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05 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll · Thrilling Adventures - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Chapter five, Advice from a Caterpillar. The caterpillar and Alice
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: looked at each other for some time in silence. At last,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and
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  Speaker 1: addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice. Who are you?
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Said the caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for
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  Speaker 1: a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly. I I hardly know, sir,
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  Speaker 1: just at present. At least I know who I was
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  Speaker 1: when I got up this morning, but I think I
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: must have been changed several times since then. What do
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  Speaker 1: you mean by that? Said the caterpillar, sternly, Explain yourself.
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  Speaker 1: I can't explain myself. I'm afraid, sir, said Alice, because
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  Speaker 1: I'm not myself. You see, I don't see, said the caterpillar.
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  Speaker 1: I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly, Alice replied,
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  Speaker 1: very politely, for I can't understand it myself to begin with,
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  Speaker 1: and being so many different sizes in a day is
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  Speaker 1: very confusing, it isn't, said the caterpillar. Well perhaps you
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  Speaker 1: haven't found it so yet, said Alice. But when you
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  Speaker 1: have to turn into a chrysalis, you will some day,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and then after that into a butterfly. I
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  Speaker 1: should think you'll feel it a little queer, won't you?
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  Speaker 1: Not a bit? Said the caterpillar. Well perhaps your feelings
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  Speaker 1: may be different, said Alice. All I know is it
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  Speaker 1: would feel very queer to me. You, said the caterpillar contemptuously.
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  Speaker 1: Who are you? Which brought them back again to the
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  Speaker 1: beginning of the conversation. Alice felt a little irritated at
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  Speaker 1: the caterpillar's making such very short remarks, and she drew
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  Speaker 1: herself up and said, very gravely, I think you ought
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  Speaker 1: to tell me who you are first? Why said the caterpillar.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Here was another puzzling question, And as Alice could not
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  Speaker 1: think of any good reason, and as the caterpillar seemed
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  Speaker 1: to be in a very unpleasant state of mind, she
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  Speaker 1: turned away. Come back, the caterpillar called after her. I've
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  Speaker 1: something important to say. This sounded promising, certainly. Alice turned
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  Speaker 1: and came back again. Keep your temper, said the caterpillar.
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  Speaker 1: Is that all, said Alice, swallowing down her anger as
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  Speaker 1: well as she could, No, said the caterpillar. Alice thought
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  Speaker 1: she might as well wait, as she had nothing else
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  Speaker 1: to do, and perhaps, after all, it might tell her
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  Speaker 1: something worth hearing. For some minutes it puffed away without speaking,
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  Speaker 1: but at last it unfolded its arms, took the hookah
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  Speaker 1: out of its mouth again, and said, so you think
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  Speaker 1: you're changed, do you? I'm afraid I am, sir, said Alice.
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  Speaker 1: I can't remember things as I used, and I don't
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  Speaker 1: keep the same size for ten minutes together. Can't remember
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  Speaker 1: what things, said the caterpillar. Well, I've tried to say
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  Speaker 1: how doth the little busy be? But it all came different,
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  Speaker 1: Alice replied, in a very melancholy voice. Repeat your old, father, William,
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  Speaker 1: said the caterpillar. Alice folded her hands and began. You
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  Speaker 1: are old, father William, the young man said, and your
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  Speaker 1: hair has become very white, and yet you incessantly stand
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  Speaker 1: on your head. Do you think at your age it
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  Speaker 1: is right? In my youth? Father William replied to his son.
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  Speaker 1: I feared it might injure the brain, But now that
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  Speaker 1: I'm perfectly sure I have none, Why I do it again?
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  Speaker 1: And again? You are old, said the youth, as I
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  Speaker 1: mentioned before, and have grown most uncommonly fat. Yet you
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  Speaker 1: turned a back. Somersult in at the door. Pray what
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  Speaker 1: is the reason of that? In my youth, said the sage,
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  Speaker 1: as he shook his gray locks. I kept all my
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  Speaker 1: limbs very supple by the use of this ointment. One
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  Speaker 1: shilling the box. Allow me to sell you a couple.
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  Speaker 1: You are old, said the youth, And your jaws are
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  Speaker 1: too weak for anything tougher than suet. Yet you've finished
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  Speaker 1: the goose with the bones and the beak. Pray, how
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  Speaker 1: did you manage to do it? In my youth, said
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  Speaker 1: his father. I took to the law and argued each
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  Speaker 1: case with my wife, and the muscular strength which it
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  Speaker 1: gave to my jaw has lasted the rest of my life.
