A large bird had flown in-to her face, and struck her with its
wings.
"Snake! snake!" screamed the bird.
"I'm not a snake," said Al-ice. "Let me a-lone!"
"Snake, I say, Snake!" cried the bird, then add-ed with a kind of sob,
"I've tried all ways, but I can-not suit them."
"I don't know what you mean," said Al-ice.
The bird seemed not to hear her, but went on, "I've tried the roots of
trees, and I've tried banks, and I've tried a hedge; but those snakes!
There's no way to please them. As if it were not hard work to hatch the
eggs, but I must watch for snakes night and day! Why I haven't had a
wink of sleep these three weeks!"
"It's too bad for you to be so much put out," said Al-ice, who be-gan to
see what it meant.
"And just as I had built my nest in this high tree," the bird went on,
rais-ing its voice to a shriek, "and just as I thought I should be free
of them at last, they must needs fall down from the sky! Ugh! Snake!"
"But I'm not a snake, I tell you!" said Al-ice. "I'm a--I'm a--"
"Well! What are you?" said the bird. "I can see you will not tell me the
truth!"
"I--I'm a lit-tle girl," said Al-ice, though she was not sure what she
was when she thought of all the chang-es she had gone through that day.
"I've seen girls in my time, but none with such a neck as that!" said
the bird. "No! no! You're a snake; and there's no use to say you're not.
I guess you'll say next that you don't eat eggs!"
"Of course I eat eggs," said Al-ice, "but girls eat eggs quite as much
as snakes do, you know.
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