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 pic-
tures or conversations?”
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she
could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stu-
pid), 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 Rab-
bit say to itself, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too latel”
(When she thought it over afterward, 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
1
ye 5 ALICE IN WONDERLAND
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 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.
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 what seemed to be 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 com-
ing 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 bookshelves: 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 labeled
“ORANGE MARMALADE,” but to her great disappoint-
ment it was empty; she did not like to drop the jar for fear
of killing somebody underneath, 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 downstairs. How
brave they’ll all think me at homel 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
DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE 8
end? “I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time?”
she said aloud. “I must be getting somewhere near the
center of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thou-
sand miles down, I think” (for, you see, Alice had learned
several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom,
and though this was not a very good opportunity for show-
ing 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 not the slightest idea
what latitude was or longitude either, but she 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 courtesy as she spoke—
fancy courtesying as youre falling through the airl Do
you think you could manage it?) “And what an ignorant
little gir] 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 tonight, 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 mel
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
4 ALICE IN WONDERLAND
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
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 was 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 over-
head; 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
DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE 5
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 tumed the comer, 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 three-legged table,
all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it but a tiny
golden key, and Alice’s first idea was that this might be-
long 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 sec-
ond time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not
noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fif-
teen 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 rathole; 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 knew how to
begin.” For, you see, so’many out-of-the-way things had
6 ALICE IN WONDERLAND
happened lately that Alice had begun to think that very
few things indeed were really impossible.
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 tied 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 stories about chil-
dren who had got burned, 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 al-
most 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 flavor of cherry tart, custard, pine-
apple, roast turkey, toffy, 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
DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE <4
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 looks 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, 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 play-
ing 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
8 ALICE IN WONDERLAND
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 is what generally happens when one eats cake,
but Alice had got so much into the way of expecting noth-
ing 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.