`I have tasted eggs, certainly,’ said Alice,
who was a very truthful child; `but little girls eat
eggs quite as much as serpents do, you know.’
`I don’t believe it,’ said the Pigeon;
`but if they do, why then they’re a kind of
serpent, that’s all I can say.’
This was such a new idea to Alice, that she was
quite silent for a minute or two, which gave the Pigeon
the opportunity of adding, `You’re looking for
eggs, I know that well enough; and what does
it matter to me whether you’re a little girl
or a serpent?’
`It matters a good deal to me,’ said
Alice hastily; `but I’m not looking for eggs,
as it happens; and if I was, I shouldn’t want
yours: I don’t like them raw.’
`Well, be off, then!’ said the Pigeon in a
sulky tone, as it settled down again into its nest.
Alice crouched down among the trees as well as she
could, for her neck kept getting entangled among the
branches, and every now and then she had to stop and
untwist it. After a while she remembered that
she still held the pieces of mushroom in her hands,
and she set to work very carefully, nibbling first
at one and then at the other, and growing sometimes
taller and sometimes shorter, until she had succeeded
in bringing herself down to her usual height.
It was so long since she had been anything near
the right size, that it felt quite strange at first;
but she got used to it in a few minutes, and began
talking to herself, as usual. `Come, there’s
half my plan done now! How puzzling all these
changes are! I’m never sure what I’m
going to be, from one minute to another! However,
I’ve got back to my right size: the next
thing is, to get into that beautiful garden—how
is that to be done, I wonder?’ As she
said this, she came suddenly upon an open place, with
a little house in it about four feet high. `Whoever
lives there,’ thought Alice, `it’ll never
do to come upon them this size: why, I
should frighten them out of their wits!’ So
she began nibbling at the righthand bit again, and
did not venture to go near the house till she had
brought herself down to nine inches high.
Pig and Pepper
For a minute or two she stood looking at the house,
and wondering what to do next, when suddenly a footman
in livery came running out of the wood—(she
considered him to be a footman because he was in livery:
otherwise, judging by his face only, she would have
called him a fish)—and rapped loudly at
the door with his knuckles. It was opened by
another footman in livery, with a round face, and
large eyes like a frog; and both footmen, Alice noticed,
had powdered hair that curled all over their heads.
She felt very curious to know what it was all about,
and crept a little way out of the wood to listen.
The Fish-Footman began by producing from under his
arm a great letter, nearly as large as himself, and
this he handed over to the other, saying, in a solemn
tone, `For the Duchess. An invitation from the
Queen to play croquet.’ The Frog-Footman
repeated, in the same solemn tone, only changing the
order of the words a little, `From the Queen.
An invitation for the Duchess to play croquet.’
