at once, and ran till she was quite tired and out of breath, and till the

puppy’s bark sounded quite faint in the distance.


“And yet what a dear little puppy it was!” said Alice, as she leant

against a buttercup to rest herself, and fanned herself with one of the leaves:

“I should have liked teaching it tricks very much, if—if I’d

only been the right size to do it! Oh dear! I’d nearly forgotten that

I’ve got to grow up again! Let me see—how is it to be

managed? I suppose I ought to eat or drink something or other; but the great

question is, what?”


The great question certainly was, what? Alice looked all round her at the

flowers and the blades of grass, but she did not see anything that looked like

the right thing to eat or drink under the circumstances. There was a large

mushroom growing near her, about the same height as herself; and when she had

looked under it, and on both sides of it, and behind it, it occurred to her

that she might as well look and see what was on the top of it.


She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of the mushroom,

and her eyes immediately met those of a large blue caterpillar, that was

sitting on the top with its arms folded, quietly smoking a long hookah, and

taking not the smallest notice of her or of anything else.


CHAPTER V.

Advice from a Caterpillar


The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at

last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a

languid, sleepy voice.


“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.


This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather

shyly, “I—I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know

who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been

changed several times since then.”


“What do you mean by that?” said the Caterpillar sternly.

“Explain yourself!”


“I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, sir,” said