The name really IS `` THE AGED AGED MAN . '' ' ` Then I ought to have said `` That 's what the SONG is called '' ? ' Alice corrected herself . ` No , you ought n't : that 's quite another thing ! The SONG is called `` WAYS AND MEANS '' : but that 's only what it 's CALLED , you know ! ' ` Well , what IS the song , then ? ' said Alice , who was by this time completely bewildered . ' I was coming to that , ' the Knight said . ` The song really IS `` A-SITTING ON A GATE '' : and the tune 's my own invention . ' So saying , he stopped his horse and let the reins fall on its neck : then , slowly beating time with one hand , and with a faint smile lighting up his gentle foolish face , as if he enjoyed the music of his song , he began . Of all the strange things that Alice saw in her journey Through The Looking-Glass , this was the one that she always remembered most clearly . Years afterwards she could bring the whole scene back again , as if it had been only yesterday -- the mild blue eyes and kindly smile of the Knight -- the setting sun gleaming through his hair , and shining on his armour in a blaze of light that quite dazzled her -- the horse quietly moving about , with the reins hanging loose on his neck , cropping the grass at her feet -- and the black shadows of the forest behind -- all this she took in like a picture , as , with one hand shading her eyes , she leant against a tree , watching the strange pair , and listening , in a half dream , to the melancholy music of the song . ` But the tune IS N'T his own invention , ' she said to herself : ` it 's `` I GIVE THEE ALL , I CAN NO MORE . '' ' She stood and listened very attentively , but no tears came into her eyes . ` I 'll tell thee everything I can ; There 's little to relate . I saw an aged aged man , A-sitting on a gate . `` Who are you , aged man ? '' I said , `` and how is it you live ? '' And his answer trickled through my head Like water through a sieve . He said `` I look for butterflies That sleep among the wheat : I make them into mutton-pies , And sell them in the street .
I XXXXX them unto men , '' he said , `` Who sail on stormy seas ; And that 's the way I get my bread -- A trifle , if you please . ''
's coming corrected listening make moving saw saying sell watching