"I'll tell it her," said the Mock Turtle in a deep-hollow tone: "sit
down both of you, and don't speak a word till I've finished."

So they sat down, and nobody spoke for some minutes. Alice thought to
herself, "I don't see how he can EVER finish, if he doesn't begin."
But she waited patiently.

[Illustration: THE GRYPHON]

"Once," said the Mock Turtle at last, with a deep sigh, "I was a real
Turtle."

These words were followed by a very long silence, broken only by an
occasional exclamation of "Hjckrrh!" from the Gryphon, and the
constant heavy sighing of the Mock Turtle. Alice was very nearly
getting up and saying "Thank you, sir, for your interesting story,"
but she could not help thinking there MUST be more to come, so she sat
still and said nothing.

"When we were little," the Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly,
though still sobbing a little now and then, "we went to school in the
sea. The master was an old Turtle--we used to call him Tortoise--"

[Illustration: ALICE SAT STILL]

"Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?" Alice asked.

"We called him Tortoise because he taught us," said the Mock Turtle
angrily; "really you are very dull."