Illustration by John Tenniel
'Why do you sit out here all alone?' said Alice, not wishing to begin an argument.
'Why, because there's nobody with me!' cried Humpty Dumpty. 'Did you think I didn't know the answer to THAT? Ask another.'
'Don't you think you'd be safer down on the ground?' Alice went on, not with any idea of making another riddle, but simply in her good-natured anxiety for the queer creature. 'That wall is so VERY narrow!'
'What tremendously easy riddles you ask!' Humpty Dumpty growled out. 'Of course I don't think so! Why, if ever I DID fall off — which there's no chance of — but IF I did —' Here he pursed his lips and looked so solemn and grand that Alice could hardly help laughing. 'IF I did fall,' he went on, 'THE KING HAS PROMISED ME — WITH HIS VERY OWN MOUTH — to — to —'
'To send all his horses and all his men,' Alice interrupted, rather unwisely.
Through the Looking-Glass, by Charles Dodgson, AKA Lewis Carroll (there's also the great The Annotated Alice, by Martin Gardner)
'Why, because there's nobody with me!' cried Humpty Dumpty. 'Did you think I didn't know the answer to THAT? Ask another.'
'Don't you think you'd be safer down on the ground?' Alice went on, not with any idea of making another riddle, but simply in her good-natured anxiety for the queer creature. 'That wall is so VERY narrow!'
'What tremendously easy riddles you ask!' Humpty Dumpty growled out. 'Of course I don't think so! Why, if ever I DID fall off — which there's no chance of — but IF I did —' Here he pursed his lips and looked so solemn and grand that Alice could hardly help laughing. 'IF I did fall,' he went on, 'THE KING HAS PROMISED ME — WITH HIS VERY OWN MOUTH — to — to —'
'To send all his horses and all his men,' Alice interrupted, rather unwisely.
Through the Looking-Glass, by Charles Dodgson, AKA Lewis Carroll (there's also the great The Annotated Alice, by Martin Gardner)
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