Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

dance .
    Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, will you join the dance?
    Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, won’t you join the dance?’
    â€˜Thank you, it’s a very interesting dance to watch,’ said Alice, feeling very glad that it was over at last: ‘and I do so like that curious song about the whiting!’
    â€˜Oh, as to the whiting,’ said the Mock Turtle, ‘they – you’ve seen them, of course?’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Alice, ‘I’ve often seen them at dinn –’ she checked herself hastily.
    â€˜I don’t know where Dinn may be,’ said the Mock Turtle, ‘but if you’ve seen them so often, of course you know what they’re like.’
    â€˜I believe so,’ Alice replied thoughtfully. ‘They have their tails in their mouths – and they’re all over crumbs.’
    â€˜You’re wrong about the crumbs,’ said the Mock Turtle: ‘crumbs would all wash off in the sea. But they have their tails in their mouths; and the reason is –’ here the Mock Turtle yawned and shut his eyes. ‘Tell her about the reason and all that,’ he said to the Gryphon.
    â€˜The reason is,’ said the Gryphon, ‘that they would go with the lobsters to the dance. So they got thrown out to sea. So they had to fall a long way. So they got their tailsfast in their mouths. So they couldn’t get them out again. That’s all.’
    â€˜Thank you,’ said Alice, ‘it’s very interesting. I never knew so much about a whiting before.’
    â€˜I can tell you more than that, if you like,’ said the Gryphon. ‘Do you know why it’s called a whiting?’
    â€˜I never thought about it,’ said Alice. ‘Why?’
    â€˜It does the boots and shoes,’ the Gryphon replied very solemnly.
    Alice was thoroughly puzzled. ‘Does the boots and shoes!’ she repeated in a wondering tone.
    â€˜Why, what are your shoes done with?’ said the Gryphon. ‘I mean what makes them so shiny?’
    Alice looked down at them, and considered a little before she gave her answer. ‘They’re done with blacking, I believe.’
    â€˜Boots and shoes under the sea,’ the Gryphon went on in a deep voice, ‘are done with whiting. Now you know.’
    â€˜And what are they made of?’ Alice asked in a tone of great curiosity.
    â€˜Soles and eels, of course,’ the Gryphon replied rather impatiently: ‘any shrimp could have told you that.’
    â€˜If I’d been the whiting,’ said Alice, whose thoughts were still running on the song, ‘I’d have said to the porpoise, “Keep back, please: we don’t want you with us!” ’
    â€˜They were obliged to have him with them,’ the Mock Turtle said: ‘no wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.’
    â€˜Wouldn’t it really?’ said Alice in a tone of great surprise.
    â€˜Of course not,’ said the Mock Turtle: ‘why, if a fish came to me, and told me he was going a journey, I should say “With what porpoise?” ’
    â€˜Don’t you mean “purpose”?’ said Alice.
    â€˜I mean what I say,’ the Mock Turtle replied in an offended tone. And the Gryphon added ‘Come, let’s hear some of your adventures.’
    â€˜I could tell you my adventures – beginning from this morning,’ said Alice a little timidly: ‘but it’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.’
    â€˜Explain all that,’ said the Mock Turtle.
    â€˜No, no! The adventures first,’ said the Gryphon in an impatient tone: ‘explanations take such a dreadful time.’
    So Alice began telling them her adventures from the time when she first saw the White Rabbit. She was a little nervous about it just at first, the two creatures got so close to her, one on each