`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.  `What!  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 Classics

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.'

  `So he did, so he did,' said the Gryphon, sighing in his turn;

and both creatures hid their faces in their paws.

  `And how many hours a day did you do lessons?' said Alice, in a

hurry to change the subject.

  `Ten hours the first day,' said the Mock Turtle: `nine the

next, and so on.'

  `What a curious plan!' exclaimed Alice.

  `That's the reason they're called lessons,' the Gryphon

remarked:  `because they lessen from day to day.'

  This was quite a new idea to Alice, and she thought it over a

little before she made her next remark.  `Then the eleventh day

must have been a holiday?'

  `Of course it was,' said the Mock Turtle.

  `And how did you manage on the twelfth?' Alice went on eagerly.

  `That's enough about lessons,' the Gryphon interrupted in a

very decided tone:  `tell her something about the games now.'

                            CHAPTER X ()