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.
CHAPTER VI.
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
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