As they walked off, Al-ice heard the King say in a low tone to those whom the Queen had doomed to death, "You may all go free!" "Come, that's a good thing," thought Al-ice, for she felt ver-y sad that all those men must have their heads cut off. [Illustration] They soon came to where a Gry-phon lay fast a-sleep in the sun. (If you don't know what it is like, look at the pic-ture.) "Up, dull thing!" said the Queen, "and take this young la-dy to see the Mock Tur-tle. I must go back now;" and she walked a-way and left Al-ice with the Gry-phon. Al-ice was by no means pleased with its looks, but she thought she would be quite as safe with it as she would be with the Queen; so she wait-ed. The Gry-phon sat up and rubbed its eyes; then watched the Queen till she was out of sight; then it laughed. "What fun!" it said, half to it-self, half to Alice. "What is the fun?" she asked. "Why, _she_," it said. "It's all a whim of hers; they nev-er cut off those heads, you know. Come on." Soon they saw the Mock Tur-tle sitting sad and lone on a ledge of rock, and as they came near, Al-ice could hear him sigh as if his heart would break. "What makes him so sad?" Al-ice asked. "It's all a whim of his," said the Gry-phon; "he hasn't got no grief, you know. Come on!" [Illustration] So they went up to the Mock Tur-tle, who looked at them with large eyes full of tears, but did not speak. "This here young la-dy," said the Gry-phon, "she wants for to know a-bout your past life, she do." "I'll tell it to her," said the Mock Tur-tle in a deep, sad tone: "sit down both of you and don't speak a word till I get through." So they sat down, and no one spoke for some time. "Once," said the Mock Tur-tle at last, with a deep sigh, "I was a re-al Tur-tle. When we were young we went to school in the sea. We were taught by an old Tur-tle--we used to call him Tor-toise--" "Why did you call him Tor-toise, if he wasn't one?" Al-ice asked. "He taught us, that's why," said the Mock Tur-tle: "you are quite dull not to know that!" "Shame on you to ask such a sim-ple thing," add-ed the Gry-phon; then they both sat and looked at poor Al-ice, who felt as if she could sink into the earth. At last the Gry-phon said to the Mock Tur-tle, "Drive on, old fellow! Don't be all day a-bout it!" and he went on in these words: "Yes, we went to school in the sea, though you mayn't think it's true--" "I didn't say I did not!" said Al-ice. "You did," said the Mock Tur-tle. "Hold your tongue," add-ed the Gry-phon. The Mock Tur-tle went on: "We were well taught--in fact we went to school each day--" "I've been to a day school too," said Alice; "you needn't be so proud as all that." "Were you taught wash-ing?" asked the Mock Tur-tle. "Of course not," said Al-ice. "Ah! then yours wasn't a good school," said the Mock Tur-tle. "Now at _ours_ they had at the end of the bill, 'French, mu-sic, and wash-ing--ex-tra.'" "You couldn't have need-ed it much in the sea," said Al-ice.