THE MOCK TURTLE'S STORY

By LEWIS CARROLL

NOTE.--The Mock Turtle's Story is from Alice in Wonderland, one of the
most delightful books that ever was written for children. It tells the
story of a little girl's dream of Wonderland--a curious country where
one's size changes constantly, and where one meets and talks with the
quaintest, most interesting creatures. Through the Looking-Glass, a
companion book to Alice in Wonderland, is almost equally charming,
with its descriptions of the land where everything happens backward.
Queen Alice, and The Walrus and the Carpenter, are from Through the
Looking-Glass.

The real name of the man who wrote these books was Charles Lutwidge
Dodgson, but every one knows him better as Lewis Carroll. He was a
staid and learned mathematician, who wrote valuable books on most
difficult mathematical subjects; for instance, he wrote a Syllabus of
Plane Algebraical Geometry, and it is not a joke, though the name may
sound like one to a person who has read Alice in Wonderland. However,
there was one subject in which this grave lecturer on mathematics was
more interested than he was in his own lectures, and that was
children--especially little girls. He liked to have them with him
always, and they, seeing in him a friend and playmate, coaxed him
constantly for stories and stories, and yet more stories.

One day, in July, 1862, he took three of his little friends, Alice and
Edith and Lorina Liddell, for a trip up the river, and on that
afternoon he began telling them about Alice and her Wonderland,