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  Speaker 1: You are old, said the youth. One would hardly suppose
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  Speaker 1: that your eye was as steady as ever, Yet you
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  Speaker 1: balanced an eel on the end of your nose. What
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  Speaker 1: made you so awfully clever? I have answered three questions,
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  Speaker 1: and that is enough, said his father. Don't give yourself airs.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
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  Speaker 1: Be off, or I'll kick you downstairs. That is not said, right,
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  Speaker 1: said the caterpillar. Not quite right, I'm afraid, said Alice timidly.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the words have got altered. It is wrong
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  Speaker 1: from beginning to end, said the caterpillar decidedly, and there
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  Speaker 1: was silence for some minutes. The caterpillar was the first
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  Speaker 1: to speak. What size do you want to be? It asked. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not particular as to size, Alice hastily replied, only
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  Speaker 1: one doesn't like changing so often. You know, I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: said the caterpillar. Alice said nothing. She had never been
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  Speaker 1: so much contradicted in her life before, and she felt
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  Speaker 1: that she was losing her temper. Are you content now,
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  Speaker 1: said the caterpillar. Well, I should like to be a
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  Speaker 1: little larger, sir, if you wouldn't mind, said Alice. Three
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  Speaker 1: inches is such a wretched height to be. It is
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  Speaker 1: a very good height, indeed, said the caterpillar, angrily, rearing
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  Speaker 1: itself upright as it spoke. It was exactly three inches high.
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  Speaker 1: But I am not you to it, pleaded poor Alice
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  Speaker 1: in a piteous tone. And she thought to herself, I
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  Speaker 1: wish the creatures wouldn't be so easily offended. You'll get
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  Speaker 1: used to it in time, said the caterpillar, and it
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  Speaker 1: put the hookah into its mouth and began smoking again.
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  Speaker 1: This time, Alice waited patiently until it chose to speak again.
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  Speaker 1: In a minute or two, the caterpillar took the hookah
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  Speaker 1: out of its mouth and yawned once or twice and
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  Speaker 1: shook itself. Then it got down off the mushroom and
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  Speaker 1: crawled away in the grass, merely remarking as it went.
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  Speaker 1: One side will make you grow taller, and the other
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  Speaker 1: side will make you grow shorter. One side of what
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  Speaker 1: the other side of what? Thought Alice to herself of
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  Speaker 1: the mushroom, said the caterpillar, just as if she had
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  Speaker 1: asked it aloud, And in another moment it was out
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  Speaker 1: of sight. Alice remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for
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  Speaker 1: a minute, trying to make out which were the two
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  Speaker 1: sides of it, And as it was perfectly round, she
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  Speaker 1: found this a very difficult question. However, at last she
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  Speaker 1: stretched her arms round it as far as they would go,
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  Speaker 1: and broke off a bit of the edge with each hand.
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  Speaker 1: And now which is which, she said to herself, and
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  Speaker 1: nibbled a little of the right hand bit to try
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  Speaker 1: the effect. The next moment she felt a violent blow
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  Speaker 1: underneath her chin. It had struck her foot. She was
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  Speaker 1: a good deal frightened by this very sudden change, but
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  Speaker 1: she felt that there was no time to be lost,
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  Speaker 1: as she was shrinking rapidly, so she set to work
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  Speaker 1: at once to eat some of the other bit. Her
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  Speaker 1: chin was pressed so closely against her foot that there
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  Speaker 1: was hardly room to open her mouth, but she did
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  Speaker 1: it at last and managed to swallow a morsel of
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  Speaker 1: the left hand bit. Come my head's free at last,
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  Speaker 1: said Alice, in a tone of delight, which changed into
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  Speaker 1: alarm in another moment, when she found that her shoulders
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  Speaker 1: were nowhere to be found. All she could see when
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  Speaker 1: she looked down was an immense length of neck, which
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  Speaker 1: seemed to rise like a stalk out of a sea
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  Speaker 1: of green leaves that lay far below her. What can
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  Speaker 1: all that green stuff be? Said Alice? And where have
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  Speaker 1: my shoulders got to? And oh, my poor hands, how
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  Speaker 1: is it I can't see you? She was moving them
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  Speaker 1: about as she spoke, but no results seemed to follow,
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  Speaker 1: except a little shaking among the distant green leaves. As
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  Speaker 1: there seemed to be no chance of getting her hands
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  Speaker 1: up to her head, she tried to get her head
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  Speaker 1: down to them, and was delighted to find that her
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  Speaker 1: neck would bend about easily in any direction like a serpent.
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  Speaker 1: She had just succeeded in curving it down into a
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  Speaker 1: graceful zigzag, and was going to dive in among the leaves,
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  Speaker 1: which she found to be nothing but the tops of
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  Speaker 1: the trees under which she had been wandering, when a
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  Speaker 1: sharp hiss made her draw back in a hurry. A
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  Speaker 1: large pigeon had flown into her face and was beating
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  Speaker 1: her violently with its wings. Serpent, screamed the pigeon. I'm
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  Speaker 1: not a serpent, said Alice, indignantly. Let me alone, serpent,
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  Speaker 1: I say again, repeated the pigeon, but in a more
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  Speaker 1: subdued tone, and added with a kind of sob. I've
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  Speaker 1: tried every way, and nothing seems to suit them. I
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  Speaker 1: haven't the least idea what you're talking about, said Alice.
