The Queen took Alice to see the Mock Turtle, who sat on a rock and sighed as if his heart would break. "Once," he said, "I was a real Turtle." A Gryphon sat beside him and told Alice not to mind his sadness, because he had none at all. The Mock Turtle described his school under the sea, where the master was an old turtle called Tortoise and the lessons were Reeling and Writhing and different branches of Arithmetic: Ambition, Distraction, Uglification and Derision. Lessons were ten hours the first day, nine the next, and one less each day after that, and that is why they were called lessons. Then the two of them sang about the Lobster Quadrille and danced round Alice, treading on her toes. Far away a voice cried, "The trial is beginning!" and the Gryphon took Alice by the hand and hurried her off.