This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more

information or to volunteer, please visit librivox.org.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Chapter 1 — 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 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 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 labelled '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. 'Well!' thought Alice to herself, 'after such

a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me

at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!'

(Which was very likely true.) 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 somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles

down, I think—' (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her

lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a VERY 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 Latitude was, or Longitude either, but

thought they were nice grand words to say.) Presently she began again. 'I wonder if I

shall fall right 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 rather glad there WAS

no one listening, this time, as it didn'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, is this New Zealand

or Australia?' (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke—fancy CURTSEYING as you're falling

through the air! Do 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 written 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 dear! 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 do cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice began to get rather sleepy,

and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, 'Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat

bats?' and sometimes, 'Do bats eat cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either

question, it didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing off,

and had just begun to dream that she was 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 suddenly, thump!

thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was 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

was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice

like the wind, and was 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 was

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 other, trying every door, she walked sadly down 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 key, and

Alice's first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas!

either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate 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 inches high: she tried

the little golden 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 through

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 things

had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were

really impossible. There seemed to be no use in waiting by the

little door, so she went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on

it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this time she found

a little bottle on it, ('which certainly was not here before,' said Alice,) and round the

neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words 'DRINK ME' beautifully printed on

it in large letters. It was all very well to say 'Drink me,' but

the wise little Alice was not going to do THAT in a hurry. 'No, I'll look first,' she

said, 'and see whether it's marked "poison" or not'; for she had 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 not remember the simple rules 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 had 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 nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of

mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,)

she very soon finished it off. 'What a curious feeling!' said Alice; 'I must

be shutting up like a telescope.' And so it was indeed: she was now only ten

inches high, and her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size

for going through the little 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 little 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 tried to fancy what the flame

of a candle is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having

seen such a thing. After a while, finding that nothing more happened,

she decided on going into the garden at once; but, alas for poor 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 tried 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 tears into her eyes; and once she remembered

trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing

against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people.

'But it's no use now,' thought poor Alice, 'to pretend to be two people! Why, there's

hardly enough of me left to make ONE respectable person!'

Soon her eye fell on a little 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 creep under the door; so either way

I'll get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!'

She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, 'Which way? Which way?', holding

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 same 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 common way.

So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.

End of chapter 1. Read by Kara Shallenberg—www.kayray.org—in March 2010, in San Diego, California.