tea-things

`Well, I'd hardly finished the first verse,' said the Hatter, `when the Queen jumped up and bawled out, "He's murdering the time! Off with his head!"'

`How dreadfully savage!' exclaimed Alice.

`And ever since that,' the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, `he won't do a thing I ask! It's always six o'clock now.'

A bright idea came into Alice's head. `Is that the reason so many tea-things are put out here?' she asked.

`Yes, that's it,' said the Hatter with a sigh: `it's always tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things between whiles.'

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/alice-VII.html


感謝張華兄賜教
我的理解如下：

tea-things : 喝茶用的器皿。
between whiles: 兩頓下午茶之間的時間。

感謝梁永安先生

查幾年前獲贈賜的張譯愛麗絲（影印本），得結果如下：

「桌上擺這麼多杯盤，就是這個原因嗎？」她說。

「是的，」＊＊＊「一直是喝茶的時間，沒有時間洗杯盤。」