her head made her look up in a great hurry.

  An enormous puppy was looking down at her with large round

eyes, and feebly stretching out one paw, trying to touch her.

`Poor little thing!' said Alice, in a coaxing tone, and she tried

hard to whistle to it; but she was terribly frightened all the

time at the thought that it might be hungry, in which case it

would be very likely to eat her up in spite of all her coaxing.

  Hardly knowing what she did, she picked up a little bit of

stick, and held it out to the puppy; whereupon the puppy jumped

into the air off all its feet at once, with a yelp of delight,

and rushed at the stick, and made believe to worry it; then Alice

dodged behind a great thistle, to keep herself from being run

over; and the moment she appeared on the other side, the puppy

made another rush at the stick, and tumbled head over heels in

its hurry to get hold of it; then Alice, thinking it was very

like having a game of play with a cart-horse, and expecting every

moment to be trampled under its feet, ran round the thistle

again; then the puppy began a series of short charges at the

stick, running a very little way forwards each time and a long

way back, and barking hoarsely all the while, till at last it sat

down a good way off, panting, with its tongue hanging out of its

mouth, and its great eyes half shut.

  This seemed to Alice a good opportunity for making her escape;

so she set off at once, and ran till she was quite tired and out

of breath, and till the puppy's bark sounded quite faint in the

distance.

  `And yet what a dear little puppy it was!' said Alice, as she

leant against a buttercup to rest herself, and fanned herself

with one of the leaves:  `I should have liked teaching it tricks

very much, if--if I'd only been the right size to do it!  Oh

dear!  I'd nearly forgotten that I've got to grow up again!  Let

me see--how IS it to be managed?  I suppose I ought to eat or

drink something or other; but the great question is, what?'

  The great question certainly was, what?  Alice looked all round

her at the flowers and the blades of grass, but she did not see

anything that looked like the right thing to eat or drink under

the circumstances.  There was a large mushroom growing near her,

about the same height as herself; and when she had looked under

it, and on both sides of it, and behind it, it occurred to her

that she might as well look and see what was on the top of it.

  She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of

the mushroom, and her eyes immediately met those of a large

caterpillar, that was sitting on the top with its arms folded, ()