They had not gone far before
they saw the Mock Turtle in
the distance, sitting sad and
lonely on a little ledge of rock,
and, as they came nearer,
Alice could hear him sighing
as if his heart would break.
She pitied him deeply. `What
is his sorrow?' she asked the
Gryphon, and the Gryphon
answered, very nearly in the
same words as before, `It's all
his fancy, that: he hasn't got
no sorrow, you know. Come on!'

So they went up to the Mock
Turtle, who looked at them with
large eyes full of tears, but said
nothing.

`This here young lady,' said the
Gryphon, `she wants for to
know your history, she do.'

`I'll tell it her,' said the Mock
Turtle in a deep, hollow tone:
`sit down, both of you, and don't
speak a word till I've finished.'

So they sat down, and nobody spoke for some minutes. Alice thought to herself, `I don't see how he can even finish, if he doesn't begin.' But she waited patiently.

`Once,' said the Mock Turtle at last, with a deep sigh, `I was a real Turtle.'