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Chapter I: Down The Rabbit-Hole
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
conversations?"
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.
[See Rabbit: The Rabbit checking his pocket watch.]
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 too 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 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
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 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 disappointment 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 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 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 downwards! 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 sometimes, "Do bats eat cats?" for, you see, a 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 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 around 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 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!
[See Little Door: Behind the curtain was a little door.]
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 the 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 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.
[See Drink Me: So Alice drank the liquid in the bottle.]
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 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, 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 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 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 is what 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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