Journeys Through Bookland, Volume 3 | Page 3

as long as children love
fun and wonderful happenings.
The pictures which Sir John Tenniel made for Lewis Carroll's books
are almost as famous as the books themselves, and every child who has
studied them knows exactly how dear little Alice looked, and feels
certain that he would recognize a Gryphon or a Mock Turtle anywhere.
The pictures given here are after Tenniel's drawings.

They had not gone far before they saw the Mock Turtle in the distance,
sitting sad and lonely on a little ledge of rock, and, as they came nearer,
Alice could hear him sighing as if his heart would break. She pitied him
deeply.
"What is his sorrow?" she asked the Gryphon, and the Gryphon
answered, "It's all his fancy, that: he hasn't got no sorrow, you know.
Come on!"
So they went up to the Mock Turtle, who looked at them with large
eyes full of tears, but said nothing.
"This here young lady," said the Gryphon, "she wants for to know your
history, she do."
"I'll tell it her," said the Mock Turtle in a deep-hollow tone: "sit down
both of you, and don't speak a word till I've finished."

So they sat down, and nobody spoke for some minutes. Alice thought
to herself, "I don't see how he can EVER finish, if he doesn't begin."
But she waited patiently.
[Illustration: THE GRYPHON]
"Once," said the Mock Turtle at last, with a deep sigh, "I was a real
Turtle."
These words were followed by a very long silence, broken only by an
occasional exclamation of "Hjckrrh!" from the Gryphon, and the
constant heavy sighing of the Mock Turtle. Alice was very nearly
getting up and saying "Thank you, sir, for your interesting story," but
she could not help thinking there MUST be more to come, so she sat
still and said nothing.
"When we were little," the Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly,
though still sobbing a little now and then, "we went to school in the sea.
The master was an old Turtle--we used to call him Tortoise--"
[Illustration: ALICE SAT STILL]
"Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?" Alice asked.
"We called him Tortoise because he taught us," said the Mock Turtle
angrily; "really you are very dull."
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself for asking such a simple
question," added the Gryphon; and then they both sat silent and looked
at poor Alice, who felt ready to sink into the earth. At last the Gryphon
said to the Mock Turtle, "Drive on, old fellow! Don't be all day about
it!" and he went on in these words:
"Yes, we went to school in the sea, though you mayn't believe it--"
"I never said I didn't!" interrupted Alice.
"You did," said the Mock Turtle.
"Hold your tongue!" added the Gryphon, before Alice could speak
again. The Mock Turtle went on:
"We had the best of educations--in fact, we went to school every day-"
"I'VE been to a day-school too," said Alice; "you needn't be so proud as
all that."
"With extras?" asked the Mock Turtle a little anxiously.
"Yes," said Alice, "we learned French and music."
"And washing?" said the Mock Turtle.
"Certainly not!" said Alice indignantly.
"Ah! then yours wasn't a really good school," said the Mock Turtle in a

tone of great relief. "Now at OURS they had at the end of the bill,
'French, music, AND WASHING--extra.'"
"You couldn't have wanted it much," said Alice, "living at the bottom
of the sea."
"I couldn't afford to learn it," said the Mock Turtle with a sigh. "I only
took the regular course."
"What was that?" inquired Alice.
"Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with," the Mock Turtle
replied; "and then the different branches of Arithmetic--Ambition,
Distraction, Uglification, and Derision."
"I never heard of 'Uglification'," Alice ventured to say. "What is it?"
The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in surprise. "Never heard of
uglifying!" it exclaimed. "You know what to beautify is, I suppose?"
"Yes," said Alice, doubtfully; "it means--to--make--anything-- prettier.
"Well then," the Gryphon went on, "if you don't know what to uglify is,
you ARE a simpleton."
Alice did not feel encouraged to ask any more questions about it, so she
turned to the Mock Turtle, and said, "What else had you to learn?"
"Well, there was Mystery," the Mock Turtle replied, counting off the
subjects on his flappers--"Mystery, ancient and modern, with
Seaography: then Drawling--the Drawling-master was an old conger
eel, that used to come once a week: HE taught us Drawling, Stretching,
and Fainting in Coils."
"What was THAT like?" said Alice.
"Well, I can't show it you, myself," the Mock Turtle said: "I'm too stiff.
And the Gryphon never learned it."
"Hadn't time," said the Gryphon. "I went to