Chapter 1:Down the Rabbit -Hole
EPISODE 2: Down,down,down.There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. Dinah'll miss me very much tonight, 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 where 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 with Dinah and saying to her very earnestly, Now, Dinah, tell me the truth:did you ever eat bats? when suddenly. thump! thump!down she come upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves,and the fall was over.
Alice was not a bit hurt. and she jumped upon 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 it. There was not a moment to be lost:away went Alice like the wind.and 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 roof.
There were doors all around the hall, but they were all locked :and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every doors, 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. Alice's first thought was that it might belong to one of the hall; but, alas'either the locks were too large, or the key was to small, but at any rate it would not open any of them.However,on the second time around she come 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 lead into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole:she knelt down and looked a long 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 flower and those cool fountain, but she could not even get her head through the doorway:and even if my head would go through; poor Alice, it would be of very little use without my shoulder. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope!I think I could, if I only knew 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 any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescope: this time she found a little bottle on it, (which certainly was not here before'said Alice)and around 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 looks 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 wind beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they would not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them; such as. that a redhot 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,infact,a sort of mixed flavour of cherrytast,custard pineapple, roast turkey, toffee and hot butter toast,) she very soon finished it off.
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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 the 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: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 forit, she found she could not possible reach it.she could see it quite plainly though the glass, and she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of the table but it was to 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 though 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 dont care which happens!
She ate a little bit, and said anxionsly 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 muchinto the way of expecting, nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that. it seemed quite dulland stupid for life to go on in the common way.
So she set do work,and very soon finished off the cake.
END..........thank you