Gnat went on, as quietly as if nothing had happened.
"I like them when they can talk," Alice said. "None of them ever talk, where I come from."
"What sort of insects do you rejoice in, where you come from?" the Gnat inquired.
"I don't rejoice in insects at all," Alice explained, "because I'm rather afraid of themat least the large kinds. But I can tell you the names of some of them."
"Of course they answer to their names?" the Gnat remarked carelessly.
"I never knew them do it."
"What's the use of their having names," the Gnat said, "if they won't answer to them?"
"No use to them," said Alice; "but it's useful to the people that name them, I suppose. 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 nameshowever, go on with your list of insects: you're wasting time."
