Chapter 10 Summary

The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon decide to tell Alice about the games they used to play in school. A favorite was a certain dance called the Lobster Quadrille. All the complicated moves and partner changes are described; at the peak of the dance the lobsters are thrown out into the sea and then retrieved. They even perform a little of it for Alice, singing the whole time.

Alice is often asked if she is acquainted with lobsters, or whitings, a type of fish. She does indeed know these animals, and eagerly says so, but then remembers that she is familiar with them only from having seen them on her plate at dinner. Such fish have their tails in their mouths and are covered with crumbs, she says. The creatures deny the crumbs but explain, nonsensically, why the tails of the whitings would...