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 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.

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.

>

Chapter II. The Pool of Tears

'Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment

she quite forgot how to speak good English); 'now I'm opening out like the

largest telescope that ever was!

Good-bye, feet!' (for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out

of sight, they were getting so far off).

'Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you

now, dears? I'm sure I shan't be able!

I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you: you must manage

the best way you can;--but I must be kind to them,' thought Alice, 'or perhaps they

won't walk the way I want to go!

Let me see: I'll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas.'

And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it.

'They must go by the carrier,' she thought; 'and how funny it'll seem, sending presents

to one's own feet! And how odd the directions will look!

ALICE'S RIGHT FOOT, ESQ. HEARTHRUG,

NEAR THE FENDER, (WITH ALICE'S LOVE).

Oh dear, what nonsense I'm talking!'

Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall: in fact she was now more than