"I only took the regular educational course," said the Mock Turtle with a sigh.
"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."
keep reading »
"I never heard of 'Uglification,'" Alice ventured to say. "What is it?"
The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in surprise. "What! Never heard of uglifying!" it excalimed. "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 must be 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 to you myself," the Mock Turtle said: "I'm too stiff. And the Gryphon never learnt it."
"Hadn't time," said the Grypon. "I went to the Classical master, though. He was an old crab, he was."
"I never went to him," the Mock Turtle said with a sigh: "he taught Laughing and Grief, they used to say."
- Alice in Wonderland
« finish reading