I've tried banks, and I've
tried hedges," the pigeon went on without attending to her, "but
them serpents! There's no pleasing 'em!"

Alice was more and more puzzled, but she thought there was no use
in saying anything till the pigeon had finished.

"As if it wasn't trouble enough hatching the eggs!" said the
pigeon, "without being on the look out for serpents, day and
night! Why, I haven't had a wink of sleep these three weeks!"

"I'm very sorry you've been annoyed," said Alice, beginning to
see its meaning.

"And just as I'd taken the highest tree in the wood," said the
pigeon raising its voice to a shriek, "and was just thinking I
was free of 'em at last, they must needs come down from the sky!
Ugh! Serpent!"

"But I'm not a serpent," said Alice, "I'm a--I'm a--"

"Well! What are you?" said the pigeon, "I see you're trying to
invent something."

"I--I'm a little girl," said Alice, rather doubtfully, as she
remembered the number of changes she had gone through.

"A likely story indeed!" said the pigeon, "I've seen a good many
of them in my time, but never one with such a neck as yours! No,
you're a serpent, I know that well enough! I suppose you'll tell
me next that you never tasted an egg!"

"I have tasted eggs, certainly," said Alice, who was a very
truthful child, "but indeed I do'n't want any of yours. I do'n't
like them raw."

"Well, be off, then!" said the pigeon, and settled down into its
nest again. Alice crouched down among the trees, as well as she
could, as her neck kept getting entangled among the branches, and
several times she had to stop and untwist it. Soon she remembered
the pieces of mushroom which she still held in her hands, and 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 size.

It was so long since she had been of the right size that it felt
quite strange at first, but she got quite used to it in a minute
or two, and began talking to herself as usual: "well! 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 to my right size again: the next thing is, to
get into that beautiful garden--how is that to be done, I
wonder?"

Just as she said this, she noticed that one of the trees had a
doorway leading right into it. "That's very curious!" she
th