Alice came upon a large blue Caterpillar sitting on a mushroom and smoking a long pipe. They looked at each other quietly. Finally, the Caterpillar asked, “Who are you?”
“I’m not sure, sir,” Alice replied. “I knew who I was this morning, but I’ve changed so many times since then.”
“What do you mean?” asked the Caterpillar.
Alice explained that changing sizes so often was very confusing. The Caterpillar didn’t understand why it was a problem. They talked for a while, and Alice felt frustrated because the Caterpillar wasn’t very helpful.
The Caterpillar asked Alice to recite a poem. She tried, but the words came out all wrong. The Caterpillar told her she was saying it incorrectly.
Before leaving, the Caterpillar gave her some advice. “One side of the mushroom will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter,” he said.
Alice took pieces from both sides of the mushroom. She tasted a bit from one piece and began to shrink quickly. She then ate from the other piece and started to grow very tall. Her neck became so long that a Pigeon thought she was a serpent trying to steal eggs.
“I’m not a serpent!” Alice said, but the Pigeon didn’t believe her at first. After some talking, the Pigeon flew away.
Alice carefully ate small bites from the mushroom pieces until she returned to her normal size. Happy to be herself again, she saw a little house nearby. “I wonder who lives there?” she thought. Since she was too big, she ate a bit more to become the right size and headed towards the house.