Yes, said Alice doubtfully: it means to make anything prettier.
Well, then, the Gryphon went on, if you don t know what to uglify
is, you _are_ a simpleton.
Alice did not feel encouraged to ask any more questions about it, so
she turned to the Mock Turtle, and said What else had you to learn?
Well, there was Mystery, the Mock Turtle replied, counting off the
subjects on his flappers, Mystery, ancient and modern, with
Seaography: then Drawling the Drawling-master was an old conger-eel,
that used to come once a week: _he_ taught us Drawling, Stretching, and
Fainting in Coils.
What was _that_ like? said Alice.
Well, I can t show it you myself, the Mock Turtle said: I m too
stiff. And the Gryphon never learnt it.
Hadn t time, said the Gryphon: I went to the Classics master,
though. He was an old crab, _he_ was.
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
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