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Chapter I

Down the Rabbit-Hole

Alice[1] was boring. She was sitting by her sister on the bank of the river, and doing nothing. Once or twice she looked at the book that her sister held in her hands, but there were no pictures in it. “What is the use of a book[2],” thought Alice “without pictures or conversations?”

She decided to get up and pick some flowers, when suddenly a White Rabbit[3] with pink eyes ran nearby. There was nothing remarkable in that; but the Rabbit said, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I am late!” Then the Rabbit took a watch out of its pocket, and looked at it. Alice stood up. How strange! A rabbit has pockets, and a watch! She ran across the field after it. The Rabbit jumped into a large rabbit-hole[4] under the hedge.

Alice went after it. The rabbit-hole was like a tunnel. Alice began to fall down a deep well. The well was very deep, and she was falling very slowly. Down, down, down. Where is the end?

It took her a long time to go down, and as she went she had time to look at the strange things around her. First she tried to look down, but it was too dark to see. Then she looked at the sides of the well and saw many book-shelves; here and there she saw different maps. She took a jar from one of the shelves as she passed. On it was a label “ORANGE MARMALADE”, but there was no marmalade in it, so she put it back on one of the shelves.

“I’m sure I am going to the centre of the earth,” Alice said aloud. “It is four thousand miles down, I think. But maybe I am falling right through the earth[5]! How funny! The people there walk with their heads downward! I shall ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma’am, is this New Zealand or Australia?”

Down, down, down. Nothing to do. Alice soon began to talk again. “Dinah[6] will miss me very much tonight, I think!” (Dinah was the cat.) “I hope they’ll give her milk. Dinah my dear! Where are you? Why not with me down here? There are no mice in the air, I’m afraid, but you can catch a bat. But do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats? Dinah, tell me the truth: do you eat bats?”

Suddenly, thump! thump![7] she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves. Alice jumped up on to her feet very fast: she looked up, but it was dark there. Before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit went down it. Alice went like the wind. The Rabbit was saying, “Oh my ears and whiskers, how late, how late!” And he disappeared.

Alice stood in a long, low hall, a row of lamps was hanging from the roof. There were many doors on all sides, but they were all locked. She walked back and forth and tried to think how to get out. Suddenly she saw a little glass table; there was a tiny golden key on it. Alice thought that this was the key to one of the doors of the hall, but when she tried the key in each lock, she found that the locks were too large or the key was too small.

Then Alice noticed a little door about fifteen inches high[8]. She tried the key in the lock, and to her great joy it fitted. Alice opened the door and found a small passage, not larger than a rat-hole[9]. But how to get there? She was too big for that passage. She knelt down and looked through it into a garden of flowers.

Alice went back to the table: this time she found a little bottle on it, which was not there before, and round the neck of the bottle[10] was a paper label with the words “DRINK ME” in large letters.

It was all very well to say “Drink me,” but the wise little Alice said, “No, I’ll look first. Is it marked “poison” or not?” She knew: if you drink much from a bottle marked “poison,” it will certainly make you sick.

However, this bottle was not marked “poison,” so Alice decided to taste it, and found it very nice (it had a taste of a cherry-cake, ice-cream, pine-apple, roast turkey, and hot toast).

“How strange I feel” said Alice; “I am sure I am not so large as I was.”

And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high. She was now the right size to go through the small door and get out to that beautiful garden. So she decided to enter; but, alas for poor Alice! she forgot the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it, she could not reach it: she was too little. Poor little Alice sat down and cried.

Soon she saw a little glass box that was lying under the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which she noticed the words “EAT ME”. “Well, I’ll eat it,” said Alice, “and if I grow larger, I can reach the key; and if I grow smaller, I can creep under the door!”

She soon ate all the cake.

Chapter II

The Pool of Tears

“How strange!” cried Alice; “how tall I am! Good-bye, my feet! Oh, my poor little feet, who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears?”

When she looked down at her feet they were so far off.

“Let me see. I’ll give my feet a new pair of shoes every Christmas.”

She stopped to think: how to send them?

“They must go by mail,” she thought; “how funny! I’ll send shoes to my own feet! How strange the address will be!”

Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall: in fact she was now more than nine feet high, and she at once took up the little golden key. But she can’t open the door, she is too big. Poor Alice! She sat down and began to cry again.

“Shame on you,” said Alice, “a big girl like you! Don’t cry! Stop at once, I tell you!”

She was shedding gallons[11] of tears, until there was a large pool all round her, about four inches deep and reaching half down the hall.

After a time she heard some noise. She hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming. It was the White Rabbit. He was returning, with a pair of white gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other. He was muttering to himself, “Oh! the Duchess[12], the Duchess! She will be angry. Oh! I can’t be late!”

Alice began, in a low, timid voice, “If you please, sir—”

The Rabbit dropped the white gloves and the fan, and ran away into the darkness.

Alice took up the fan and gloves. “Dear, dear! How queer everything is today! And yesterday everything was as usual. Was I changed in the night? Let me think, who am I? Do I know the things that I used to know[13]? Let me see: four times five[14] is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate[15]. Let’s try Geography. London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and Rome—no, that’s all wrong, I’m certain! Who am I then?” cried Alice with tears, “I am so tired!”

As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was surprised. She put on one of the Rabbit’s little white gloves. “How could I do that?” she thought. “I am growing small again.”

She got up and went to the table. She was now about two feet high. The cause of this was the fan that she was holding, and she dropped it hastily.

And she ran back to the little door: but, alas! the little door was shut again, and the little golden key was lying on the glass table as before. Her foot slipped, and in another moment, splash![16] she was in salt water. She was in the pool of her own tears!

