Portal:Speculative fiction/Selected picture/38

Seventh of Henry Holiday's original illustrations to "The Hunting of the Snark" by Lewis Carroll.
Seventh of Henry Holiday's original illustrations to "The Hunting of the Snark" by Lewis Carroll.
Credit: Illustrations: Henry Holiday (1839-1927). Retouched by Adam Cuerden.

Seventh of Henry Holiday's original illustrations to "The Hunting of the Snark" by Lewis Carroll.

From Fit the Fifth: The Beaver's Lesson. The Butcher and Beaver hear the song of the Jubjub bird, and this causes the Butcher to be reminded of his childhood, and begin a lengthy lesson to the Beaver. Afterwards, they become friends. As for the strange creatures:

The Beaver brought paper, portfolio, pens,
    And ink in unfailing supplies:
While strange creepy creatures came out of their dens,
    And watched them with wondering eyes.
 
So engrossed was the Butcher, the heeded them not,
    As he wrote with a pen in each hand,
And explained all the while in a popular style
    Which the Beaver could well understand.

The rest of the lesson is pretty much complete nonsense.