== The Lobster Quadrille
The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and drew the back of one flapper across
his eyes. He looked at pov/O, and tried to speak, but for a minute or
two sobs choked his voice. “Same as if he had a bone in his throat,”
said the Gryphon: and it set to work shaking him and punching him in the
back. At last the Mock Turtle recovered his voice, and, with tears
running down his cheeks, he went on again:---

“You may not have lived much under the sea---” (“I haven't,” alt/first
and second or third/pov/S said/said pov/S/)---“and perhaps you were
never even introduced to a lobster---” (Pov/S began to say “I once
tasted---” but checked pov/r hastily, and said “No, never”) “---so you
can have no idea what a delightful thing a Lobster Quadrille is!”

“No, indeed,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said pov/S/.
“What sort of a dance is it?”

“Why,” said the Gryphon, “you first form into a line along the
sea-shore---”

“Two lines!” cried the Mock Turtle. “Seals, turtles, salmon, and so on;
then, when you've cleared all the jelly-fish out of the way---”

“#emph[That] generally takes some time,” interrupted the Gryphon.

“---you advance twice---”

“Each with a lobster as a partner!” cried the Gryphon.

“Of course,” the Mock Turtle said: “advance twice, set to partners---”

“---change lobsters, and retire in same order,” continued the Gryphon.

“Then, you know,” the Mock Turtle went on, “you throw the---”

“The lobsters!” shouted the Gryphon, with a bound into the air.

“---as far out to sea as you can---”

“Swim after them!” screamed the Gryphon.

“Turn a somersault in the sea!” cried the Mock Turtle, capering wildly
about.

“Change lobsters again!” yelled the Gryphon at the top of its voice.

“Back to land again, and that's all the first figure,” said the Mock
Turtle, suddenly dropping his voice; and the two creatures, who had been
jumping about like mad things all this time, sat down again very sadly
and quietly, and looked at pov/O.

“It must be a very pretty dance,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S
said/said pov/S/ timidly.

“Would you like to see a little of it?” said the Mock Turtle.

“Very much indeed,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said
pov/S/.

“Come, let's try the first figure!” said the Mock Turtle to the Gryphon.
“We can do without lobsters, you know. Which shall sing?”

“Oh, #emph[you] sing,” said the Gryphon. “I've forgotten the words.”

So they began solemnly dancing round and round pov/O, every now and then
treading on pov/p toes when they passed too close, and waving their
forepaws to mark the time, while the Mock Turtle sang this, very slowly
and sadly:---

#include "poems/lobster-quadrille-part-1.typ"

“Thank you, it's a very interesting dance to watch,” alt/first and
second or third/pov/S said/said pov/S/, feeling very glad that it was
over at last: “and I do so like that curious song about the whiting!”

“Oh, as to the whiting,” said the Mock Turtle, “they---you've seen them,
of course?”

“Yes,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said pov/S/, “I've often
seen them at dinn---” pov/s checked herself hastily.

“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.”

“I believe so,” pov/S replied thoughtfully. “They have their tails in
their mouths---and they're all over crumbs.”

“You're wrong about the crumbs,” said the Mock Turtle: “crumbs would all
wash off in the sea. But they #emph[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.

“The reason is,” said the Gryphon, “that they #emph[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 tails fast in their mouths. So they
couldn't get them out again. That's all.”

“Thank you,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said pov/S/, “it's
very interesting. I never knew so much about a whiting before.”

“I can tell you more than that, if you like,” said the Gryphon. “Do you
know why it's called a whiting?”

“I never thought about it,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S
said/said pov/S/. “Why?”

“#emph[It does the boots and shoes];,” the Gryphon replied very
solemnly.

Pov/S was thoroughly puzzled. “Does the boots and shoes!” pov/s repeated
in a wondering tone.

“Why, what are #emph[your] shoes done with?” said the Gryphon. “I mean,
what makes them so shiny?”

Pov/S looked down at them, and considered a little before pov/s gave
pov/p answer. “They're done with blacking, I believe.”

“Boots and shoes under the sea,” the Gryphon went on in a deep voice,
“are done with a whiting. Now you know.”

“And what are they made of?” pov/S asked in a tone of great curiosity.

“Soles and eels, of course,” the Gryphon replied rather impatiently:
“any shrimp could have told you that.”

“If I'd been the whiting,” alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said
pov/S/, whose thoughts were still running on the song, “I'd have said to
the porpoise, ‘Keep back, please: we don't want #emph[you] with us!'”

