Down the Rabbit-Hole

Episode Transcript

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Chapter one of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This is a LibriVox recording. All
LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
please visit LibriVox dot org. Alice'sAdventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Chapter
one, Down the Rabbit Hole.Alice was beginning to get very tired of

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sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do.
Once or twice she had peeped intothe book her sister was reading, but
it had no pictures or conversations init. And what is the use of
a book, thought Alice without picturesor conversations. So she was considering in
her own mind as well as shecould, for the hot day made her

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feel very sleepy and stupid whether thepleasure of making a daisy chain would be
worth the trouble of getting up andpicking the daisies. When suddenly, a
white rabbit with pink eyes ran closeby her. There was nothing so very
remarkable in that, nor did Alicethink it so very much out of the
way to hear the rabbit say toitself, Oh dear, oh dear,

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I shall be late. When shethought it over. Afterwards, it occurred
to her that she ought to havewondered at this, but at the time
it all seemed quite natural. Butwhen the rabbit actually took a watch out
of its waistcoat pocket and looked atit and then hurried on, Alice started
to her feet, for it flashedacross her mind that she had never before

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seen a rabbit with either a waistcoatpocket 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 tosee 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 shewas to get out again. The rabbit

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hole went straight on like a tunnelfor some way and then dipped suddenly down,
so suddenly that Alice had not amoment to think about stopping herself before
she found herself falling down a verydeep 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 andto wonder what was going to happen next.

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First, she tried to look downand make out what she was coming
to, but it was too darkto see anything. Then she looked at
the sides of the well and noticedthat they were filled with cupboards and book
shelves. Here and there she sawmaps and pictures hung upon pegs. She
took down a jar from one ofthe shelves as she passed. It was
labeled orange marmalade, but to hergreat disappointment, it was empty. She

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did not like to drop the jarfor fear of killing somebody, so managed
to put it into one of thecupboards as she fell past it. Well,
thought Alice to herself, after sucha 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

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top of the house, which wasvery likely true, Down down, down,
would the fall never come to anend? I wonder how many miles
I've fallen by this time, shesaid aloud. I must be getting somewhere
near the center of the earth.Let me see. That would be four
thousand miles down, I think foryou. See, Alice had learnt several

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things of this sort in her lessonsin the schoolroom, and though this was
not a very good opportunity for showingoff her knowledge, as there was no
one to listen to her. Still, it was good practice to say it
over. Yes, that's about theright distance. But then I wonder what
latitude or longitude I've got to Alicehad no idea what latitude was or longitude

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either, but thought they were nicegrand words to say. Presently, she
began again, I wonder if Ishall fall right through the earth, how
funny it'll seem to come out amongthe people that walk with their heads downward,
the antipathies. I think. Shewas rather glad there was no one

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listening this time, as it didn'tsound at all the right word. But
I shall have to ask them whatthe name of the country is, you
know, please, ma'am? Isthis New Zealand or Australia? And she
tried to curtsey as she spoke,fancy curtsying, as you are falling through
the air, do you think youcould manage it? And what an ignorant

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little girl, she'll think me forasking. No, it'll never do to
ask. Perhaps I shall see itwritten 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 I hope

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they'll remember her saucer of milk attea time. Dinah, my dear,
I wish you were down here withme. There are no mice in the
air, I'm afraid, but youmight 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 rathersleepy, and went on saying to

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herself in a dreamy sort of way, do cats eat bats? Do cats
eat bats? And sometimes do batseat 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 wasdozing off and had just begun to dream

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that she was walking hand in handwith Dinah and saying to her very earnestly,
now, Dinah, tell me thetruth. 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 shejumped up on to her feet. In

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a moment, she looked up,but it was all dark overhead. Before
her was another long passage, andthe white rabbit was still in sight.
Hurrying down it, there was nota moment to be lost. Away went
Alice like the wind, and wasjust in time to hear it say as
it turned a corner, Oh,my ears and whiskers, how late it's

