Alice in wonderland

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

ALICE was beginning to get very tired ofsitting by her sister on the bank, and of havingnothing to do: once or twice she had peeped intothe book her sister was reading, but it had nopictures or conversations in it, " and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, " withoutpictures or conversations ?"So she was considering in her own mind,(as well as she could, for the hot day madeher feel very sleepy and stupid,) whether thepleasure of making a daisy-chain would beworth the trouble of getting up and pickingthe daisies, when suddenly a white rabbit withpink eyes ran close by her.There was nothing so very remarkable inthat; nor did Alice think it so very much outof 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 wonderedat this, but at the time it all seemed quitenatural); but when the Rabbit actually took awatch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked atit, and then hurried on, Alice started to herfeet, for it flashed across her mind that she hadnever 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 fieldafter it, and was just in time to see it popdown a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.In another moment down went Alice afterit, never once considering how in the worldshe was to get out again.The rabbit-hole went straight on like atunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenlydown, so suddenly that Alice had not a momentto think about stopping herself before she foundherself falling down what seemed to be a verydeep well.Either the well was very deep, or she fellvery slowly, for she had plenty of time as shewent down to look about her, and to wonderwhat was going to happen next. First, she triedto look down and make out what she wascoming to, but it was too dark to see anything :then she looked at the sides of the well, andnoticed that they were filled with cupboardsand bookshelves: here and there she saw mapsand pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; itwas labelled " ORANGE MARMALADE," butto her great disappointment it was empty: she didnot like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it intoone of the cupboards as she fell past it."Well !" thought Alice to herself, " aftersuch a fall as this, I shall think nothing oftumbling down stairs ! How brave they 'll allthink me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top ofthe house !" (Which was very likely true.)Down, down, down. Would the fall nevercome to an end ? " I wonder how many milesI 've fallen by this time ?" she said aloud. "Imust be getting somewhere near the centre ofthe earth. Let me see : that would be fourthousand miles down, I think—" (for, you see,Alice had learnt several things of this sort inher lessons in the schoolroom, and though thiswas not a very good opportunity for showing offher 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—butthen I wonder what Latitude or LongitudeI 've got to ?" (Alice had not the slightestidea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, butshe thought they were nice grand words to say.)Presently she began again. " I wonder ifI shall fall right through the earth! How funnyit'll seem to come out among the people thatwalk with their heads downwards ! The Antipathies, I think—" (she was rather glad therewas no one listening, this time, as it didn 'tsound at all the right word) " —but I shallhave to ask them what the name of the countryis, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this NewZealand or Australia?" (and she tried to curtseyas she spoke—fancy curtseying as you're fallingthrough the air ! Do you think you couldmanage it?) "And what an ignorant little girlshe'll think me for asking ! No, it'll never doto ask : perhaps I shall see it written upsomewhere." Down, down, down. There was nothing else todo, so Alice soon began talking again. "Dinah 'llmiss me very much to-night, I should think !"(Dinah was the cat.) " I hope they'll rememberher saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah, my dear!I wish you were down here with me ! Thereare no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but youmight 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, andwent on saying to herself, in a dreamy sortof way, "Do cats eat bats ? Do cats eat bats ?"and sometimes, "Do bats eat cats?" for, yousee, as she couldn't answer either question, itdidn't much matter which way she put it. Shefelt that she was dozing off, and had just begunto dream that she was walking hand in handwith Dinah, and was saying to her veryearnestly, "Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: didyou ever eat a bat ?" when suddenly, thump !thump! down she came upon a heap of sticksand dry leaves, and the fall was over. Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped upon to her feet in a moment : she looked up,but it was all dark overhead; before her wasanother long passage, and the White Rabbit wasstill in sight, hurrying down it. There wasnot a moment to be lost: away went Alice likethe wind, and was just in time to hear it say, asit turned a corner, "Oh my ears and whiskers,how late it 's getting !" She was close behindit when she turned the corner, but the Rabbitwas no longer to be seen : she found herself ina long, low hall, which was lit up by a row oflamps hanging from the roof.There were doors all round the hall, but theywere all locked, and when Alice had been allthe way down one side and up the other, tryingevery door, she walked sadly down the middle,wondering how she was ever to get out again.Suddenly she came upon a little three-leggedtable, all made of solid glass; there was nothingon it but a tiny golden key, and Alice's firstidea was that this might belong to one of the doors of the hall ; but alas ! either the lockswere too large, or the key was too small, butat any rate it would not open any of them.However, on the second time round, she cameupon a lowcurtain she hadnot noticed before, and behind it wasa little doorabout fifteeninches high :she tried thelittle goldenkey in thelock, and to her great delight it fitted !Alice opened the door and found that it ledinto a small passage, not much larger than arat-hole: she knelt down and looked along thepassage 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 couldnot even get her head though the doorway ;" and even if my head would go through,"thought poor Alice, " it would be of very littleuse without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish Icould shut up like a telescope! I think I could,if I only knew how to begin." For, you see, somany out-of-the-way things had happened latelythat Alice had begun to think that very fewthings indeed were really impossible.There seemed to be no use in waiting bythe 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 shuttingpeople up like telescopes : this time she founda little bottle on it, ("which certainly was nothere before," said Alice,) and tied round theneck of the bottle was a paper label with thewords " DRINK ME" beautifully printed onit in large letters.It was all very well to say "Drink me," butthe wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry: " no, I 'll look first," she said," and see whetherit's marked 'poison'or not:" for she hadread several nicelittle stories aboutchildren who hadgot burnt, and eatenup by wild beasts,and other unpleasantthings, all becausethey would not remember the simplerules their friendshad taught them, such as, that a red-hot pokerwill burn you if you hold it too long ; andthat if you cut your finger very deeply witha knife, it usually bleeds; and she had neverforgotten that, if you drink much from a bottlemarked " 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 itvery nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixedflavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roastturkey, toffy, and hot buttered toast,) she verysoon finished it off.* * * ** * ** * * *"What a curious feeling !" said Alice, " Imust be shutting up like a telescope."And so it was indeed : she was now onlyten inches high, and her face brightened upat the thought that she was now the rightsize for going through the little door into thatlovely garden. First, however, she waited for afew minutes to see if she was going to shrinkany further : she felt a little nervous aboutthis, " for it might end, you know," said Aliceto herself, "in my going out altogether, like acandle. I wonder what I should be like then?"And she tried to fancy what the flame of acandle looks like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seensuch a thing.After a while, finding that nothing morehappened, she decided on going into the gardenat once, but, alas for poor Alice! when she gotto the door, she found she had forgotten thelittle golden key, and when she went back tothe table for it, she found she could not possiblyreach it: she could see it quite plainly throughthe glass, and she tried her best to climb upone of the legs of the table, but it was tooslippery, and when she had tired herself outwith trying, the poor little thing sat downand cried."Come, there 's no use in crying like that!"said Alice to herself, rather sharply, " I adviseyou to leave off this minute !" She generallygave herself very good advice, (though shevery seldom followed it,) and sometimes shescolded herself so severely as to bring tearsinto her eyes, and once she remembered tryingto box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing againstherself, for this curious child was very fond ofpretending to be two people. "But it's no usenow," thought poor Alice, " to pretend to be twopeople! Why, there 's hardly enough of me leftto make one respectable person !"Soon her eye fell on a little glass box thatwas lying under the table: she opened it, andfound in it a very small cake, on which thewords "EAT ME" were beautifully marked incurrants. "Well, I'll eat it," said Alice, " and ifit makes me grow larger, I can reach the key ;and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creepunder the door; so either way I'll get into thegarden, and I don't care which happens !"She ate a little bit, and said anxiously toherself "Which way? Which way?" holding herhand on the top of her head to feel which wayit was growing, and she was quite surprisedto find that she remained the same size : to besure, this is what generally happens when oneeats cake, but Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-waythings to happen, that it seemed quite dull andstupid for life to go on in the common way.So she set to work, and very soon finishedoff the cake.* * * ** * ** * * *