"Keep your tem-per," said the Cat-er-pil-lar.
"Is that all?" asked Al-ice, while she hid her an-ger as well as she could.
Al-ice wait-ed what seemed to her a long time, while it sat and smoked but did not speak. At last, it took the pipe from its mouth, and said, "So you think you're changed, do you?"
"I fear I am, sir," said Al-ice, "I don't know things as I once did--and I don't keep the same size, but a short while at a time."
"Well, I've tried to say the things I knew at school, but the words all came wrong."
"Let me hear you say, 'You are old, Fath-er Wil-liam,'" said the Cat-er-pil-lar.
"'You are old, Fath-er Wil-liam,' the young man said, 'And your hair has be-come ver-y white, And yet you stand all the time on your head-- Do you think, at your age, it is right?'
"'In my youth,' Fath-er Wil-liam then said to his son, 'I feared it might in-jure the brain; But now that I know full well I have none, Why, I do it a-gain and a-gain.'
"'You are old,' said the youth, 'shall I tell you once more? And are now quite as large as a tun; Yet you turned a back som-er-set in at the door-- Pray, tell me now, how was that done?'
"'In my youth,' said the sage, as he shook his gray locks. I kept all my limbs ver-y sup-ple By the use of this oint-ment--one shil-ling the box-- Al-low me to sell you a coup-le.'
"'You are old,' said the youth, and your jaws are too weak For an-y thing tough-er than su-et; Yet you ate up the goose, with the bones and the beak: Pray, how did you man-age to do it?'
"'In my youth,' said his fath-er, 'I took to the law And ar-gued each case with my wife; And the ver-y great strength, which it gave to my jaw, Has last-ed the rest of my life.'
"'You are old,' said the youth; 'one would hard-ly sup-pose That your eye was as stead-y as ev-er; Yet you bal-ance an eel on the end of your nose-- What makes you al-ways so clev-er?'
"'I have re-plied to three ques-tions, and that is e-nough,' Said the fath-er; 'don't give your-self airs! Do you think I can lis-ten all day to such stuff? Be off, or I'll kick you down-stairs!'"
"That is not said right," said the Cat-er-pil-lar.
"Not quite right, I fear," said Al-ice, "some of the words are changed."
"It is wrong from first to last," said the Cat-er-pil-lar; then did not speak for some time. At last it said, "What size do you want to be?"