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  Speaker 1: I've tried the roots of trees, and I've tried banks,
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  Speaker 1: and i've tried hedges. The pigeon went on without attending
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  Speaker 1: to her. But those serpents, there's no pleasing them. Alice
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  Speaker 1: was more and more puzzled, but she thought there was
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  Speaker 1: no use in saying anything more till the pigeon had finished.
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  Speaker 1: As if it wasn't trouble enough hatching the eggs, said
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  Speaker 1: the pigeon. But I must be on the lookout for
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  Speaker 1: serpents night and day. Why I haven't had a wink
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  Speaker 1: of sleep these three weeks. I'm very sorry you've been annoyed,
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  Speaker 1: said Alice, who was beginning to see its meaning. And
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  Speaker 1: just as I'd taken the highest tree in the wood,
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  Speaker 1: continued the pigeon, raising its voice to a shriek. And
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  Speaker 1: just as I was thinking I should be free of
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  Speaker 1: them at last, they must needs come wriggling down from
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  Speaker 1: the sky, Hugh, serpent. But I'm not a serpent, I
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  Speaker 1: tell you, said Alice. I'm a I'm a well, what
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  Speaker 1: are you? Said the pigeon. I can see you're trying
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  Speaker 1: to invent something. I I'm a little girl, said Alice,
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  Speaker 1: rather doubtfully, as she remembered the number of changes she
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  Speaker 1: had gone through that day. A likely story, indeed, said
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  Speaker 1: the pigeon, in a tone of the deepest contempt. I've
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  Speaker 1: seen a good many little girls in my time, but
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  Speaker 1: never one with such a neck as that. No, No,
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  Speaker 1: you're a serpent, and there's no use denying it. I
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  Speaker 1: suppose you'll be telling me next that you have never
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  Speaker 1: tasted an egg. I have tasted eggs, certainly, said Alice,
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  Speaker 1: who was a very truthful, child. But little girls eat
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  Speaker 1: eggs quite as much as serpents, do you know? I
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  Speaker 1: don't believe it, said the pigeon. But if they do,
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  Speaker 1: why then they're a kind of serpent. That's all I
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  Speaker 1: can say. This was such a new idea to Alice
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  Speaker 1: that she was quite silent for a minute or two,
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  Speaker 1: which gave the pigeon the opportunity of adding, you're looking
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  Speaker 1: for eggs. I know that well enough. And what does
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  Speaker 1: it matter to me whether you're a little girl or
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  Speaker 1: a serpent. It matters a good deal to me, said
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  Speaker 1: Alice hastily. But I'm not looking for eggs, as it happens,
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  Speaker 1: and if I was, I shouldn't want yours. I don't
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  Speaker 1: like them. Raw Well, be off, then said the pigeon
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  Speaker 1: in a sulky tone, as it settled down again into
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  Speaker 1: its nest. Alice crouched down among the trees as well
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  Speaker 1: as she could, for her neck kept getting entangled among
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  Speaker 1: the branches, and every now and then she had to
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  Speaker 1: stop and untwist it. After a while, she remembered that
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  Speaker 1: she still held the pieces of mushroom in her hands,
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  Speaker 1: and she set to work very carefully, nibbling first at
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  Speaker 1: one and then at the other, and growing sometimes taller
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes shorter, until she had succeeded in bringing herself
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  Speaker 1: down to her usual height. It was so long since
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  Speaker 1: she had been anything near the right size that it
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  Speaker 1: felt quite strange at first, but she got used to
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  Speaker 1: it in a few minutes and began talking to herself
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  Speaker 1: as usual. Come, there's half my plan done. Now. How
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  Speaker 1: puzzling all these changes are. I'm never sure what I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to be from one minute to another. However, I've
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  Speaker 1: got back to my right size. The next thing is
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  Speaker 1: to get into that beautiful garden. How is that to
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  Speaker 1: be done? I wonder? As she said this, she came
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  Speaker 1: suddenly upon an open place with a little house in
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  Speaker 1: it about four feet high. Whoever lives there, thought Alice.
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  Speaker 1: It'll never do to come upon them this size. Why
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  Speaker 1: I should frighten them out of their wits. So she
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  Speaker 1: began nibbling at the right hand bit again, and did
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  Speaker 1: not venture to go near the house till she had
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  Speaker 1: brought herself down to nine inches high. End of Chapter
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  Speaker 1: five