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01 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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  Chapter one Down the rabbit Hole, Alice was beginning to get very tired of
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  sitting by her sister on the bank and of having nothing to do. Once
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  or twice she peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had
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  no pictures or conversations in it, And what's the use of a book,
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  thought Alice without pictures or conversation. So she was considering in her own mind
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  as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy
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  and stupid whether the pleasure of making a daisy chain would be worth the trouble
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  of getting up and picking the daisies. When suddenly a white rabbit with pink
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  eyes ran close by her. There was nothing so very remarkable in that,
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  nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the
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  rabbit say to itself, oh dear, oh dear, I shall be late.
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  When she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought
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  to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural.
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  But when the rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat pocket and
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  looked at it and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet for it
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  flushed cross her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a
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  waistcoat pocket or a watch to take out of it. And, burning with
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  curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in
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  time to see it pop down a large rabbit hole under the hedge in another
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  moment. Down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world
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  she was to get out again. The rabbit hole went straight on like a
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  tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice
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  had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down
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  a very deep well. Either the well was very deep or she fell very
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  slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about
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  her and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried
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  to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was
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  too dark to see anything. Then she looked at the sides of the well
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  and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book shelves. Here and there
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  she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from
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  one of the shelves as she passed. It was labeled orange marmalade, but
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  to her great disappointment, it was empty. She did not like to drop
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  the dar for fear of killing somebody, so she managed to put it into
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  one of the cupboards as she fell past it. Well, thought Alice to
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  herself, after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling
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  downstairs. How brave they'll all think me at home. Why I wouldn't say
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  anything about it? Even if I fell off the top of a house,
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  which was very likely true, Down down, down, would the fall never
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  come to an end? I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time,
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  she said aloud, I must be getting somewhere near the center of the
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  earth. Let me see, that would be four thousand miles down, I
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  think for you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her
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  lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity for
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  showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her,
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  still it was good practice to say it over, Yes, that's about the
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  right distance. But then I wonder what latitude or longitude I've got to Alice
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  had no idea what latitude was or longitude either, but thought they were nice
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  grand words to say. Presently, she began again, I wonder if I
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  shall fall right through the earth, how funny it'll seem to come out among
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  the people that walk with their heads downward, the antipathies. I think she
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  was rather glad there was no one listening this time, as it didn't sound
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  at all the right word. But I shall have to ask them, what
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  if the name of the country is, you know, please, ma'am,
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  is this New Zealand or Australia? And she tried to Curtsey as she spoke,
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  fancy curtseying, as you're falling through the air, do you think you
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  could manage it? And what an ignorant little girl, she'll think me for
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  asking. No, it'll never do to ask. Perhaps I shall see it
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  written up somewhere down, down down. There was nothing else to do,
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  so Alice soon began talking again. Dinah missed me very much tonight. I
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  should think Dinah was the cat. I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk
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  at tea time. Dinah, my dear, wish you were down here with
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  me. There are no mice in the air. I'm afraid but you might
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  catch a b and that's very like a mouse, you know. But do
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  catskeet bats? I wonder? And here Alice began to get rather sleepy,
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  and went on saying to herself in a dreamy sort of way, do cats
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  ea bats? Do cats eat bats? And sometimes do batsya? Cats?
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  For you? See, as she couldn't answer either question, it didn't much
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  matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing off and
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  had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah and
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  saying to her very earnestly, now, Dinah, tell me the truth.
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  Did you ever eat a bat? When suddenly, thump, thump, down,
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  she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall
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  was over. Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on
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  her feet. In a moment, she looked up, but it was all
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  dark. Overhead before her was another long passage, and the white rabbit was
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  still in sight. Hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be
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  lost. Away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to
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  hear it say as it turned a corner, Oh, my ears are whiskers.
