Alice by Lewiss Carol

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Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland
by
Lewis Carroll
Illustrated by
John Tenniel
C
HAPTER
I
Down the Rabbit-Hole
LICE 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 conver-
sations 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 actu-
ally
took a watch out of its
This edition is based on the public domain text and drawings
available from the Gutenburg project.
Typeset by Andrew D. Birrell, 1994.
Set in 11 point Nofret, using Adobe Illustrator.
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A
waistcoat-pocket,
and looked at it, and then hurried on,
Alice started to her feet, for it ashed 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 eld 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
what seemed to be 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 lled 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 thou-
sand miles down, I think—” (for, you see, Alice had learnt
several things of this sort in her lessons in the school-
room, 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 down-
ward! 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
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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 rst 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
fteen inches high:
she tried the little
golden key in the
lock, and to her
great delight it
tted!
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 love-
liest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of
that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of
bright owers 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
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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 nd 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 rst,” 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 nger
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 nding it very nice, (it had,
in fact, a sort of mixed avour of cherry-tart, custard,
pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,)
she very soon nished 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 ame 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, nding 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
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