Chasing a White Rabbit leads Alice into a fantastical world where logic dissolves. She fluctuates wildly in size, encounters rude and eccentric inhabitants, and survives a terrifying royal trial, ultimately realizing the absurdity of the fantasy is nothing more than a pack of cards.
The Caterpillar then asks Alice to recite a poem. She attempts “You are old, Father William,” but the words come out altered. The Caterpillar condemns the recitation as wrong from beginning to end. Alice expresses a desire to be a little larger, as three inches is a wretched height, but the Caterpillar takes offense, declaring three inches a very good height. He crawls away, remarking that one side of the mushroom will make her grow taller and the other shorter.
Alice breaks off pieces of the mushroom and nibbles one, shrinking so rapidly that her chin strikes her foot. She quickly eats the other piece, which causes her neck to stretch immensely until her shoulders are lost to sight. As she tries to navigate the trees, a Pigeon attacks her, screaming “Serpent!” The Pigeon insists that Alice’s long neck proves she is a serpent looking for eggs. Alice argues that she is a little girl who sometimes eats eggs, but the Pigeon retorts that any egg-eater is a kind of serpent.
Alice crouches among the trees, carefully nibbling the mushroom pieces until she successfully returns to her usual height. She feels strange to be the right size again and focuses on her plan to enter the beautiful garden. She comes upon a little house about four feet high, realizing she must shrink to avoid frightening the inhabitants. Alice nibbles the mushroom until she is nine inches high and then approaches the house.
Having shrunk to nine inches, Alice approaches the little glass house, but before she can reach the garden, she encounters a Fish-Footman and a Frog-Footman outside the door, and after some difficulty gaining entry, she finds herself in the Duchess’s kitchen.
Alice stands before the little house when a Fish-Footman emerges from the wood to deliver a letter to a Frog-Footman. They exchange the Queen’s invitation for croquet with solemn formality, bowing until their curls entangle. Alice laughs at the spectacle, but when she attempts to enter, the Frog-Footman argues that knocking is useless because he is on the same side of the door and the noise inside is too loud. He ignores her questions to stare vacantly at the sky, proving perfectly idiotic. Exasperated by his nonsense, Alice opens the door herself and steps into a kitchen filled with thick smoke and pepper.
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