Chapter I
Down the Rabbit-Hole
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank and
of having nothing to do; once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister
was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is the use of
a book,’ thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversation?’
So she was considering in her own mind
(as well as she could, for the hot day made
her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the
pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be
worth the trouble of getting up and picking
the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit
with pink eyes ran close by her.
There was nothing so very remarkable
in that; nor did Alice think it so very much
out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself,
‘Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!’
(when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred
to her that she ought to have wondered
at this, but at the time it all seemed
quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually
took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket
and looked at it and then hurried on, Alice
started to her feet, for it flashed across her
mind that she had never before seen a rabbit
with either a waistcoat-pocket or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity,
she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it
pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in
the world she was to get out again.
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CHAPTER I. DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE 5
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped
suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping
herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of
time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen
next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was
too dark to see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that
they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps
and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she
passed; it was labelled ‘ORANGE MARMALADE’, but to her great disappointment
it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody, so
managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.
‘Well!’ thought Alice to herself, ‘after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing
of tumbling down stairs! How brave they’ll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn’t
say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!’ (Which was very
likely true.)
Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! ‘I wonder how
many miles I’ve fallen by this time?’ she said aloud. ‘I must be getting somewhere
near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down,
I think – ’ (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in
the schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off
her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say
it over) ‘ – yes, that’s about the right distance – but then I wonder what Latitude or
Longitude I’ve got to?’ (Alice had no idea what Latitude was or Longitude either,
but thought they were nice grand words to say.)
Presently she began again. ‘I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth!
How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads
downward! The Antipathies, I think – ’ (she was rather glad there was no one
listening, this time, as it didn’t sound at all the right word) ‘ – but I shall have to
ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma’am, is this New
Zealand or Australia?’ (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke – fancy curtseying
as you’re falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) ‘And what
an ignorant little girl she’ll think me for asking! No, it’ll never do to ask; perhaps
I shall see it written up somewhere.’
Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking
again. ‘Dinah’ll miss me very much to-night, I should think!’ (Dinah was the
cat.) ‘I hope they’ll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear!
I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I’m afraid, but
you might catch a bat and that’s very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat
bats, I wonder?’ And here Alice began to get rather sleepy and went on saying
to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, ‘Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?’ and
CHAPTER I. DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE 6
sometimes, ‘Do bats eat cats?’ for, you see, as she couldn’t answer either question,
it didn’t much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing off and
had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah and saying
to her very earnestly, ‘Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?’ when
suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves
and the fall was over.
Alice was not a bit hurt and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment; she
looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage, and
the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment
to be lost; away went Alice like the wind and was just in time to hear it say, as it
turned a corner, ‘Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting!’ She was close
behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen; she
found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from
the roof.
There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when Alice
had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked
sadly down the middle, wondering how she
was ever to get out again.
Suddenly she came upon a little threelegged
table, all made of solid glass; there
was nothing on it except a tiny golden key
and Alice’s first thought was that it might
belong to one of the doors of the hall, but,
alas! either the locks were too large or the
key was too small, but at any rate it would
not open any of them. However, on the second
time round, she came upon a low curtain
she had not noticed before and behind
it was a little door about fifteen inches high;
she tried the little golden key in the lock and to her great delight it fitted!
Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much
larger than a rat-hole; she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest
garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander
about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she
could not even get her head through the doorway; ‘and even if my head would go
through,’ thought poor Alice, ‘it would be of very little use without my shoulders.
Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only know
how to begin.’ For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately,
that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.
CHAPTER I. DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE 7
There seemed to be no use in waiting
by the little door, so she went back
to the table, half hoping she might find
another key on it or at any rate a book
of rules for shutting people up like telescopes;
this time she found a little bottle
on it, (‘which certainly was not here
before,’ said Alice,) and round the neck
of the bottle was a paper label, with the
words ‘DRINK ME’ beautifully printed
on it in large letters.
It was all very well to say ‘Drink me,’
but the wise little Alice was not going to
do that in a hurry. ‘No, I’ll look first,’ she
said, ‘and see whether it’s marked “poison”
or not’; for she had read several nice
little histories about children who had
got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts
and other unpleasant things, all because
they would not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as,
that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your
finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that,
if you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison,’ it is almost certain to disagree
with you, sooner or later.
However, this bottle was not marked ‘poison,’ so Alice ventured to taste it and
finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard,
pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee and hot buttered toast) she very soon finished it off.
* * * * * * * * * *
‘What a curious feeling!’ said Alice, ‘I must be shutting up like a telescope.’
And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high and her face brightened
up at the thought that she was now the right size for going through the little
door into that lovely garden. First, however, she waited for a few minutes to see
if she was going to shrink any further; she felt a little nervous about this; ‘for
it might end, you know,’ said Alice to herself, ‘in my going out altogether, like
a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?’ And she tried to fancy what the
flame of a candle is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember
ever having seen such a thing.
After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going into
the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the door, she found
she had forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it,
CHAPTER I. DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE 8
she found she could not possibly reach it; she could see it quite plainly through
the glass, and she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was
too slippery; and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing
sat down and cried.
‘Come, there’s no use in crying like that!’ said Alice to herself, rather sharply,
‘I advise you to leave off this minute!’ She generally gave herself very good
advice, (though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself
so severely as to bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered trying to
box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing
against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people.
‘But it’s no use now,’ thought poor Alice, ‘to pretend to be two people! Why,
there’s hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!’
Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table; she
opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words ‘EAT ME’ were
beautifully marked in currants. ‘Well, I’ll eat it,’ said Alice, ‘and if it makes me
grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under
the door; so either way I’ll get into the garden, and I don’t care which happens!’
She ate a little bit and said anxiously to herself, ‘Which way? Which way?’,
holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it was growing, and
she was quite surprised to find that she remained the same size; to be sure, this
generally happens when one eats cake, but Alice had got so much into the way of
expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull
and stupid for life to go on in the common way.
So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.
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