"Come, my head's free at last!" said Al-ice, with great joy, which changed to fear when she found that her waist and hands were no-where to be seen. All she could see when she looked down was a vast length of neck, which seemed to rise like a stalk out of a sea of green leaves that lay far be-low her. "What can all that green stuff be?" said Al-ice. "And where has my waist got to? And oh, my poor hands, how is it I can't see you?" She moved them as she spoke; the green leaves shook as if to let her know her hands were there, but she could not see them. As there seemed to be no chance to get her hands up to her head, she tried to get her head down to them and was pleased to find that her neck would bend a-bout like a snake. Just as she had curved it down and meant to dive in the sea of green, which she found was the tops of the trees 'neath which she had been walk-ing, a sharp hiss made her draw back in haste. 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." "I don't know," said the bird, "but if they do, why then they're a kind of snake, that's all I can say." This was such a new thing to Al-ice that at first, she did not speak, which gave the bird a chance to add, "You want eggs now, I know that quite well." "But I don't want eggs, and if I did I should-n't want yours. I don't like them raw." "Well, be off, then!" said the bird as it sat down in its nest.