CHAPTER ONE

Falling Through the Rabbit Hole

It was the middle of the day one summer when Alice, sitting lazily at the edge of the river bank with her sister, became very tired. There was nothing happening and nothing to do. A couple of times she stole a quick look at the book her sister was reading, but it wasn't very interesting, as it had no pictures to look at or interesting conversations to follow. "And what's the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures? What's a book if there's no conversation?"

She was trying to decide (it was difficult for her because the hot summer day was not making her feel like making a decision but very sleepy instead) if she wanted to get up and pick some small wildflowers to make a necklace, when all of a sudden a White Rabbit with pink eyes quickly ran past her.

There was nothing so terribly unusual in that.

Neither did Alice think it very remarkable to hear the Rabbit say to himself as he sped past, "Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date."

Thinking about it afterwards, it did occur to her that she ought to have wondered about hearing a White Rabbit saying he was late for a date, but at the time, it all seemed quite natural and didn't occur to her in the least.

But then the Rabbit took a small gold watch out of his coat pocket, looked at the time, and hurried on. Seeing this, Alice jumped to her feet in a flash. For she suddenly realized she had never before seen a rabbit with either a coat pocket or a gold watch to take out of it.

Burning with curiosity, she ran away from the riverbank and across the field to chase after him. She caught up just in time to see the Rabbit jump down a large rabbit hole that was under a low-hanging bush.

Without stopping to think, Alice jumped in the hole after him. She didn't even stop to consider where the hole might go or how in the world she would or if she could, get out of it again.

The dark rabbit hole went straight ahead like a tunnel, the way that rabbit holes do, for quite a while. Then the tunnel suddenly dropped straight down into a deep well. Alice, without any time to even think about stopping herself, fell down and further down the well.

It could have been that the well was very deep or that Alice fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time during her fall to not only look at her surroundings, but also wonder what was going to happen to her next.

At first, Alice tried to look down and make out the bottom of the well and when she was going to stop falling. But it was too dark to see anything. So she looked up, but this was just as dark and then she got confused about whether she was looking up or down, so she decided to look at the sides of the well. Alice noticed that cupboards and bookshelves filled the sides and that here and there maps, pictures, and paintings were hung upon wooden boards.

She quickly grabbed a jar from one of the shelves as she passed. It was labeled "Orange Jam", but it was empty. Alice was greatly disappointed, for she did so enjoy eating orange jam, and a little taste of jam would have been quite nice. She did not want to just drop the jar, even if it was just an empty jar. She was falling so fast, and she feared she would kill somebody underneath. Instead, she managed to place it into one of the cupboards as she went past.

"Well!" Alice thought to herself. "After a fall like this, I won't ever be afraid again of falling downstairs at home! How brave they'll think I am when they hear about this! Why, I wouldn't say anything or scream, even if I fell off the roof of my own house!"

Down, down, and further down she fell. Would the fall ever come to an end? Would she ever be able to tell which way was up or down again? "I wonder how many miles I've gone?" the amazed girl asked aloud. "I'm sure by now I must be nearing the center of the earth. Let me see, I think that would be about four thousand miles down."

Alice had learned several things of this sort at school, and she was proud that she could remember it now, even though her feet were sometimes over her head. Though this was not the best opportunity to show off her knowledge, as there wasn't anybody about to listen to her, still it was good practice to repeat it. "But then I wonder what location on the globe I've reached," she said.

Now Alice didn't really have the smallest idea what the geography of the world was like, as she hadn't been taught that at school, but she thought it was a very grand idea to have anyway.

Presently she began again. "I wonder if I'm going to fall right through the middle of the earth! When I land, I'll have to ask people what the name of their country is. I shall say, 'Please, ma'am, is this New Zealand? Or Australia?'"

Knowing that it was polite to bow to strangers, especially if you land unexpectedly in the middle of their country, Alice tried to bow like a lady as she spoke. But can you imagine bowing as you're falling through the air? Do you think you could manage it?

"What an unknowledgeable, rude little girl they will consider me for asking where I am!" Alice said. "No, it'll never do to ask. It will be best if I say nothing. Perhaps I shall see it written somewhere on a sign."

Down, down, down Alice fell. There was nothing else to do, so to pass the time she soon began talking to herself again about her dearly loved cat, Dinah.

"Dinah's going to miss me very much tonight, I should think," she cried. "Oh, I hope the family will remember to give her a bowl of milk at tea time. If they forget poor Dinah will think she is unloved! Oh, Dinah, my dear, I wish you were here with me! There are no mice in the air, at least any that I can see, I'm afraid, but you could catch a bat, and that's close enough to a mouse, don't you think? But do cats eat bats, I wonder?"

And here, because of nothing to do, Alice began to get rather sleepy. She continued talking to herself in a dreamy kind of way, repeating over and over, "Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?" Sometimes she asked, "Do bats eat cats?"

For you see, as she wasn't able to answer either question with certainty, it didn't much matter which way she put it.

She felt that she was falling asleep and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah. Though it was strange to be walking hand in hand with a cat, she was sincere when she said, "Now, Dinah, tell me the truth—have you ever eaten a bat? What was it?"

Suddenly Alice went thump, thump, thump and landed in a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.

