as ANNA ran as fast as she could until she hit a large mushroom on top was a CATTAPILLER the Caterpillar and ANNA looked at each other for some time in silence
"Who are you?" said the Caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. ANNA 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 ANNA "because I'm not myself, you see."
"I don't see," said the Caterpillar.
"I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly," ANNA 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 ANNA; "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 ANNA; "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 meg 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 me who you are, first."
"Why?" said the Caterpillar.
Here was another puzzling question; and as meg 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! Girl! Wait! Come back! I have something important to say! callled the ANNA first thinking Oh dear. I wonder what he wants now. Well maybe he can point me to that lovely garden then saying to herself That sounded promising, Coraline turned and came back again. "Keep your temper," said the Caterpillar.
"Is that all?" said Coraline, swallowing down her anger as well as she could.
"No," said the Caterpillar ANNA 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 ANNA, ; "I can't remember things as I used—and I don't keep the same size for ten minutes together! "Are you content now?" said the Caterpillar.
"Well, I should like to be a little larger, sir, if you wouldn't mind," said ANNA "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 ANNA in a piteous tone. 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 ANNA, 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 ANNA, to herself.
"Of the mushroom," said the Caterpillar, just as if she had asked it aloud; and in another moment it was out of sight.
ANNA 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, she 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.
"And now which is which?" she said to herself, and nibbled a little of the right-hand bit to try the effect: the next moment she felt a violent blow underneath her chin: it had struck her foot!
She was a good deal frightened by this very sudden change, but she felt that there was no time to be lost, as she was 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 her mouth; but she did it at last, and managed to swallow a morsel of the lefthand bit
"Come, my head's free at last!" said ANNA, 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 ANNA, "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.
"Serpent!" screamed the rushed to attack anna the pidgion pecked at anna's head ow ow ow said ahhh ahh cried ANNA, in pain "but I'm not a serpent!" said ANNA indignantly. "Let me alone!"
"Serpent, I say again!" repeated the Pigeon, but in a more subdued tone, and added with a kind of sob, "I've tried every way, and nothing seems to suit them!"
"I haven't the least idea what you're talking about," said ANNA.
"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!"
Mirabel was 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 Pigeon; "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 Mirabel, 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 I'm not a serpent, I tell you!" said meg . "I'm a—I'm a—"
"Well! What are you?" said the Pigeon. "I can see you're trying to invent something!"
"I—I'm a teenage girl," said anna, 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 never tasted an egg!"
"I have tasted eggs, certainly," said ANNA , ive eaten them in omlets but i rather enjoy my eggs scrambled or hard boiled Mirabel 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 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 ANNA, 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 ANNA , hastily; "but I'm not looking for eggs, as it happens; and if I was, I shouldn't want yours: I strongly hate eggs raw i like mine 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. 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. ANNA then saw a dollhouse oh my i cant come apon them at this size ill scare the owners ANNA ate a little of the left hand bit and walked to the front door noticing it swung open hello anna called no answer to be cotinued