This sounded promising : Alice turned and came back again . `` Keep your temper , '' said the caterpillar . `` Is that all ? '' said Alice , swallowing down her anger as well as she could . `` No , '' said the caterpillar . Alice thought she might as well wait , as she had nothing else to do , and perhaps after all the caterpillar might tell her something worth hearing . For some minutes it puffed away at its hookah without speaking , but at last it unfolded its arms , took the hookah out of its mouth again , and said `` so you think you 're changed , do you ? '' `` Yes , sir , '' said Alice , `` I ca 'n' t remember the things I used to know -- I 've tried to say `` How doth the little busy bee '' and it came all different ! '' `` Try and repeat `` You are old , father William '' , '' said the caterpillar . Alice folded her hands , and began : -LSB- Illustration -RSB- 1 . `` You are old , father William , '' the young man said , `` And your hair is exceedingly white : And yet you incessantly stand on your head -- Do you think , at your age , it is right ? '' 2 . `` In my youth , '' father William replied to his son , `` I feared it might injure the brain But now that I 'm perfectly sure I have none , Why , I do it again and again . '' -LSB- Illustration -RSB- 3 . `` You are old , '' said the youth , `` as I mentioned before , And have grown most uncommonly fat : Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door -- Pray what is the reason of that ? '' 4 . `` In my youth , '' said the sage , as he shook his gray locks , `` I kept all my limbs very supple , By the use of this ointment , five shillings the box -- Allow me to sell you a couple . '' -LSB- Illustration -RSB- 5 . `` You are old , '' said the youth , `` and your jaws are too weak For anything tougher than suet : Yet you eat all the goose , with the bones and the beak -- Pray , how did you manage to do it ? '' 6 .
`` In my youth , '' XXXXX the old man , `` I took to the law , And argued each case with my wife , And the muscular strength , which it gave to my jaw , Has lasted the rest of my life . ''
began came manage said shook sounded swallowing tell think took