Alice cost 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 unintelligent ) , 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 behaved Alice think it so VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself , ` Oh beloved ! Oh dear ! I shall be tardily ! ' ( 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 bit downward went Alice after it , never once considering how in the earth 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 comfortably .

Either the well was very deep , or she fell very slow , for she had plenty of condemnation as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen future . First , she tried to look down and make out what she was numbering to , but it was likewise dark to see anything ; then she looked at the sides of the well , and noticed that they were fulfilled with cupboards and bookshelves ; hither 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 performed not like to drop the jar for fear of downing soul , so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell yesteryear it .

'Well ! ' thought Alice to herself , 'after such a fall as this , I shall think nothing of tumbling downwardly stair ! How brave they 'll all think me at home ! Why , I would n't say anything about it , even if I fell off the top of the house ! ' ( Which was very likely truthful . )

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 someplace near the centre of the earth . Let me see : that would be four thousand miles down , I think -- ' ( for , you look , Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom , and though this was not a rattling 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 parallel was , or Longitude either , but thinking they were nice princely countersign to articulate . )

presently she began again . ' I wonder if I shall fall rightfield 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 preferably glad there WAS no one listening , this time , as it did n'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 , comprises this New Zealand or Australia ? ' ( and she tried to curtsy as she spoke -- fancy CURTSEYING as you 're falling through the air ! practise 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 saved 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 dearest ! 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 behave CAT eat bats , I wonder ? ' And here Alice began to get rather sleepy , and went on saying to herself , in a dreamy form of manner , 'Do cats eat bats ? coiffure cats eat bats ? ' and sometimes , 'Do bats eat cats ? ' for , you see , as she could n't answer either question , it did n't much matter which way she put it . She felt that she was dozing off , and had just begun to dream that she constituted 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 abruptly , thump ! thump ! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves , and the fall embodied 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 existed still in sight , hurrying down it . There was not a minute to be suffered : away went Alice like the wind , and equalled 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 comprised 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 early , trying every door , she walked sadly downwards 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 headstone , and Alice 's first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hallway ; but , alas ! either the locks were overly large , or the key was too small , but at any pace 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 inch high : she tried the little aureate 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 thing had happened lately , that Alice ingested begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible .

There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little threshold , so she went back to the table , one-half hoping she might find another key on it , or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people upwards like telescopes : this time she found a little bottleful on it , ( 'which certainly was not here before , ' said Alice , ) and round the neck of the bottle was a paper label , with the row 'DRINK ME ' attractively printed on it in prominent letters .

It followed all very well to say 'Drink me , ' but the wise minuscule Alice was not going to do THAT in a hurry . 'No , I 'll look first , ' she stated , 'and see whether it 's marked `` poison `` or not ' ; for she gave 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 non remember the simple principle 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 consumed 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 gracious , ( it made , in fact , a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart , custard , pineapple , joint turkey , toffee , and hot buttered toast , ) she very soon finished it off .

'What a curious feeling ! ' alleged Alice ; ' I must be shutting up like a telescope . '

And so it was so : 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 slight 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 petty 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 examined to fantasy what the flame of a candle is like after the cd is blown out , for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing .

After a while , encountering that nothing more happened , she decided on going into the garden at once ; but , alas for hapless 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 pictured 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 snag into her eyes ; and once she remembered trying to box her ain ear for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself , for this curious child existed very fond of pretending to be two people . 'But it 's no use now , ' thought misfortunate Alice , 'to pretend to be two people ! Why , thither 's hardly enough of me left to make ONE respectable person ! '

Soon her eye fell on a fiddling 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 weirdie under the door ; so either fashion I 'll acquire into the garden , and I do n't care which happens ! ' She ate a little bit , and pronounced anxiously to herself , 'Which way ? Which way ? ' , sustaining 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 like 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 unwashed agency . So she set to work , and real soon finished off the cake .