Alice found the Hatter and March Hare having tea under a tree. A sleeping Dormouse lay between them. They crowded one corner and shouted that there was no room. Alice sat down anyway, but they were not welcoming. The Hatter asked why a raven was like a writing desk. Alice tried to guess, but he had no answer. The Hatter and March Hare argued about words and meanings. Alice felt confused by their strange conversation. The Hatter's watch showed the date, not the time. He blamed the March Hare for putting butter in it. The Hatter said he had quarreled with Time. Now it was always six o'clock, so tea never ended. The Dormouse began a story about three sisters. They lived in a well and ate treacle. Alice asked questions, but the others interrupted her. The Hatter moved everyone along the table for a clean cup. The story became stranger and stranger. The sisters drew things beginning with M. The Hatter told Alice not to talk. Alice left in disgust, and no one called her back. Alice found a door in a tree. It led back to the hall with the little table. She used the golden key to open the garden door. She ate the mushroom until she was small enough to enter.