pent?"

"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 right-hand bit again, and did not venture to go near the
house till she had brought herself down to nine inches high.

CHAPTER VI

[Sidenote: _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 another footman in livery, with a round face and large
eyes like a frog; and both footmen, Alice noticed, had powdered hair
that curled all over their heads. She felt very curious to know what it
was all about, and crept a little way out of the wood to listen.

The Fish-Footman began by producing from under his arm a great letter,
nearly as large as himself, and this he handed over to the other,
saying, in a solemn tone, "For the Duchess. An invitation from the
Queen to play croquet." The