Page:Carroll - Rhyme and Reason.djvu/46

30 "I've haunted dungeons, castles, towers—
 * Wherever I was sent:

I've often sat and howled for hours, Drenched to the skin with driving showers,
 * Upon a battlement.

"It's quite old-fashioned now to groan
 * When you begin to speak:

This is the newest thing in tone—" And here (it chilled me to the bone)
 * He gave an awful squeak.

"Perhaps," he added, "to your ear
 * That sounds an easy thing?

Try it yourself, my little dear! It took me something like a year,
 * With constant practising.

"And when you've learned to squeak, my man
 * And caught the double sob,

You're pretty much where you began: Just try and gibber if you can!
 * That's something like a job!