Алиса в стране чудес / Alice in Wonderland. Льюис Кэрролл

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      Chapter V

      Advice from a Caterpillar

      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:

      “You are old, Father William,” the young man said,

      …

      “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

      Chapter VI

      Pig and Pepper

      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.”

      And certainly there was a most extraordinary noise within.

      “Please, then,” said Alice, “how to get in?”

      “Are you sure you want to get in?” said the Frog. “That’s the first question, you know.”

      “It’s really dreadful,” Alice muttered to herself, “they like to argue, these animals!”

      The Frog said, “I shall sit here, for days and days.”

      “But what am I to do?” said Alice.

      “Anything you like,” said the Servant, and began to whistle.

      “Oh, he’s idiotic!” said Alice desperately. And she opened the door and went in.

      The door led right into a large kitchen, which was full of smoke from one end to the other. The Duchess was sitting on a three-legged stool in the middle, she was nursing a baby. The cook was leaning over the fire, there was a large cauldron full of soup.

      “There’s certainly too much pepper in that soup!” Alice said to herself, and began to sneeze.

      Even the Duchess sneezed occasionally; and the baby was sneezing and howling all the time. Only the cook and a large cat did not sneeze. The cat was sitting on the hearth and grinning from ear to earСКАЧАТЬ