`I will, if I can remember it so long,' said Alice.
`You needn't go on making remarks like that,' Humpty Dumpty said: `they're not sensible, and they put me
out.'
`I sent a message to the fish:
I told them "This is what I wish."
The little fishes of the sea,
They sent an answer back to me.
The little fishes' answer was
"We cannot do it, Sir, because --"'
`I'm afraid I don't quite understand,' said Alice.
`It gets easier further on,' Humpty Dumpty replied.`I sent to them again to say
"It will be better to obey."The fishes answered, with a grin,
"Why, what a temper you are in!"I told them once, I told them twice:
They would not listen to advice.I took a kettle large and new,
Fit for the deed I had to do.My heart went hop, my heart went thump:
I filled the kettle at the pump.Then some one came to me and said
"The little fishes are in bed."I said to him, I said it plain,
"Then you must wake them up again."I said it very loud and clear:
I went and shouted in his ear.'
Humpty Dumpty raised his voice almost to a scream as he repeated this verse, and Alice thought with a
shudder, `I wouldn't have been the messenger for anything!'
`But he was very stiff and proud:
He said, "You needn't shout so loud!"
And he was very proud and stiff:
He said "I'd go and wake them, if --"
I took a corkscrew from the shelf:
I went to wake them up myself.
And when I found the door was locked,
I pulled and pushed and kicked and knocked.And when I found the door was shut,
I tried to turn the handle, but--'
There was a long pause.
`Is that all?' Alice timidly asked.
`That's all,' said Humpty Dumpty. `Good-bye.'
This was rather sudden, Alice thought: but, after such a very strong hint that she ought to be going, she felt that it would hardly be civil to stay. So she got up, and held out her hand. `Good-bye, till we meet again!' she said as cheerfully as she could.
`I shouldn't know you again if we did meet,' Humpty Dumpty replied in a discontented tone, giving her one of his fingers to shake: `you're so exactly like other people.'
`The face is what one goes by, generally,' Alice remarked in a thoughtful tone.