You were a little startled by seeing a large cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off.

 

The Cheshire Cat only grinned when it saw you. It looked good-natured, you thought: still it had very long claws and a great many teeth, so you felt that it ought to be treated with respect. Without a word it vanished, quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone. You waited a little, half expecting to see it again, but it did not appear.

 

“I guess he’s gone for now,” you thought, “but maybe he will turn up somewhere else” and after a minute or two you walked on to find someone new.