Page:Through the looking-glass and what Alice found there (IA throughlookinggl00carr4).pdf/199

 "They are that," said Humpty Dumpty; "also they make their nests under sun-dials; also they live on cheese."

"And what's to gyre and to gimble?"

"To gyre is to go round and round like a gyroscope. To gimble is to make holes like a gimblet."

"And the wabe is the grass-plot round a sun-dial, I suppose?" said Alice, surprised at her own ingenuity.

"Of course it is. It's called 'wabe,' you know, because it goes a long way before it and a long way behind it"

"And a long way beyond it on each side," Alice added.

"Exactly so. Well, then, mimsy is 'flimsy and miserable' (there's another portmanteau for you). And a borogove is a thin, shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round—something like a live mop."

"And then mome raths?" said