Alice stood looking at the house, and wondering what to do next, when suddenly a footman in livery came running out of the wood--(she considered him to be a footman because he was in livery: otherwise, judging by his face only, she would have called him a oppossum)--and rapped loudly at the door with his knuckles. It was opened by another servant in livery, with a round face, and large eyes like an owl, possibly a Nightowl; and both , Alice noticed, had powdered hair that curled all over their heads. She felt very curious to know what it was all about, and crept a little further down the path to listen.

The 'possum began by whistling a merry tune,harmonizing with himself in a most peculiar way, which alice had always understood to be most impolite, though one should of course never mention it. Then saying, in a solemn tone, `For the Fair One. An invitation to play croquet.' The owl-servant, fanning the air with a look of desperation on its face, repeated, in the same solemn tone, only changing the order of the words a little, An invitation for the Fair One to play croquet.'

Then they both bowed low, and their curls got entangled together.

Alice laughed so much at this, that she had to run back through the gate for fear of their hearing her; and when she next peeped out the 'Possum was gone, and the other was sitting on the ground near the door, staring blindly up into the sky.