he wanted so
much--to grow to her right size again.

"I should like to be a _little_ longer," she said. "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 to 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 Alice 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 into 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 Alice 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.

Alice 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
left-hand bit.

The next minute she had grown so tall that her neck rose like a stalk
out of a sea of green leaves, and these green leaves were the trees of
the wood. But, by nibbling bits of mushroom, she at last succeeded in
bringing herself down to her usual height. But, oh dear, in order to get
into the first house she saw, she had to eat some more of the mushroom
from her right hand and bring herself down to nine inches. Outside the
house she saw the Fish-footmen and the Fr