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Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking GlassCHAPTER 6: Humpty Dumpty (continued)`Ah, you should see 'em come round me of a Saturday night,' Humpty Dumpty went on, wagging his head gravely from side to side: `for to get their wages, you know.' (Alice didn't venture to ask what he paid them with; and so you see I can't tell YOU.) `You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir,' said Alice. `Would you kindly tell me the meaning of the poem called "Jabberwocky"?' `Let's hear it,' said Humpty Dumpty. `I can explain all the poems that were ever invented--and a good many that haven't been invented just yet.' This sounded very hopeful, so Alice repeated the first verse: 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. `That's enough to begin with,' Humpty Dumpty interrupted: `there are plenty of hard words there. "BRILLIG" means four o'clock in the afternoon--the time when you begin BROILING things for dinner.' `That'll do very well,' said Alice: and "SLITHY"?' `Well, "SLITHY" means "lithe and slimy." "Lithe" is the same as "active." You see it's like a portmanteau--there are two meanings packed up into one word.' `I see it now,' Alice remarked thoughtfully: `and what are "TOVES"?' `Well, "TOVES" are something like badgers--they're something like lizards--and they're something like corkscrews.' `They must be very curious looking creatures.' `They are that,' said Humpty Dumpty: `also they make their nests under sun-dials--also they live on cheese.' `Andy what's the "GYRE" and to "GIMBLE"?' `To "GYRE" is to go round and round like a gyroscope. To "GIMBLE" is to make holes like a gimlet.' This is page 55 of 100. [Mark this Page] Mark any page to add this title to Your Bookshelf. (0 / 10 books on shelf) Buy a copy of Through the Looking Glass at Amazon.com
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