Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice was sitting beside the river with her sister on a warm afternoon, and she had nothing to do.Her sister was reading a book, but it had no pictures and no conversations in it.Alice felt sleepy and bored, and she wondered if it was worth getting up to pick some daisies.

Suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close past her.Then the Rabbit said out loud, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!"Alice did not even think that was strange — but then the Rabbit took a watch out of its waistcoat pocket.

She had never seen a rabbit with a waistcoat or a watch, and she jumped to her feet, full of curiosity.She ran across the field after it, just in time to see it disappear down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.Alice went straight in after it, and she never once stopped to think how she would get out again.

For a little way the hole went straight on like a tunnel, and then it suddenly dropped down.Alice fell slowly, down and down, with plenty of time to look around her as she went.Cupboards and shelves covered the sides of the hole, and here and there maps and pictures hung on the wall.

As she passed a shelf, she took down a jar with the label "ORANGE MARMALADE" on it, but the jar was empty.She did not drop it, in case it hit somebody far below, so she put it back into a cupboard as she fell past.Down, down, down she went, until she began to wonder if she was near the centre of the earth.

Then, thump! thump! she landed on a great heap of dry leaves and sticks, and the fall was over.She was not hurt at all, and far down a long passage ahead she could still see the White Rabbit, hurrying away.