Chapter 1Down the Rabbit‐hole

Alice was totally bored, just sitting with her sister on the riverbank and having absolutely nothing to do. She’s peeked at her sister’s book a couple of times, but it was just words, no pictures or anything!

"Seriously," thought Alice, "what’s the point of a book without pictures or conversations?"

So she was thinking about whether it was worth getting up to make a daisy chain - it was a hot day, and she felt super sleepy and kind of goofy - when suddenly, a White Rabbit with pink eyes hopped right by her.

It wasn’t exactly weird to see a rabbit; Alice didn’t even think it was that unusual to hear it muttering to itself, "Oh no! Oh no! I’m going to be late! (Later, she realized she should have been surprised, but at the time, it just seemed normal.)

But when the Rabbit actually pulled a pocket watch out of its little vest pocket, looked at it, and then zoomed off, Alice jumped to her feet! She’s never seen a rabbit with a vest pocket or a watch before, and her curiosity went through the roof.

She ran across the field after it, and luckily, she made it just in time to see it disappear down a huge rabbit-hole under the hedge.

The next moment, Alice tumbled down after it, not even thinking about how she was going to get out again.

The rabbit-hole went straight down like a tunnel for a bit, and then suddenly dropped way down, so fast that Alice didn't have time to stop herself before she was falling down a really deep well.

Either the well was seriously deep, or she was falling super slowly, because she had plenty of time to look around and wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down to see where she was landing, but it was too dark to see anything.

Then, she looked at the sides of the well and noticed they were filled with cupboards and bookshelves! Here and there, she saw maps and pictures hanging on pegs. She grabbed a jar from one of the shelves as she passed - it was labeled "Orange Marmalade" - but to her disappointment, it was empty!

She didn’t want to drop it and accidentally hurt someone below, so she managed to shove it into one of the cupboards as she fell past.

"Well!" thought Alice to herself, "After a fall like that, I won’t even think twice about tumbling down the stairs! They’re all going to think I’m so brave at home! Why, I wouldn’t even mention it, even if I fell off the roof of the house!"

(Which was probably true.)

Down, down, down. Would the fall ever end?

"I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by now?" she said out loud. "I must be getting pretty close to the center of the earth."

"Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think - " (Because, you know, Alice had learned a bunch of stuff like that in school, and even though this wasn’t a great chance to show off, since no one was listening, it was still good practice to say it.) " - yeah, that’s about right - but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I’ve got?"

(Alice had no clue what Latitude or Longitude meant, but they sounded like really fancy words.)

Presently, she started talking again.

"I wonder if I’m gonna fall right through the earth! How weird it’ll seem to pop out where people are walking upside down!"

"The Antipathies, I think - " (she was kind of glad no one was listening, because it didn’t sound right at all) " - but I’m gonna have to ask them what this country is called, you know. Please, Ma’am, is this New Zealand or Australia?"

(and she tried to curtsy as she spoke - imagine curtsying while you’re falling through the air! Could you even do that?)

"And what a clueless little girl they’ll think I am for asking! Nope, that won’t do. Maybe I’ll see it written somewhere."

Down, down, down. There wasn’t much else to do, so Alice quickly started talking again.

"Dinah’ll miss me a lot tonight, I bet!"

(Dinah was her cat.)

"I hope they remember to give her a saucer of milk at teatime. Dinah, my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There aren’t any mice in the air, I’m afraid, but you could catch a bat - that’s kinda like a mouse, you know. But do cats even eat bats, I wonder?"

And here, Alice started to feel really sleepy, and kept saying to herself in a dreamy voice, "Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?" and sometimes, "Do bats eat cats?" because, you see, she couldn’t answer either question, so it didn’t really matter which way she put it.

She felt like she was dozing off, and had just started to dream that she was holding hands with Dinah, and telling her very seriously, "Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?" when suddenly, thump! thump! she landed on a pile of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.

Alice wasn’t hurt at all, and she jumped up on her feet right away. She looked up, but it was super dark above her; in front of her was another long hallway, and the White Rabbit was still running down it.

