chapter01.html

<section data-type="chapter">
  <h1 id="link2HCH0001">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
    conversation?'
  </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 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.
  </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 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.)
  </p>
  <p>
    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.'
  </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 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.
  </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 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.
  </p>
  <p>
    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.
  </p>
  <p>
    'What a curious feeling!' said Alice; 'I must be shutting up like a
    telescope.'
  </p>
  <p>
    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.
  </p>
  <p>
    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.
  </p>
  <p>
    '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!'
  </p>
  <p>
    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!'
  </p>
  <p>
    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.
  </p>
  <p>
    So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.
  </p>
</section>