e
ship usually sailed backwards.

[* This office was usually undertaken by the Boots, who found
in it a refuge from the Baker's constant complaints about the
insufficient blacking of his three pair of boots.]

As this poem is to some extent connected with the lay of the Jabberwock,
let me take this opportunity of answering a question that has often been
asked me, how to pronounce "slithy toves." The "i" in "slithy" is long,
as in "writhe"; and "toves" is pronounced so as to rhyme with "groves."
Again, the first "o" in "borogoves" is pronounced like the "o" in
"borrow." I have heard people try to give it the sound of the "o" in
"worry." Such is Human Perversity.

This also seems a fitting occasion to notice the other hard words in
that poem. Humpty-Dumpty's theory, of two meanings packed into one word
like a portmanteau, seems to me the right explanation for all.

For instance, take the two words "fuming" and "furious." Make up your
mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will
say first. Now open your mouth and speak. If your thoughts incline ever
so little towards "fuming," you will say "fuming-furious;" if they
turn, by even a hair's breadth, towards "furious," you will say
"furious-fuming;" but if you have that rarest of gifts, a perfectly
balanced mind, you will say "frumious."

Supposing that, when Pistol uttered the well-known words--

"Under which king, Bezonian? Speak or die!"

Justice Shallow had felt certain that it was either William or Richard,
but had not been able to settle which, so that he could not possibly say
either name before the other, can it be doubted that, rather than die,
he would have gasped out "Rilchiam!"

+Contents.+

Page

+Fit the First. The Landing+ 3

+Fit the Second. The Bellman's Speech+ 15

+Fit the Third. The Baker's Tale+ 27

+Fit the Fourth. The Hunting+ 37

+Fit the Fifth. The Beaver's Lesson+ 47

+Fit the Sixth. The Barrister's Dream+ 61

+Fit the Seventh. The Banker's Fate+ 71

+Fit the Eighth. The Vanishing+ 79

* * * * *

FIT I.--THE LANDING.

* * * * *

+Fit the First.+

_THE LANDING._

"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide