as the runited sisters ran as fast as they could until they hit a large mushroom on top was a catipiler. the Caterpillar and Amy and beth 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. amy and beth replied, rather shyly, "w—we hardly know, sir, just at present—at least we know who we were when we got up this morning, but we think we must have been changed several times since then."
"What do you mean by that?" said the Caterpillar sternly. "Explain yourself!"
"we can't explain ourselves , I'm afraid, sir," said amy and beth "because were not ourselves, you see."
"I don't see," said the Caterpillar.
"I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly," Amy and beth replied very politely, "for I can't understand it myself to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing."
"It isn't," said the Caterpillar.
"Well, perhaps you haven't found it so yet," said amy and beth "but when you have to turn into a chrysalis—you will some day, you know—and then after that into a butterfly, I should think you'll feel it a little queer, won't you?"
"Not a bit," said the Caterpillar.
"Well, perhaps your feelings may be different," said amy and beth; "all I know is, it would feel very queer to me."
"You!" said the Caterpillar contemptuously. "Who are you?"
Which brought them back again to the beginning of the conversation amy and beth felt a little irritated at the Caterpillar's making such very short remarks, and she drew herself up and said, very gravely, "I think, you ought to tell us who you are, first."
"Why?" said the Caterpillar.
Here was another puzzling question; and as amy and beth could not think of any good reason, and as the Caterpillar seemed to be in a very unpleasant state of mind, she turned away.
You there! Girls! Wait! Come back! I have something important to say! callled the catipiller first thinking Oh dear. I wonder what he wants now. Well maybe he can point us to that lovely garden then saying to herself That sounded promising, amy and beth turned and came back again. "Keep your tempers," said the Caterpillar.
"Is that all?" said amy and beth, swallowing down their anger as well as she could.
"No," said the Caterpillar amy and beth thought she might as well wait, as she had nothing else to do, and perhaps after all it might tell her something worth hearing. For some minutes it puffed away without speaking, but at last it unfolded its arms, took the hookah out of its mouth again, and said, "So you think you're changed, do you?"
im afraid I am, sir," said amy and beth, ; "we can't remember things as we used to—and we don't keep the same size for ten minutes together! "Are you 2 content now?" said the Caterpillar.
"Well, we should like to be a little larger, sir, if you wouldn't mind," said amy and beth "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 were not used to it pleaded amy and beth in a piteous tones. And she thought of herself, "I 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.
This time amy and beth, waited patiently until it chose to speak again. In a minute or two the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and yawned once or twice, and shook itself. Then it got down off the mushroom, and crawled away in the grass, merely remarking as it went, "One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter."
"One side of what? The other side of what?" thought amy and beth, to themselves.
"Of the mushroom," said the Caterpillar, just as if she had asked it aloud; and in another moment it was out of sight.
amy and beth, remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for a minute, trying to make out which were the two sides of it; and as it was perfectly round, they found this a very difficult question. However, at last she stretched her arms round it as far as they would go, and broke off a bit of the edge with each hand. the then split the mushroom between them "And now which is which?" they said to themseves, and nibbled a little of the right-hand bit to try the effect: the next moment she felt a violent blow underneath their chins struck both of there feet they were a good deal frightened by this very sudden change, but she felt that there was no time to be lost, as they were shrinking rapidly; so she set to work at once to eat some of the other bit. Her chin was pressed so closely against her foot, that there was hardly room to open their mouths; but they did it at last, and managed to swallow a morsel of the lefthand bit
"Come, our head's are free at last!" they said, in a tone of delight, which changed into alarm in another moment, when she found that her shoulders were nowhere to be found: all she could see, when she looked down, was an immense length of neck, which seemed to rise like a stalk out of a sea of green leaves that lay far below her.
"What can all that green stuff be?" said amy and beth, . "And where have my shoulders got to? And oh, my poor hands, how is it I can't see you?" She was moving them about as she spoke, but no result seemed to follow, except a little shaking among the distant green leaves.
As there seemed to be no chance of getting her hands up to her head, she tried to get her head down to them, and was delighted to find that her neck would bend about easily in any direction, like a serpent. She had just succeeded in curving it down into a graceful zigzag, and was going to dive in among the leaves, which she found to be nothing but the tops of the trees under which she had been wandering, when a sharp hiss made her draw back in a hurry: a large pigeon had flown into her face, and was beating her violently with its wings.
"Serpents!" screamed 2 pigeons 1 pigion rushed to attack amy and another atacked beth the first pidgion pecked at amy's head ow ow ow said ahhh ahh cried amy, in pain "but I'm not a serpent!" said meg indignantly. "Let me alone!"the other one atacked beth pecked at amy's head ow ow ow said ahhh ahh cried beth , in pain "but I'm not a serpent!" said meg indignantly. "Let me alone! "Serpent, I say again!" repeated the Pigeons, but in a more subdued tone, and added with a kind of sob, "we've tried every way, and nothing seems to suit them!"
"I haven't the least idea what you're talking about," said amy and beth both.
"I've tried the roots of trees, and I've tried banks, and I've tried hedges," the Pigeon went on, without attending to her; "but those serpents! There's no pleasing them!"
amy and beth were even more and more puzzled, but she thought there was no use in saying anything more till the Pigeon had finished.
"As if it wasn't trouble enough hatching the eggs," said the Pigeons; "but I must be on the look-out for serpents night and day! Why, I haven't had a wink of sleep these three weeks!"
"I'm very sorry you've been annoyed," said amy and beth, who was beginning to see its meaning.
"And just as I'd taken the highest tree in the wood," continued the Pigeon, raising its voice to a shriek, "and just as I was thinking I should be free of them at last, they must needs come wriggling down from the sky! Ugh, Serpent!"
"But were not serpents, we tell you!" said amy and beth. "we ar we aw—"
"Well! What are you?" said the Pigeons. "we can see you're trying to invent something!"
were just teenage girls," said amy and beth,, rather doubtfully, as she remembered the number of changes she had gone through that day. A likely story indeed!" said the Pigeon in a tone of the deepest contempt. "I've seen a good many teenage and little girls in my time, but never one with such a neck as that! No, no! You're a serpent; and there's no use denying it. I suppose you'll be telling me next that you 2 never tasted an eggs!"
"we have tasted eggs, certainly," amy and beth said , we've eaten them in omlets but we rather enjoy our eggs scrambled or hard boiled amy and beth replied. who was a very truthful girl; "but girls eat eggs quite as much as serpents do, you know."
"I don't believe it," said the Pigeons; "but if they do, why then they're a kind of serpents, that's all I can say."
This was such a new idea to amy and beth, 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 us," amy and beth said, hastily; "but were not looking for eggs, as it happens; and if we were we shouldn't want yours: we strongly hate our eggs raw we like ours fried with butter and a bit of salt." Well, be off, then!" said the Pigeon in a sulky tone, as it settled down again into its nest. they crouched down among the trees as well as she could, for their necks kept getting entangled among the branches, and every now and then she had to stop and untwist it. After a while she remembered that they still held the pieces of mushroom in their hands, and they set to work very carefully, nibbling first at one and then at the other, and growing sometimes taller and sometimes shorter, until they had succeeded in bringing herself down to her usual height.