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28

CHAPTER V. ADVICE FROM A CATERPILLAR  



'You are old,' said the youth, 'one would hardly suppose 

That your eye was as steady as ever; 

Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose - 

What made you so awfully clever?' 


Thave answered three questions, and that is enough,' 

Said his father; 'don 't give yourself airs! 

Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff? 

Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!' 



'That is not said right,' said the Caterpillar. 

'Not quite right, I'm afraid,' said Alice, timidly, 'some of the words have got 
altered.' 

'It is wrong from beginning to end,' said the Caterpillar decidedly, and there 
was silence for some minutes. 

The Caterpillar was the first to speak. 

'What size do you want to be?' it asked. 

'Oh, I'm not particular as to size,' Alice hastily replied, 'only one doesn't like 
changing so often, you know.' 

T don 't know,' said the Caterpillar. 

Alice said nothing: she had never been so much contradicted in her life before 
and she felt that she was losing her temper. 

Are you content now?' said the Caterpillar. 

'Well, I should like to be a little larger, sir, if you wouldn't mind,' said Alice, 
'three inches is such a wretched height to be.' 

'It is a very good height indeed!' said the Caterpillar angrily, rearing itself 
upright as it spoke (it was exactly three inches high). 

'But I'm not used to it!' pleaded poor Alice in a piteous tone. And she thought 
of herself, T wish the creatures wouldn't be so easily offended!' 

'You'll get used to it in time,' said the Caterpillar; and it put the hookah into 
its mouth and began smoking again.