Alice comes across a Caterpillar that is resting on top of a giant mushroom the Caterpillar asks Alice, “Who are you?” Alice has trouble explaining who she is ?. and Alice tries to explain all the transformations she has undergone that day, but the Caterpillar is curt and unsympathetic with Alice’s uncertain explanations. In order to test Alice’s memory, the Caterpillar asks her to recite the verse “You are old, Father William.”
After engaging her in more frustrating discussion, the caterpillar leaves Alice, informing her that one side of the mushroom will make her larger and the other smaller. Not knowing how to determine what are the sides of a round mushroom, Alice reaches out to take bits from either side of it.
Alice grows large again, with a rubbery neck, and encounters a Pigeon, who is convinced that Alice is either a serpent, or, that like a serpent, with its wiry neck, it means to eat the Pigeon’s eggs. Alice takes leave of the Pigeon, seeing a little house in the distance.