Читать книгу Алиса в стране чудес / Alice in Wonderland - Льюис Кэрролл, Льюїс Керролл, Furniss Harry - Страница 6

The Caterpillar and Alice 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 sleepy voice.

“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.

Alice 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 changed several times.”

“What do you mean by that?” said the Caterpillar sternly. “Explain!”

“I can’t, I’m afraid,” said Alice very politely. “I—”

“You!” said the Caterpillar contemptuously. “Who are YOU?”

It brought them back again to the beginning of the conversation.

Alice thought that the Caterpillar was in a very unpleasant state of mind[35], and she turned away.

“Come back!” the Caterpillar demanded. “I want to tell you something important!”

Alice turned and came back again.

“Keep your temper[36],” said the Caterpillar.

“Is that all?” asked Alice.

“No,” said the Caterpillar.

Alice was waiting.

“So you think you changed, do you?” said the Caterpillar.

“I’m afraid I am,” said Alice; “I can’t remember some things.”

“What things can’t you remember?” asked the Caterpillar.

“Some verses, for example,” Alice replied in a very melancholy voice.

“Repeat, ‘You Are Old, Father William[37],’” said the Caterpillar.

Alice folded her hands, and began to recite the poem:

“That is wrong,” said the Caterpillar.

“Maybe, not quite right, I’m afraid,” said Alice, timidly.

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

“What size do you want to be?” asked the Caterpillar.

“You know—” Alice began.

“I DON’T know,” said the Caterpillar.

Alice said nothing; she felt that she was losing her temper[38].

“Are you content now?” said the Caterpillar.

“Well, I want to be a little larger,” said Alice: “three inches is such a wretched height to be.”

“It is a very good height indeed!” said the Caterpillar angrily (it was exactly three inches high); and it put the hookah into its mouth and began to smoke again.

This time Alice waited patiently until the Caterpillar spoke again. In a minute or two the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and yawned once or twice. Then it got down off the mushroom[39], and crawled away in the grass. And it remarked, “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.

The mushroom was perfectly round, so Alice found this a very difficult question. However, at last she decided to eat a bit of the mushroom. The next moment her chin hit her foot!

She was frightened by this change; so she ate some of the other bit. Finally, she was near the right size. She went forward and saw a little house about four feet high. She ate a bit of the mushroom again and became nine inches high.

“This is the right size to enter the house,” said Alice