+
+ 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.
+
+ 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 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 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!
+
+ 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 though 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.
+
+ 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, 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.
+
+
+
+
+
+