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  How late it's getting She was close bey behind it when she turned the
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  corner, but the rabbit was no longer to be seen. She found herself
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  in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of
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  lamps hanging from the roof. There were doors all around the hall, but
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  they were all locked, and when Alice had been all the way down one
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  side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the
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  middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again. Suddenly she came
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  upon a little, three legged table, all made of solid glass. There
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  was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and Alice's first thought was
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  that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall, but alas
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  either the locks were too large or the key was too small, but at
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  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,
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  and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high. She tried
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  the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted.
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  Alice opened the door and found it led into a small passage not much
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  larger than a rat hole. She knelt down and looked along the passage into
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  the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that
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  dark hall and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains.
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  But she could not even get her head through the doorway. And even
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  if my head would go through, thought poor Alice, it would be of
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  very little use without my shoulders. Oh how I wish I could shut up
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  like a telescope. I think I could, if I only know how to
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  begin. For you see, so many out of the way things had happened
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  lately that Alice had begun to think that very few things, indeed, were
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  really impossible. There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door,
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  so she went back to the table, half hoping she might find another
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  key on it, or, at any rate, a book of rules for
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  shutting people up like telescopes. This time she found a little bottle on it,
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  which certainly was not here before, said Alice. And round the neck
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  of the bottle was a paper label with the words drink me beautifully printed on
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  it in large letters. It was all very well to say drink me,
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  but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry no,
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  I'll look first, she said, and see whether it's marked poison or
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  not. For she had read several nice little histories about children who'd gotten burnt
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  and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they would
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  not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them, such as that a
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  red hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long, and that
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  if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds.
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  And she had never forgotten that if you'd drink much from a bottle marked poison,
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  it's almost certain to disagree with you sooner or later. However, this
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  bottle was not marked poison, so Alice ventured to taste it, and finding
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  it very nice. It had, in fact a sort of mixed flavor of
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  cherry tart, custard, pineapple roast, turkey toffee, and hot buttered toast.
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  She very soon finished it off. What a curious feeling, said Alice.
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  I must be shutting up like a telescope. And so it was.
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  Indeed, she was now only ten inches high, and her face brightened up
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  at the thought that she was now the size for going through the little door
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  into that lovely garden. First, however, she waited for a few minutes
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  to see if she was going to shrink any further. She felt a little
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  nervous about this, for it might end, you know, said Alice to
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  herself. Am I going out altogether like a candle? I wonder what I
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  should be like? Then? And she tried to fancy what the flame of
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  a candle is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not
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  remember having ever seen such a thing. After a while, finding that nothing
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  more happened, she decided on going into the garden at once. But alas
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  for poor Alice, when she got to the door, she found she'd forgotten
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  the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it,
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  she found she could not possibly reach it. She could see it quite
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  plainly through the glass, and she tried her best to climb up one of
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  the legs of the table, but it was too slippery, And when she
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  had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried.
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  Come. There's no use crying like that, said Alice to herself rather
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  sharply. I advise you to leave off this mis in it. She generally
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  gave herself very good advice, though she very seldom followed it, and sometimes
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  she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes. She once
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  remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of
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  croquet. She was playing against herself. For this, curious child was fond
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  of pretending to be two people. But it's no use, now, thought
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  poor Alice, to pretend to be two people. Why, there's hardly enough
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  of me to make one respectable person. Soon her eye fell on a little
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  glass box that was lying under the table. She opened it and found in
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  it a very small cake, on which the words eat me were beautifully marked
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  in currants. Well I'll eat it, said Alice. And if it makes
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  me grow larger, I can reach the key. And if it makes me
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  grow smaller, I can creep under the door. So either way I'll get
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  into the garden, and I don't care which happens. She ate a little
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  bit and said anxiously to herself, which way which way, holding her hand
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  on the top of her head to feel which way it was growing, and
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  she it was quite surprised to find that she remained the same size. To
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  be sure, this generally happens when one eats cake. But Alice had gotten
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  so much into the way of expecting nothing but out of the way things to
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  happen that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the
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  common way. So she set to work and very soon finished off the cake
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  end of chapter one.