Page:Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.djvu/149

Rh and miserable' (there's another portmanteau for you). And a borogove is a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all roundsomething like a live mop."

"And then mome raths?" said Alice. "I'm afraid I'm giving you a great deal of trouble."

"Well, a rath is a sort of green pig: but mome I'm not certain about. I think it's short for 'from home'meaning that they'd lost their way, you know."

"And what does outgrabe mean?"

"Well, outgribing is something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle: however, you'll hear it done, maybedown in the wood yonderand when you've once heard it you'll be quite content. Who's been repeating all that hard stuff to you?"

"I read it in a book," said Alice. "But I had some poetry repeated to me, much easier than that, byTweedledee, I think it was."