And a great sleepy slobbery voice came out from the room and said:
'Your songs are in very bad taste. Do you know no sleepy songs?'
'Your people sing you sleepy songs,' said Lucy. 'What a pity they can't sing to you all the time.'
'You have a sympathetic nature,' said the Great Sloth, and it came out and leaned on the pillar of its door and looked at her with sleepy interest. It was enormous, as big as a young elephant, and it walked on its hind legs like a gorilla. It was very black indeed.
'It is a pity,' it said; 'but they say they cannot live without drinking, so they waste their time in drawing water from the wells.'
'Wouldn't it be nice,' said Lucy, 'if you had a machine for drawing water. Then they could sing to you all day—if they chose.'
'If I chose,' said the Great Sloth, yawning like a hippopotamus. 'I am sleepy. Go!'
'No,' said Lucy, and it was so long since the Great Sloth had heard that word that the shock of the sound almost killed its sleepiness.
'What did you say?' it asked, as if it could not believe its large ears.
'I said "No,"' said Lucy. 'I mean that you are so great and grand you have only to wish for anything and you get it.'