Couldn’t put Humpty-Dumpty up again.
Then there’s a mysterious pause, and some eager small boy or girl asks, “Now what is it?” and before one has time to answer, someone calls out—
“It’s an egg; it’s an egg!” and the riddle is a riddle no longer.
One clever mechanical Humpty was made of barrel hoops covered with stiff paper and muslin. The eyes, nose, and mouth were connected with various tapes, which the inventor had in charge behind the scenes, and so well did he work them that Humpty in his hands turned out a fine imitation of the Humpty-Dumpty Sir John Tenniel has made us remember; the same Humpty-Dumpty who asked Alice her name and her business, and who informed her proudly that if he did tumble off the wall, “The King has promised me with his very own mouth—to—to—”
“To send all his horses and all his men—” Alice interrupted rather unwisely.
“Now I declare that’s too bad!” Humpty-Dumpty cried, breaking into a sudden passion. “You’ve been listening at doors, and behind trees, and down chimneys, or you wouldn’t have known it.”
“I haven’t, indeed!” Alice said, very gently. “It’s in a book.”
“Ah, well! They may write such things in a book,” Humpty-Dumpty said in a calmer tone. “That’s what you call a History of England, that is. Now take a good look at me. I’m one that has spoken to a King, I am; mayhap you’ll never see such another; and to show you I’m not proud you may shake hands with me....”
“Yes, all his horses and all his men,” Humpty-Dumpty went on. “They’d pick me up in a minute, they would. However, this conversation is going on a little too fast; let’s go back to the last remark but one.”
Such a nice, common old chap is Humpty-Dumpty, so “stuck-up” because he has spoken to a King; and argue! Well, Alice never heard anything like it before, and found difficulty in keeping up a conversation that was disputed every step of the way. She found him worse than the Cheshire Cat or even the Duchess for that matter, and not half so well-bred.