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 learnt it."

"Hadn't time," said the Gryphon: "I went to the Classical master,
though. He was an old crab, _he_ was."

"I