Alice was not hurt or injured in the least and in a second quickly jumped to her feet. She looked up, but it was all dark overhead. Still, she was very happy she could finally tell which way was up again. In front of her was another long passage and she just managed to catch sight of the White Rabbit hurrying down it.

There was not a moment to lose. Away flew Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear him say, as he turned around a corner, "Oh, my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!"

She was just ready to catch up with him when she went around the corner, but to her surprise, the Rabbit was nowhere to be seen. Alice found herself entering a long hall with a low ceiling. The hall was lit by a row of hanging lamps.

There were doors on all sides of the hall, but they were all locked. Alice walked down one side and up the other, trying every door, but no use. She walked sadly down the middle and began to wonder how she would ever get out again.

Suddenly Alice saw a little three-legged table made completely of solid glass. There was nothing on the table but a tiny gold key. "What other use can there be for this key? It must belong to one of the doors in this hall," thought Alice.

But alas! The locks were either too large or too small for the key. The key would not open a single door. However, going up and down the hall once more, Alice noticed a low curtain she had not seen before. Behind the curtain was a little door only fifteen inches high. She put the gold key in the lock, tried it, and to her delight it worked!

Alice opened the door and saw that it led into a small passage, not much bigger than a hole for a rat. Getting down on her knees, she saw that the passage led into one of the loveliest gardens she'd ever seen.

How she truly wished to leave the dark hall and walk about among those beds of bright flowers! How she wished to be able to rest by those cool fountains! But, oh dear, she couldn't even fit her head through the doorway.

"Even if my head would go through," she thought, "it would be of little use without my shoulders. Whoever heard of a head that was without shoulders? Oh, how I wish I could close up like a folding toy. I think I could, if I only knew how."

So many strange and odd things had happened since she fell down the rabbit hole that Alice was beginning to think that very few things were indeed impossible.

There didn't seem to be any use in waiting around by the little door, so Alice went back to the table, hoping to find another key perhaps, or at any rate, at least a book of instructions about folding one's self up like a small telescope.

This time, however, she found an interesting little bottle, which certainly wasn't there before. Around the neck of the bottle was a sign with large, beautifully painted words that said, "DRINK ME".

It was all very well for a bottle to have a sign that said, "DRINK ME," but Alice was not a foolish girl and didn't think it wise to do such a thing in a hurry.

"No, I'll look first," she thought, "and see if it's marked 'poison'." In school she had read many unpleasant little stories about children burning themselves or even being eaten up by wild animals, all because they didn't remember or pay attention to the simple rules their parents and teachers had taught them.

One such rule was that a fire iron stuck in the fire for a long time will definitely burn you if you hold it too long. Secondly, cutting your finger very deeply with a knife will make it bleed. Most importantly, she remembered that if you drink much from a bottle marked "poison", it will almost certainly disagree with you at some time or another.

However, this little bottle seemed to be perfectly harmless, so Alice decided to taste it and found it delicious. It reminded her of her favorite dinner, even though the flavour was a little mixed up—cherry pie, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, candy, and hot buttered toast. She soon finished off the whole bottle.

"What a strange feeling!" exclaimed Alice. "I must be closing up just like a telescope."

Curiously enough, that's exactly what was happening. Soon, Alice was about ten inches high, and her face became very bright when she realized that now she might be the right size to pass through the little rat-size door into that lovely garden.

First, however, she decided to wait a few minutes to see if she was going to shrink any more. Nervously, she thought, "For it might end up, you know," Alice said to herself, "that I become too small altogether and disappear like the end of a candle that's finished up. I wonder what I would be like then?"

And she tried to imagine what the flame of a candle looks like after the candle is all used up, and to her disappointment she could not remember ever having seen a flame without a candle.

After waiting a while and seeing that nothing more happened, she decided to head for the garden. But bad luck for poor Alice! When she reached the door, she realized that she had forgotten to bring the little gold key. Quickly she ran back to the table to get it, but she found that now there was no possible way for her to reach it.

Through the bottom of the table, for the table was made of glass, Alice could see the key quite plainly. She tried her best to climb up one of the legs, but it was too slippery and she just kept falling down. Soon she had tired herself out climbing and slipping, so poor, very tired Alice just sat down and started crying.

"Come now, what good is it in crying like that," Alice lectured herself. "I tell you to stop this instantly." She often gave herself quite good advice but she also seldom followed it.

Sometimes she would scold herself so strongly that she made herself cry. Once she remembered even trying to hit her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself. This curious little girl often liked to pretend to be two people.

"But it's of no use now," Alice thought, "to pretend to be two people. Why, I'm so small that I'm hardly even one complete person now," she thought sadly. Then she saw a little glass box lying under the table. When she opened it, there was a small cake on which the words "EAT ME" had been written using small berries.

"Well, I guess I should eat it," said Alice, "and hopefully it will make me grow larger so I can reach the key on the table. If this doesn't work but makes me grow smaller instead, then I can creep under the door. Either way I'll get into the garden."

Carefully, she ate just a tiny crumb of the cake and then held her hand on the top of her head to see if she was getting larger or smaller. However, nothing happened and she was quite disappointed to see that she was still only 10 inches tall. Of course, this is what usually happens when a person eats cake.

But remember that by now, Alice had gotten so used to strange and unexpected things happening that it didn't seem quite right for life to carry on in the same way. In fact, it seemed quite stupid and dull.

So she set to work and ate every little bit of the cake.

(end of section)