But they can't eat everyone!

On Sunday, I recited Lewis Carroll's The Walrus and the Carpenter to Samuel for the first time in many months. The ending is quite dramatic:

Daddy: "...because they'd...eaten...every..."

Samuel: "One!"

But, as he said to me last summer (IIRC), he reminded me again:

Samuel: "But if the one oyster eats all the other ones, who can eat that one?"

He didn't state it quite so clearly this time (because obviously the oysters aren't eating each other). IIRC, when this came up last summer he said:

Samuel: "But nobody can eat everybody, because who can eat the last one?"

I think it comes down to this: he's hearing "they'd eaten everyone," instead of "they'd eaten every one."

So I explained again that the walrus and carpenter had eaten all the oysters, but that they hadn't eaten everyone.

So I guess we can all be thankful for that.