पृष्ठ 129 / 167

"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. The Lobster Quadrille