other remark.

'Ah, you should see 'em come round me of a Saturday night,' Humpty
Dumpty went on, wagging his head gravely from side to side: 'for to get
their wages, you know.'

(Alice didn't venture to ask what he paid them with; and so you see I
can't tell YOU.)

'You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir,' said Alice. 'Would you
kindly tell me the meaning of the poem called "Jabberwocky"?'

'Let's hear it,' said Humpty Dumpty. 'I can explain all the poems that
were ever invented--and a good many that haven't been invented just
yet.'

This sounded very hopeful, so Alice repeated the first verse:

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

'That's enough to begin with,' Humpty Dumpty interrupted: 'there
are plenty of hard words there. "BRILLIG" means four o'clock in the
afternoon--the time when you begin BROILING things for dinner.'

'That'll do very well,' said Alice: 'and "SLITHY"?'

'Well, "SLITHY" means "lithe and slimy." "Lithe" is the same as
"active." You see it's like a portmanteau--there are two meanings packed
up into one word.'

'I see it now,' Alice remarked thoughtfully: 'and what are "TOVES"?'

'Well, "TOVES" are something like badgers--they're something like
lizards--and they're something like corkscrews.'

'They must be very curious looking creatures.'

'They are that,' said Humpty Dumpty: 'also they make their nests under
sun-dials--also they live on cheese.'

'And what's the "GYRE" and to "GIMBLE"?'

'To "GYRE" is to go round and round like a gyroscope. To "GIMBLE" is to
make holes like a gimlet.'

'And "THE WABE" is the grass-plot round a sun-dial, I suppose?' said
Alice, surprised at her own ingenuity.

'Of course it is. It's called "WABE," you know, because it goes a long
way before it, and a long way behind it--'

'And a long way beyond it on each side,' Alice added.

'Exactly so. Well, then, "MIMSY" is "flimsy and miserable" (there's
another portmanteau for you). And a "BOROGOVE" is a thin shabby-looking
bird with its feathers sticking out all round--something like a live
mop.'

'And then "MOME RATHS"?' said Alice. 'I'm afraid I'm giving you a great
deal of trouble.'

'Well, a "RATH" is a sort of green pig: but "MOME" I'm not certain
about. I think it's short for "from home"--meaning that they'd lost
their way, you know.'

'And what does "OUTGRABE" mean?