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getting. She was close behind itwhen she turned the corner, but the
rabbit was no longer to be seen. She found herself in a long,
low hall, which was lit upby a row of lamps hanging from the
roof. There were doors all roundthe hall, but they were all locked,
and when Alice had been all theway down one side and up the
other, trying every door, shewalked sadly down the middle, wondering how

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she was ever to get out again. Suddenly she came upon a little,
three legged table, all made ofsolid glass. There was nothing on it
except a tiny golden key, andAlice's first thought was that it might belonged
to one of the doors of thehall, but alas either the locks were
too large or the key was toosmall, but at any rate, it

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would not open any of them.However, on the second time round,
she came upon a low curtain shehad 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 greatdelight, it fitted. Alice opened the
door and found that it led intoa small passage, not much larger than

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a rat hole. She knelt downand looked along the passage into the loveliest
garden you ever saw. How shelonged to get out of that dark hall
and wander about among those beds ofbright flowers and those cool fountains. But
she could not even get her headthrough the doorway. And even if my
head would go through, thought poorAlice, it would be of very little

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use without my shoulders. Oh howI wish I could shut up like a
telescope. I think I could ifI only knew how to begin. For
you see, so many out ofthe way things had happened lately that Alice
had begun to think that very fewthings, indeed, were really impossible.
There seemed to be no use inwaiting by the little door, so she

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went back to the table, halfhoping she might find another key on it,
or, at any rate, abook of rules for shutting people up
like telescopes. This time she founda 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 wordsdrink me beautifully printed on it in large

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letters. It was all very wellto say drink me, but the wise
little Alice was not going to dothat in a hurry. No, I'll
look first, she said, andsee whether it's marked poison or not.
For she had read several nice littlehistories about children who had got burnt and
eaten up by wild beasts and otherunpleasant things, all because they would not

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remember the simple rules their friends hadtaught them, such as that a red
hot poker will burn you if youhold it too long, and that if
you cut your finger very deeply witha knife, it usually bleeds. And
she had never forgotten that if youdrink much from a bottle marked poison,
it is almost certain to disagree withyou sooner or later. However, this

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bottle was not marked poison, soAlice ventured to taste it, and finding
it very nice. It had,in fact a sort of mixed flavor of
cherry tart, custard, pine apple, roast, turkey toffee, and hot
buttered toast. She very soon finishedit off. What a curious feeling,

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said Alice, I must be shuttingup like a telescope. And so it
was. Indeed, she was nowonly ten inches high, and her face
brightened up at the thought that shewas 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 shewas going to shrink any further. She
felt a little nervous about this,for it might end, you know,

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said Alice to herself, in mygoing 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 afterthe candle is blown out, for she
could not remember ever having seen sucha thing. After a while, finding
that nothing more happened, she decidedon going into the garden at once.

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But alas for poor Alice, whenshe 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 shecould 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 thetable, but it was too slippery,
And when she had tired herself outwith trying, the poor little thing sat

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down and cried. Come. There'sno 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 severelyas to bring tears into her eyes.

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And once she remembered trying to boxher own ears for having cheated herself
in a game of croquet. Shewas playing against herself. For this curious
child was very fond of pretending tobe two people. But it's no use,
now, thought poor Alice, topretend to be two people. Why
there's hardly enough of me left tomake one respectable person. Soon her eye

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fell on a little glass box thatwas lying under the table. She opened
it and found in it a verysmall 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

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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 saidanxiously to herself, which way which way,
holding her hand on the top ofher head to feel which way it
was growing, and she was quitesurprised to find that she remained the same

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size. To be sure, thisgenerally happens when one eats cake. But
Alice had got so much into theway of expecting nothing but out of the
way things to happen that it seemedquite dull and stupid for life to go
on in the common way. Soshe set to work and very soon finished
off the cake. End of chapterone read by Kara Shallenberg www. Dot

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kay dot org in March two thousandten in San Diego, California,