The White Knight's Box

The White Knight's Box, an illustration by JVL in Through the Looking-glass, 

Artists' Choice Editions, 2011, page 92.

[The White Knight] was dressed in tin armour, which seemed to fit him very badly,

and he had a queer-shaped little deal box fastened across his

shoulder, upside-down, and with the lid hanging open. Alice looked

at it with great curiosity.

'I see you're admiring my little box.' the Knight said in a friendly

tone. 'It's my own invention -- to keep clothes and sandwiches in.

You see I carry it upside-down, so that the rain can't get in.'

'But the things can get OUT,' Alice gently remarked. 'Do you know

the lid's open?'

'I didn't know it,' the Knight said, a shade of vexation passing over

his face. 'Then all the things much have fallen out! And the box is

no use without them.' He unfastened it as he spoke, and was just

going to throw it into the bushes, when a sudden thought seemed to

strike him, and he hung it carefully on a tree. 'Can you guess why I

did that?' he said to Alice.

Alice shook her head.

 'In hopes some bees may make a nest in it -- then I should get the

honey.'