“They were obliged to have him with them,” the Mock Turtle said: “no
wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.”

“Wouldn't it really?” alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said
pov/S/ in a tone of great surprise.

“Of course not,” said the Mock Turtle: “why, if a fish came to
#emph[me];, and told me he was going a journey, I should say ‘With what
porpoise?'”

“Don't you mean ‘purpose'?” alt/first and second or third/pov/S
said/said pov/S/.

“I mean what I say,” the Mock Turtle replied in an offended tone. And
the Gryphon added “Come, let's hear some of #emph[your] adventures.”

“I could tell you my adventures---beginning from this morning,”
alt/first and second or third/pov/S said/said pov/S/ a little timidly:
“but it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different
person then.”

“Explain all that,” said the Mock Turtle.

“No, no! The adventures first,” said the Gryphon in an impatient tone:
“explanations take such a dreadful time.”

So pov/S began telling them pov/p adventures from the time when pov/s
first saw the White Rabbit. Pov/s was a little nervous about it just at
first, the two creatures got so close to pov/o, one on each side, and
opened their eyes and mouths so #emph[very] wide, but pov/s gained
courage as pov/s went on. Pov/p listeners were perfectly quiet till
pov/s got to the part about her repeating “#emph[You are old, Father
William];,” to the Caterpillar, and the words all coming different, and
then the Mock Turtle drew a long breath, and said “That's very curious.”

“It's all about as curious as it can be,” said the Gryphon.

“It all came different!” the Mock Turtle repeated thoughtfully. “I
should like to hear prn/o try and repeat something now. Tell prn/o to
begin.” He looked at the Gryphon as if he thought it had some kind of
authority over pov/O.

“Stand up and repeat ‘'#emph[Tis the voice of the sluggard];,'” said the
Gryphon.

“How the creatures order one about, and make one repeat lessons!”
alt/first and second or third/pov/S thought/thought pov/S/; “I might as
well be at school at once.” However, pov/s got up, and began to repeat
it, but pov/p head was so full of the Lobster Quadrille, that pov/s
hardly knew what pov/s vrb/be/ saying, and the words came very queer
indeed:---

#include "poems/lobster-quadrille-part-2.typ"

“That's different from what #emph[I] used to say when I was a child,”
said the Gryphon.

“Well, I never heard it before,” said the Mock Turtle; “but it sounds
uncommon nonsense.”

Pov/S said nothing; pov/s had sat down with pov/p face in pov/p hands,
wondering if anything would #emph[ever] happen in a natural way again.

“I should like to have it explained,” said the Mock Turtle.

“Prn/s can't explain it,” said the Gryphon hastily. “Go on with the next
verse.”

“But about his toes?” the Mock Turtle persisted. “How #emph[could] he
turn them out with his nose, you know?”

“It's the first position in dancing.” pov/S said; but was dreadfully
puzzled by the whole thing, and longed to change the subject.

“Go on with the next verse,” the Gryphon repeated impatiently: “it
begins ‘#emph[I passed by his garden];.'”

Pov/S did not dare to disobey, though pov/s felt sure it would all come
wrong, and pov/s went on in a trembling voice:---

#include "poems/lobster-quadrille-part-3.typ"

“What #emph[is] the use of repeating all that stuff,” the Mock Turtle
interrupted, “if you don't explain it as you go on? It's by far the most
confusing thing #emph[I] ever heard!”

“Yes, I think you'd better leave off,” said the Gryphon: and pov/S was
only too glad to do so.

“Shall we try another figure of the Lobster Quadrille?” the Gryphon went
on. “Or would you like the Mock Turtle to sing you a song?”

“Oh, a song, please, if the Mock Turtle would be so kind,” pov/S
replied, so eagerly that the Gryphon said, in a rather offended tone,
“Hm! No accounting for tastes! Sing prn/o ‘#emph[Turtle Soup];,' will
you, old fellow?”

The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and began, in a voice sometimes choked
with sobs, to sing this:---

#include "poems/beautiful-soup-part-1.typ"

“Chorus again!” cried the Gryphon, and the Mock Turtle had just begun to
repeat it, when a cry of “The trial's beginning!” was heard in the
distance.

“Come on!” cried the Gryphon, and, taking pov/O by the hand, it hurried
off, without waiting for the end of the song.

“What trial is it?” pov/S panted as pov/s ran; but the Gryphon only
answered “Come on!” and ran the faster, while more and more faintly
came, carried on the breeze that followed them, the melancholy words:---