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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
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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.
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’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
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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,
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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
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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
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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, pineapple,
roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very
soon finished 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
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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.
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.
’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
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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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CHAPTER II: The Pool of Tears
’Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice (she was so much
surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to
speak good English); ‘now I’m opening out like the largest
telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!’ (for when she
looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of
sight, they were getting so far off). ‘Oh, my poor little
feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings
for you now, dears? I’m sure I shan’t be able! I shall be a
great deal too far off to trouble myself about you: you
must manage the best way you can; —but I must be kind
to them,’ thought Alice, ‘or perhaps they won’t walk the
way I want to go! Let me see: I’ll give them a new pair of
boots every Christmas.’
And she went on planning to herself how she would
manage it. ‘They must go by the carrier,’ she thought;
‘and how funny it’ll seem, sending presents to one’s own
feet! And how odd the directions will look!
ALICE’S RIGHT FOOT, ESQ.
HEARTHRUG,
NEAR THE FENDER,
(WITH ALICE’S LOVE).
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Oh dear, what nonsense I’m talking!’
Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall: in
fact she was now more than nine feet high, and she at
once took up the little golden key and hurried off to the
garden door.
Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down
on one side, to look through into the garden with one
eye; but to get through was more hopeless than ever: she
sat down and began to cry again.
’You ought to be ashamed of yourself,’ said Alice, ‘a
great girl like you,’ (she might well say this), ‘to go on
crying in this way! Stop this moment, I tell you!’ But she
went on all the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there
was a large pool all round her, about four inches deep and
reaching half down the hall.
After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the
distance, and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was
coming. It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly
dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a
large fan in the other: he came trotting along in a great
hurry, muttering to himself as he came, ‘Oh! the Duchess,
the Duchess! Oh! won’t she be savage if I’ve kept her
waiting!’ Alice felt so desperate that she was ready to ask
help of any one; so, when the Rabbit came near her, she
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began, in a low, timid voice, ‘If you please, sir—’ The
Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid gloves and
the fan, and skurried away into the darkness as hard as he
could go.
Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was
very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on
talking: ‘Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And
yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I’ve
been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same
when I got up this morning? I almost think I can
remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same,
the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s
the great puzzle!’ And she began thinking over all the
children she knew that were of the same age as herself, to
see if she could have been changed for any of them.
’I’m sure I’m not Ada,’ she said, ‘for her hair goes in
such long ringlets, and mine doesn’t go in ringlets at all;
and I’m sure I can’t be Mabel, for I know all sorts of
things, and she, oh! she knows such a very little! Besides,
she’s she, and I’m I, and—oh dear, how puzzling it all is!
I’ll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me see:
four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and
four times seven is—oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at
that rate! However, the Multiplication Table doesn’t
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signify: let’s try Geography. London is the capital of Paris,
and Paris is the capital of Rome, and Rome—no, that’s all
wrong, I’m certain! I must have been changed for Mabel!
I’ll try and say ‘How doth the little—‘‘ and she crossed her
hands on her lap as if she were saying lessons, and began to
repeat it, but her voice sounded hoarse and strange, and
the words did not come the same as they used to do:—
’How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
‘How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spread his claws,
And welcome little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!’
’I’m sure those are not the right words,’ said poor
Alice, and her eyes filled with tears again as she went on,
‘I must be Mabel after all, and I shall have to go and live in
that poky little house, and have next to no toys to play
with, and oh! ever so many lessons to learn! No, I’ve made
up my mind about it; if I’m Mabel, I’ll stay down here!
It’ll be no use their putting their heads down and saying
‘Come up again, dear!’ I shall only look up and say ‘Who
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am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that
person, I’ll come up: if not, I’ll stay down here till I’m
somebody else’—but, oh dear!’ cried Alice, with a sudden
burst of tears, ‘I do wish they would put their heads down!
I am so very tired of being all alone here!’
As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was
surprised to see that she had put on one of the Rabbit’s
little white kid gloves while she was talking. ‘How can I
have done that?’ she thought. ‘I must be growing small
again.’ She got up and went to the table to measure herself
by it, and found that, as nearly as she could guess, she was
now about two feet high, and was going on shrinking
rapidly: she soon found out that the cause of this was the
fan she was holding, and she dropped it hastily, just in
time to avoid shrinking away altogether.
’That was a narrow escape!’ said Alice, a good deal
frightened at the sudden change, but very glad to find
herself still in existence; ‘and now for the garden!’ and she
ran with all speed back to the little door: but, alas! the
little door was shut again, and the little golden key was
lying on the glass table as before, ‘and things are worse
than ever,’ thought the poor child, ‘for I never was so
small as this before, never! And I declare it’s too bad, that
it is!’
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As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another
moment, splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. Her
first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea,
‘and in that case I can go back by railway,’ she said to
herself. (Alice had been to the seaside once in her life, and
had come to the general conclusion, that wherever you go
to on the English coast you find a number of bathing
machines in the sea, some children digging in the sand
with wooden spades, then a row of lodging houses, and
behind them a railway station.) However, she soon made
out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept
when she was nine feet high.
’I wish I hadn’t cried so much!’ said Alice, as she swam
about, trying to find her way out. ‘I shall be punished for
it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears!
That will be a queer thing, to be sure! However,
everything is queer to-day.’
Just then she heard something splashing about in the
pool a little way off, and she swam nearer to make out
what it was: at first she thought it must be a walrus or
hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she
was now, and she soon made out that it was only a mouse
that had slipped in like herself.
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’Would it be of any use, now,’ thought Alice, ‘to speak
to this mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down
here, that I should think very likely it can talk: at any rate,
there’s no harm in trying.’ So she began: ‘O Mouse, do
you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of
swimming about here, O Mouse!’ (Alice thought this must
be the right way of speaking to a mouse: she had never
done such a thing before, but she remembered having seen
in her brother’s Latin Grammar, ‘A mouse—of a mouse—
to a mouse—a mouse—O mouse!’ The Mouse looked at
her rather inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with
one of its little eyes, but it said nothing.