If not, why do things have names at all?'
`I can't say,' the Gnat replied. `Further on, in the wood down
there, they've got no names -- however, go on with your list of
insects: you're wasting time.'
`Well, there's the Horse-fly,' Alice began, counting off the names
on her fingers.
`All right,' said the Gnat: `half way up that bush, you'll see a
Rocking-horse-fly, if you look. It's made entirely of wood, and gets
about by swinging itself from branch to branch.'
`What does it live on?' Alice asked, with great curiosity.
`Sap and sawdust,' said the Gnat. `Go on with the list.'
Alice looked up at the Rocking-horse-fly with great interest, and
made up her mind that it must have been just repainted, it looked so
bright and sticky; and then she went on.
`And there's the Dragon-fly.'
`Look on the branch above your head,' said the Gnat, `and there
you'll find a snap-dragon-fly. Its body is made of plum-pudding, its
wings of holly-leaves, and its head is a raisin burning in brandy.'
`And what does it live on?'
`Frumenty and mince pie,' the Gnat replied; `and it makes is nest
in a Christmas box.'
`And then there's the Butterfly,' Alice went on, after she had
taken a good look at the insect with its head on fire, and had
thought to herself, `I wonder if that's the reason insects are so
fond of flying into candles -- because they want to turn into
Snap-dragon-flies!'
`Crawling at your feet,' said the Gnat (Alice drew her feet back in
some alarm), `you may observe a Bread-and-Butterfly.
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