"
"Were you taught wash-ing?" asked the Mock Tur-tle.
"Of course not," said Al-ice.
"Ah! then yours wasn't a good school," said the Mock Tur-tle. "Now at
_ours_ they had at the end of the bill, 'French, mu-sic, and
wash-ing--ex-tra.'"
"You couldn't have need-ed it much in the sea," said Al-ice.
"I didn't learn it," said the Mock Tur-tle, with a sigh. "I just took
the first course."
"What was that?" asked Al-ice.
"Reel-ing and Writh-ing, of course, at first," the Mock Tur-tle said.
"An old eel used to come once a week. He taught us to drawl, to stretch
and to faint in coils."
"What was that like?" Al-ice asked.
"Well, I can't show you, my-self," he said: "I'm too stiff. And the
Gry-phon didn't learn it."
"How man-y hours a day did you do les-sons?" asked Al-ice.
"Ten hours the first day," said the Mock Tur-tle; "nine the next and so
on."
"What a strange plan!" said Al-ice.
"That's why they're called les-sons," said the Gry-phon: "they les-sen
from day to day."
This was such a new thing to Al-ice that she sat still a good while and
didn't speak. "Then there would be a day when you would have no school,"
she said.
"Of course there would," said the Mock Tur-tle.
"What did you do then?" asked Al-ice.
"I'm tired of this," said the Gry-phon: "tell her now of the games we
played."
CHAPTER X.
THE LOB-STER DANCE.
The Mock Tur-tle sighed, looked at Al-ice and tried to speak, but for a
min-ute or two sobs choked his voice.
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