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<h1>
Down the Rabbit-Hole
</h1>
<p>
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?'
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
There was nothing so <i>very</i> remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so
<i>very</i> 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 <i>took a watch out of
its waistcoat-pocket</i>, 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.
</p>
<p>
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in
the world she was to get out again.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
'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.)
</p>
<p>
Down, down, down. Would the fall <i>never</i> 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 <i>very</i> 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.)
</p>
<p>
Presently she began again. 'I wonder if I shall fall right <i>through</i> 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 <i>was</i> 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 <i>curtseying</i> 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.'
</p>
<p>
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, 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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged 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!
</p>
<p>
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 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.
</p>
<p>
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.
</p>
<p>
It was all very well to say 'Drink me,' but the wise little Alice was not
going to do <i>that</i> in a hurry. 'No, I'll look first,' she said, 'and see
whether it's marked "<i>poison</i>" 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 <i>would</i> 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
<i>very</i> 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.
</p>
<p>
However, this bottle was <i>not</i> 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.
</p>
<h2>Orange you glad I didn't say Banana?</h2>
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