There wasn’t a second to lose: away went Alice like a rocket, and she just made it in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, "Oh my gosh, I’m so late!"

She was right behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was gone: she found herself in a long, low hallway, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the ceiling.

There were doors all around the hallway, but they were all locked. And after she’s gone all the way down one side and up the other, trying every single door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she’d ever get out.

Suddenly, she came across a little three-legged table, completely made of 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 in the hallway. But, alas!

Either the locks were too big, or the key was too small, but either way, it wouldn’t open any of them. However, on her second trip around, she spotted a low curtain she hadn’t 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 excitement, it fit!

Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much bigger than a rat hole. She knelt down and peered along the passage into the most beautiful garden she’d ever seen.

How she wanted to get out of that dark hallway and wander around among those bright flower beds and those cool fountains, but she couldn’t even get her head through the doorway.

"And even if my head would fit," thought poor Alice, "it would be pretty useless without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shrink up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to start."

Because, you see, so many weird things had happened recently, that Alice had started to think that not many things were really impossible.

It seemed like waiting by the little door wasn't going anywhere, so she went back to the table, hoping she's find another key, or at least a guide for, like, trapping people like telescopes. This time, she spotted a little bottle on the table. ("Seriously, wasn’t it just here before?" said Alice.)

And wrapped around the bottle's neck was a label with the words "Drink Me" printed in big, beautiful letters.

It was easy to say "Drink me," but smart little Alice wasn’t rushing into anything. "Nope, I’m checking first," she said, "to see if it says ‘poison’ or anything."

She’d read tons of stories about kids getting burnt, eaten by wild animals, and other gross things, all because they didn’t remember simple rules their friends told them. Like, a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long, and if you cut yourself with a knife, it's gonna bleed.

And she never forgot that drinking from a bottle marked "poison" is basically a recipe for disaster, sooner or later.

But this bottle wasn’t marked "poison," so Alice took a little taste. It was actually really good - a weird mix of cherry tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast! She finished it pretty quickly.

"Whoa, this is a trip!" said Alice. "I feel like I’m shrinking like a telescope."

And that’s exactly what was happening. She was now only ten inches tall, and her face lit up at the thought that she was finally the right size to go through the little door into that amazing garden.

First, though, she waited a few minutes to see if she’s keep shrinking - she was a little nervous; "because, you know," said Alice to herself, "I could disappear completely, like a candle! I wonder what I’d be like then?"

She tried to picture what a candle flame looks like after you blow it out, but she couldn't remember ever seeing one.

After a while, realizing nothing else was happening, she decided to go into the garden right away. But, oh no for poor Alice! When she got to the door, she realized she’d forgotten the little golden key. When she went back to the table to get it, she couldn’t possibly reach it!

She could see it clearly through the glass, and she tried her best to climb one of the table legs, but it was too slippery. After tiring herself out trying, the poor little thing sat down and started to cry.

"Come on, there’s no point in crying like that!" said Alice to herself, a little sharply. "I’m telling you to stop this second!"

She usually gave herself really good advice (even though she rarely followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so hard that she’d get teary-eyed.

Once, she even remembered trying to box her own ears for cheating herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself - this quirky kid loved pretending to be two people.

"But it’s useless now," thought poor Alice, "there’s barely enough of me left to make one normal person!"

Then her eye landed on a tiny glass box under the table. She opened it and found a really small cake with the words "Eat Me" written in currants.

"Okay, I’ll eat it," said Alice, "and if it makes me grow bigger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can crawl under the door; so either way, I’ll get into the garden, and I don’t care which happens!"

She took a few bites, then said nervously to herself, "Which way? Which way?" She held her hand on top of her head, trying to figure out which way her hair was growing. She was totally surprised to find she was still the same size!

Usually, that happens when you eat cake, but Alice had gotten so used to weird stuff happening, it felt kinda boring for things to just go on like normal.

So she got to work and quickly finished off the cake.