wasting

“But, I say, aren’t we wasting precious time?

First, I was wasting the time I ought to have put on my studies; and secondly, I was deceiving my teacher in trying to make it appear I was reading a history when it was a storybook instead.

“Fury said to a mouse, That he met in the house, ‘Let us both go to law: _I_ will prosecute _you_.—Come, I’ll take no denial; We must have a trial: For really this morning I’ve nothing to do.’ Said the mouse to the cur, ‘Such a trial, dear sir, With no jury or judge, would be wasting our breath.’ ‘I’ll be judge, I’ll be jury,’ Said cunning old Fury: ‘I’ll try the whole cause, and condemn you to death.’”

“If you knew Time as well as I do,” said the Hatter, “you wouldn’t talk about wasting _it_.