`Yes, we went to school in the sea, though you mayn’t believe it—­’

  `I never said I didn’t!’ interrupted Alice.

  `You did,’ said the Mock Turtle.

`Hold your tongue!’ added the Gryphon, before Alice could speak again.  The Mock Turtle went on.

`We had the best of educations—­in fact, we went to school every day—­’

`I’ve been to a day-school, too,’ said Alice; `you needn’t be so proud as all that.’

  `With extras?’ asked the Mock Turtle a little anxiously.

  `Yes,’ said Alice, `we learned French and music.’

  `And washing?’ said the Mock Turtle.

  `Certainly not!’ said Alice indignantly.

`Ah! then yours wasn’t a really good school,’ said the Mock Turtle in a tone of great relief. `Now at Ours they had at the end of the bill, “French, music, and washing—­extra."’

`You couldn’t have wanted it much,’ said Alice; `living at the bottom of the sea.’

`I couldn’t afford to learn it.’ said the Mock Turtle with a sigh. `I only took the regular course.’

  `What was that?’ inquired Alice.

`Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,’ the Mock Turtle replied; `and then the different branches of Arithmetic—­ Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.’

  `I never heard of “Uglification,"’ Alice ventured to say. `What is it?’

The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in surprise. `What!  Never heard of uglifying!’ it exclaimed. `You know what to beautify is, I suppose?’

  `Yes,’ said Alice doubtfully:  `it means—­to—­make—­anything—­prettier.’

`Well, then,’ the Gryphon went on, `if you don’t know what to uglify is, you are a simpleton.’

Alice did not feel encouraged to ask any more questions about it, so she turned to the Mock Turtle, and said `What else had you to learn?’

`Well, there was Mystery,’ the Mock Turtle replied, counting off the subjects on his flappers, `—­Mystery, ancient and modern, with Seaography:  then Drawling—­the Drawling-master was an old conger-eel, that used to come once a week:  He taught us Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils.’

  `What was that like?’ said Alice.

`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 Classics master, though.  He was an old crab, he was.’

`I 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.’