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 rabbitwith either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to
take out ofit, 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 labeled ‘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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