—This here young lady —said the Gryphon—, she wants for to know your history, she do.

—I’ll tell it her —said the Mock Turtle in a deep, hollow tone—: sit down, both of you, and don’t speak a word till I’ve finished.

So they sat down, and nobody spoke for some minutes. Alice thought to herself, ‘I don’t see how he can ever finish, if he doesn’t begin.’ But she waited patiently.

—Once —said the Mock Turtle at last, with a deep sigh—, I was a real Turtle.

(Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, chapter IX)