صفحة 136 من 167

"If I'd been the whiting," said Alice, whose thoughts were still

running on the song, "I'd have said to the porpoise, 'Keep back,

please: we don't want you with us!'"

"They were obliged to have him with them," the Mock Turtle said:

"no wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise."

"Wouldn't it really?" said Alice in a tone of great surprise.

"Of course not," said the Mock Turtle: "why, if a fish came to

me, and told me he was going a journey, I should say 'With what

porpoise?'"

"Don't you mean 'purpose'?" said Alice.

"I mean what I say," the Mock Turtle replied in an offended tone.

And the Gryphon added "Come, let's hear some of your adventures."

"I could tell you my adventures-beginning from this morning,"

said Alice a little timidly: "but it's no use going back to

yesterday, because I was a different person then."

"Explain all that," said the Mock Turtle.

"No, no! The adventures first," said the Gryphon in an impatient

tone: "explanations take such a dreadful time."