“I took only the regular course.”
“What was that?” inquired Alice.
“Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,” the Mock Turtle replied, “and then the different branches of Arithmetic—Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.”
“What else had you to learn?” asks Alice later on.
“Well, there was Mystery,” the Mock Turtle replied, counting off the subjects on his flappers, “Mystery—ancient and modern—with Seography; 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.” [Drawing, sketching, and painting in oils.] Lewis Carroll loved this play upon words.
“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 Classical 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.