Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

by Lewis Carroll

CHAPTER I: Down the Rabbit-Hole

Alice sat on the bank by her sister. She had nothing to do. She felt very tired.

She peeked at her sister's book. It had no pictures. It had no talking in it. Alice thought, "What good is a book with no pictures or talking?"

It was a hot day. Alice felt sleepy. She was trying to decide if picking daisies to make a necklace was worth the trouble.

Suddenly, a White Rabbit ran past her. It had pink eyes.

This was not too strange. But then the Rabbit said, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!" Alice didn't think much of this at the time. Later, she thought it was odd.

Then the Rabbit pulled a watch out of its vest pocket! It looked at the watch and hurried on.

Alice jumped up. She had never seen a rabbit with a pocket before — or a watch! She was so curious that she ran after it across the field. She got there just in time to see it jump down a big rabbit hole under a hedge.

Alice jumped in after it. She didn't stop to think how she would get out again.

The hole went straight like a tunnel. Then it dropped down suddenly. Alice had no time to stop. She was falling down a deep well.

The well was either very deep, or she fell very slowly. She had lots of time to look around as she fell. She tried to see what was below her, but it was too dark.

She looked at the sides of the well. She saw cupboards and shelves full of books! She saw maps and pictures hanging on the walls.

She picked up a jar from a shelf as she fell past it. It said "ORANGE MARMALADE" on the label. But it was empty! She didn't want to drop it and hurt someone below. So she put it into a cupboard as she kept falling.

"Well!" thought Alice. "After a fall like this, falling down stairs will be nothing! I'll be so brave!"

Down, down, down she fell. Would it ever end?

"I wonder how many miles I've fallen," she said out loud. "I must be close to the middle of the Earth." She had learned about this in school. She liked showing off what she knew, even though no one was there to hear her.

She kept talking to herself. She wondered if she would fall all the way through the Earth. She wondered about the people who lived on the other side of the world, walking upside-down. She even practiced how she would politely ask them what country she had landed in.

Down, down, down she fell. She had nothing else to do, so she kept talking. She talked about her cat, Dinah. She hoped Dinah would get her milk at teatime. She wondered if cats eat bats. She got sleepier and sleepier, saying over and over, "Do cats eat bats? Do bats eat cats?" It didn't matter which way she asked, since she didn't know the answer.

She started to dream she was walking with Dinah. Then — thump! She landed on a pile of sticks and leaves. The fall was over!

Alice was not hurt at all. She jumped right up. It was dark above her. In front of her was a long hallway, and she could still see the White Rabbit hurrying away. She ran after it as fast as she could. She heard it say, "Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!" just as it turned a corner. But when she turned the corner too, the Rabbit was gone!

She was standing in a long hallway, lit by lamps hanging from the ceiling. There were doors all around, but every one was locked. She tried them all, but none would open. She felt sad, wondering how she would ever get out.

Then she found a little glass table with three legs. On it was a tiny golden key. She thought it might open one of the doors. But the key was too small for every lock!

On her second try around the room, she found a curtain she had missed. Behind it was a tiny door, only fifteen inches tall. She tried the golden key — and it fit!

She opened the door. Behind it was a small tunnel, leading to the most beautiful garden she had ever seen! She wanted so badly to get out into the garden, with its bright flowers and cool fountains. But she couldn't even fit her head through the door!

"Even if my head could fit," she thought, "it wouldn't help without my shoulders too! I wish I could fold up like a telescope!" So many strange things had happened that day, she thought maybe anything was possible.

There was no use waiting by the tiny door. She went back to the glass table. Maybe there was another key, she hoped. Instead, she found a little bottle that hadn't been there before! It had a paper tag around its neck. The tag said "DRINK ME" in big letters.

But smart Alice did not want to drink it right away. "I'll check first," she said, "to see if it says 'poison' anywhere." She remembered stories about children who got hurt because they didn't follow simple safety rules — like knowing that a hot poker will burn you, or that a knife can cut you if you're not careful. She knew that drinking from a bottle marked "poison" is never a good idea.

But this bottle did not say poison. So Alice tried a sip. It tasted wonderful — like cherry pie, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee, and warm buttered toast all mixed together! She drank the whole bottle.

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"What a strange feeling!" said Alice. "I must be shrinking, like a telescope folding up!"

And she was right! She was now only ten inches tall. She smiled, because now she was just the right size to fit through the tiny door into the garden!

But first, she waited a few minutes to see if she would keep shrinking. She worried, "What if I shrink away completely, like a candle going out? I wonder what that would even look like."

Nothing else happened, so she decided to go to the door. But oh no! She had left the golden key on the table! She went back to get it — but now she was too small to reach the table top! She could see the key through the glass, but she couldn't climb up. She tried and tried, but the table leg was too slippery. Finally, tired out, she sat down and cried.

"Stop crying right now!" Alice told herself sternly. She often gave herself good advice, though she didn't always listen to it. "There's no use crying," she thought. "I'm barely big enough to be one whole person now, let alone two!" (She liked to pretend she was two different people sometimes.)

Then she noticed a little glass box under the table. Inside was a tiny cake. On top, spelled out in raisins, were the words "EAT ME."

"Well, I'll eat it," said Alice. "If it makes me grow bigger, I can reach the key. If it makes me grow smaller, I can slip under the door. Either way, I'll get into the garden!"

She took a small bite. "Which way? Which way?" she wondered, holding her hand on top of her head to feel if she was growing or shrinking. But nothing happened — she stayed exactly the same size!

This is usually what happens when you eat cake. But Alice had gotten so used to strange things happening that day, that staying the same size seemed boring!

So, she ate the rest of the cake.

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CHAPTER II: The Pool of Tears

"Curiouser and curiouser!" cried Alice...