This was such a new idea to Alice, that she was quite silent for a minute or two, which gave the Pigeon the opportunity of adding, `You're looking for eggs, I know THAT well enough; and what does it matter to me whether you're a little girl or a serpent?'

`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 righthand bit again, and did not venture to go near the house till she had brought herself down to nine inches high.

毛毛虫和爱丽丝彼此沉默地注视了好一会。最后，毛毛虫从嘴里拿出了水烟管，用慢吞吞的、瞌睡似的声调同她说起了话。

“你是谁？”毛毛虫问，这可不是鼓励人谈话的开场白，爱丽丝挺不好意思地回答说：“我……眼下很难说，先生……至少今天起床时，我还知道我是谁的，从那时起，可是我就变了好几回了，”
“你这话是什么意思？”毛毛虫严厉地说，“你自己解释一下！”
“我没法解释，先生，”爱丽丝说，“因为我已经不是我自己了，你瞧。”
“我瞧不出。”毛毛虫说。

“我不能解释得更清楚了，”爱丽丝非常有礼貌地回答，“因为我压根儿不懂是怎么开始的，一天里改变好几次大小是非常不舒服的。”
“唉，也许你还没有体会，”爱丽丝说，“可是当你必须变成一只蝶蛹的时候——你知道自己总有一天会这样的——然后再变成一只蝴蝶、我想你会感到有点奇怪的，是不是，”
“一点也不。”毛毛虫说。
“哦！可能你的感觉同我不一样，”爱丽丝说，“可是这些事使我觉得非常奇怪。”
“你！”毛毛虫轻蔑地说，“你是谁？”

这句话又把他们带回了谈话的开头，对于毛毛虫的那些非常简短的回答，爱丽丝颇有点不高兴了，她挺直了身子一本正经地说：“我想还是你先告诉我，你是谁？”
“为什么？”毛毛虫说。
这又成了一个难题：爱丽丝想不出任何比较好的理由来回答它，看来，毛毛虫挺不高兴的，因此爱丽丝转身就走了。

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