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Text File | 1992-07-20 | 12KB | 224 lines

                ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

                          Lewis Carroll

               THE MILLENNIUM FULCRUM EDITION 2.9




                            CHAPTER I

                      Down the Rabbit-Hole


  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
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 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.

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  `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 though 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 he 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.

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