the egg only got larger and larger, and more and more human:
when she had come within a few yards of it, she saw that it had eyes
and a nose and mouth; and when she had come close to it, she saw clearly
that it was HUMPTY DUMPTY himself. 'It can't be anybody else!' she said
to herself. 'I'm as certain of it, as if his name were written all over
his face.'

It might have been written a hundred times, easily, on that enormous
face. Humpty Dumpty was sitting with his legs crossed, like a Turk, on
the top of a high wall--such a narrow one that Alice quite wondered how
he could keep his balance--and, as his eyes were steadily fixed in the
opposite direction, and he didn't take the least notice of her, she
thought he must be a stuffed figure after all.

'And how exactly like an egg he is!' she said aloud, standing with her
hands ready to catch him, for she was every moment expecting him to
fall.

'It's VERY provoking,' Humpty Dumpty said after a long silence, looking
away from Alice as he spoke, 'to be called an egg--VERY!'

'I said you LOOKED like an egg, Sir,' Alice gently explained. 'And some
eggs are very pretty, you know' she added, hoping to turn her remark
into a sort of a compliment.

'Some people,' said Humpty Dumpty, looking away from her as usual, 'have
no more sense than a baby!'

Alice didn't know what to say to this: it wasn't at all like
conversation, she thought, as he never said anything to HER; in fact,
his last remark was evidently addressed to a tree--so she stood and
softly repeated to herself:--

'Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall:
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King's horses and all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty in his place again.'

'That last line is much too long for the poetry,' she added, almost out
loud, forgetting that Humpty Dumpty would hear her.

'Don't stand there chattering to yourself like that,' Humpty Dumpty
said, looking at her for the first time, 'but tell me your name and your
business.'

'My NAME is Alice, but--'

'It's a stupid enough name!' Humpty Dumpty interrupted impatiently.
'What does it mean?'

'MUST a name mean something?' Alice asked doubtfully.

'Of course it must,' Humpty Dumpty said with a short laugh: 'MY name
means the shape I am--and a good handsome shape it is, too. With a name
like yours, you might be any shape, almost.'

'Why do you sit out here all alone?' said Alice, not wishing to begin an
argument.

'