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TURTLES STORY. 145
“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.”
““T 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
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