Алиса в Стране чудес / Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - страница 9

'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.

'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, 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.

For a minute or two she stood near the house. She was wondering what to do next, when suddenly a servant – a fish – came out of the wood and knocked loudly at the door. Another servant with a round face, and large eyes like a frog opened the door.

The Fish-Servant said, in a solemn tone, 'For the Duchess. An invitation from the Queen to play croquet.'

The Frog-Servant repeated, in the same solemn tone, 'From the Queen. An invitation for the Duchess to play croquet.'

Then the Fish-Servant ran away. Alice went timidly up to the door, and knocked.

'Why do you knock?' asked the Frog, 'I'm on the same side of the door as you are. And they're making such a noise inside, no one can possibly hear you.'