Alice In Wonderland - Reading - Chapter 1 - Lewis Carol - British English Reading - ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
By Lewis Carroll
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 conversations?'
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 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 knew 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.
'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 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 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.
Alice In Wonderland - Reading - Chapter 1 - Lewis Carol - British English Reading