'but I don't see what that has to do with it.' 'In most gardens,' the Tiger-lily said, 'they make the beds too soft-so that the flowers are always asleep.' This sounded a very good reason, and Alice was quite pleased to know it. 'I never thought of that before!' she said.
In this excerpt from Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass," Alice patches a compliment to the talking flowers, asking how they can speak so nicely. She hopes that praising them might improve their mood. When the Tiger-lily explains that the ground they grow in is hard, Alice is curious and not immediately convinced, but the flower suggests that the softness of typical garden beds causes flowers to sleep. Alice finds this explanation convincing and is pleased to learn something new.
Through this dialogue, Carroll explores the whimsical nature of gardens and the peculiar logic of the talking flowers, highlighting their unique perspective on their environment. Alice's curiosity leads her to understand that the conditions of the garden — specifically, the ground's hardness — influence the flowers' wakefulness and speech, adding to the imaginative and playful tone of the story.
