Because all the different medicines say, "Thousands of cures daily," and if you only take that as two thousand, which it must be, at least, it mounts up.

And the people who sell them must make a great deal of money by them because they are nearly always two-and-ninepence the bottle, and three-and-six for one nearly double the size.

Now the bottles, as I was saying, don't cost anything like that.' 'It's the medicine costs the money,' said Dora; 'look how expensive jujubes are at the chemist's, and peppermints too.' 'That's only because they're nice,' Dicky explained; 'nasty things are not so dear.

Look what a lot of brimstone you get for a penny, and the same with alum.

We would not put the nice kinds of chemist's things in our medicine.' Then he went on to tell us that when we had invented our medicine we would write and tell the editor about it, and he would put it in the paper, and then people would send their two-and-ninepence and three-and-six for the bottle nearly double the size, and then when the medicine had cured them they would write to the paper and their letters would be printed, saying how they had been suffering for years, and never thought to get about again, but thanks to the blessing of our ointment--' Dora interrupted and said, 'Not ointment--it's so messy.' And Alice thought so too.