To find out what others are feeling, don't prod or poke. If you want play with a turtle, you can't get it to come out of its shell by prodding and poking it with a stick, you might kill it. Be gentle not harsh, hard or forceful or smash he hell out of him with a hammer.
Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with," the Mock Turtle replied and then the different branches of Arithmetic Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision