"Menly about peebles."

(260.1-262.2)  And now the fun begins.  In the Skeleton Key, Campbell and Robinson say that the second chapter of the second book of Finnegans Wake is "perhaps the most difficult in the book."  In his Reader's Guide, Tindall argues that this chapter is denser than the previous one.  He adds that the next chapter is even denser before saying that "we must content ourselves with calling Chapters IX, X, and XI [Tindall uses running chapter numbers, I'm following Campbell and Robinson in resetting the chapter numbers with each book] the densest part of the Wake."  Joyce explained that "the technique here is a reproduction of a schoolboy's (and schoolgirl's) old classbook complete with marginalia by the twins, who change sides at half time, footnotes by the girl (who doesn't), a Euclid diagram, funny drawings etc."

This is, then, the chapter in which the children -- Shaun, Shem, and Isabel -- do their homework.  The "text" of the classbook, or textbook, is found in the center of the page, with Shem's commentary written in italics on the left side (at least initially), Shaun's commentary written in capital letters on the right side (at least initially), and Isabel's commentary written in footnotes.  Shem's commentary is more amusing and irreverent (such as when he refers to HCE by writing, "With his broad and hairy face, to Ireland a disgrace.").  Shaun's is more academic and pretentious (such as when he calls the directions to HCE's pub an "IMAGINABLE ITINERARY THROUGH THE PARTICULAR UNIVERSAL.").  And I guess you could say that Isabel's is more "right" in a Joycean sense (such as when a description of ALP's rainbow-colored clothing gives Isabel occasion to imagine a game of strip poker she'll play when she's an adult:  "When we play dress grownup at alla ludo poker you'll be happnessised to feel how fetching I can look in clingarounds.")

In keeping with the pattern of the Wake, the chapter begins at the beginning:  "As we there are where are we are we there from tomtittot to teetootomtotalitarian.  Tea tea too oo."  This is a sort of cosmic zooming in, moving from the void that existed before the Word to the present, even if we can't really be sure where the present is.  The children give us directions back to the pub, with the various landmarks representing a subject of the children's study.  For exmple, "Tycho Brache Crescent" references the astronomer, while "Berkeley Alley" references the philosopher.  After a trip along the ever-present river and through the hills, to the pub, where "maker mates with made (O my!)," we once again meet HCE and ALP, the creators of the children's world.  There are still a lot of questions about "this upright one" and his "zeroine":

Terror of the noonstruck by day, cryptogam of each nightly bridable.  But, to speak broken heaventalk, is he?  Who is he?  Whose is he?  Why is he?  Howmuch is he?  Which is he?  When is he?  Where is he?  How is he?  And what the decans is there about him anyway, the decemt man?

These questions, it seems, will be answered in this chapter.  The narrator tells us that HCE and ALP will be explained presently:  "Easy, calm your haste!  Approach to lead our passage!"