and offered Alice his hand. She watched him a little anxiously as she took it. ‘If he smiled much more, the ends of his mouth might meet behind,’ she thought: ‘and then I don’t know what would happen to his head! I’m afraid it would come off!’

‘Yes, all his horses and all his men,’ Humpty Dumpty went on. ‘They’d pick me up again in a minute, they would! However, this conversation is going on a little too fast: let’s go back to the last remark but one.’

‘I’m afraid I can’t quite remember it,’ Alice said very politely.

‘In that case we start fresh,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘and it’s my turn to choose a subject — ’ (‘He talks about it just as if it was a game!’