“I am drowning in my own tears!” said Alice, “Everything is queer today.”

Just then she heard a splash: at first she thought it was a walrus or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she was now, and she soon understood that it was only a mouse.

“Shall I” thought Alice, “speak to this mouse? I’ll try.” So she began: “O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired, O Mouse!”

The Mouse looked at her, but it said nothing.

“Perhaps it doesn’t understand English,” thought Alice; “Maybe it’s a French mouse.” So she began again: “Où est ma chatte?[17]” It was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse was in terror.

“Oh, I beg your pardon!” cried Alice hastily. “I quite forgot you didn’t like cats.”

“Didn’t like cats!” cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice. “I am a mouse, can’t you see?”

“Yes, yes,” said Alice: “don’t be angry. But there are good cats, for example, our cat Dinah. She is very clever and beautiful. And she likes to catch mice… Oh, I beg your pardon!” cried Alice again. “We won’t talk about Dinah anymore.”

“We indeed![18]” cried the Mouse. “Our family always hated cats: nasty, low, vulgar animals! Don’t talk about cats again!”

“I won’t!” said Alice. “Do you—do you—like—dogs?” The Mouse did not answer.

“There is such a nice little dog near our house! A little bright-eyed terrier, you know, with oh, such long curly brown hair! It can do everything—and it belongs to a farmer, you know, and he says it’s so useful, it’s worth a hundred pounds! He says it kills all the rats and… oh dear!” cried Alice in a sorrowful tone, “I’m sorry!”

The Mouse was swimming away from her very fast. Alice called softly after it, “Mouse dear! Come back again, and we won’t talk about cats or dogs, if you don’t like them!”

When the Mouse heard this, it turned round and swam slowly back to her: its face was quite pale, and it said in a low voice[19], “Let us get to the shore, and then I’ll tell you my story, and you’ll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.”

The pool was overcrowded with the birds and animals. Everybody swam to the shore.

Chapter III

A Caucus-Race[20] and a Long Tale

The Mouse said, “Sit down, all of you, and listen to me!” They all sat down at once, in a large ring, with the Mouse in the middle.

“Ahem![21]” said the Mouse, “are you all ready? Silence, if you please!”

And it began to talk about William the Conqueror[22].

“Ugh!” said the Lory[23], with a shiver.

“I beg your pardon!” said the Mouse, frowning, but very politely: “Did you speak?”

“Not I!” said the Lory hastily.

“I proceed,” said the Mouse. “Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria[24], found it—”

“Found WHAT?” said the Duck.

“Found IT,” the Mouse replied: “of course you know what ‘it’ means.”

“I know what ‘it’ means well enough, when I find a thing,” said the Duck, “it’s generally a frog or a worm. The question is, what did those gentlemen find?”

The Mouse did not notice this question. “How are you, my dear?” it asked Alice.

“I’m wet,” said Alice.

How to get dry? They had a long talk about this, but it was hard to tell what was best.

“I think,” said the Dodo[25], “that the best thing to become dry is a Caucus-race.”

“What is a Caucus-race?” said Alice.

“Oh,” said the Dodo, “the best way to explain it is to do it.”

First it painted a circle, and then everybody began to run. Soon they were quite dry again, and the Dodo said “The race is over!”

The birds and animals began to ask, “But who is the winner?”

Dodo said, “Everybody is a winner, and will have prizes.”

“But who will give the prizes?” they asked.

“She, of course,” said the Dodo, and pointed to Alice with the long claw. And everybody at once crowded round her and cried, “A prize, a prize!”

Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand in her pocket, and pulled out a box of comfits, and handed them round as prizes.

“But she must have a prize herself, you know,” said the Mouse.

“Of course,” the Dodo replied very gravely. “What else have you got in your pocket?” he turned to Alice.

“Only a thimble,” said Alice sadly.

“Give it to me,” said the Dodo.

The Dodo solemnly presented the thimble, “Please accept this elegant thimble”; and they all cheered. Alice simply bowed, and took the thimble.

The next thing was to eat the comfits: this caused some noise. It was over at last and they sat down in a ring and begged the Mouse to tell them a tale.

“You promised to tell me your story, you know,” said Alice to the Mouse, “why do you hate cats and dogs,” she added in a whisper.

“It’s a long and a sad tale!” said the Mouse. And it began:

“It is a long tail, certainly,” said Alice, she looked at the Mouse’s tail; “but why do you call it sad?”

“I shall not tell you,” said the Mouse. It got up and walked away.

“Please come back and tell us your tale,” called Alice; and all joined in, “Yes, please do!”

But the Mouse shook its head.

“You are not listening!” said the Mouse to Alice severely. “What are you thinking of? You are always talking nonsense!” and was soon out of sight.

“Oh, where is my Dinah?” said Alice. “Dinah can bring her back.”

“And who is Dinah, if I may ask such a thing?” said one of the birds.

Alice was glad to talk about her pet.

“Dinah is our cat; and it catches mice very fast. Moreover, Dinah catches birds even faster! And it eats them at once!”

These words caused a great stir in the party. The birds rushed off; they were saying, “We must get home, it’s late, it’s time to sleep.”

Everybody went home, and Alice was soon alone. Poor Alice began to cry again, because she felt very lonely. Suddenly she heard some noise.

Chapter IV

The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill

It was the White Rabbit, he was looking anxiously around and muttering to itself “The Duchess! The Duchess! She’ll get my head cut off[28]! Oh my dear paws! Oh my fur and whiskers! Where did I lose them, I wonder?” Alice guessed in a moment that the Rabbit was looking for the fan and the pair of white gloves, but everything changed, and the great hall, with the glass table and the little door, vanished completely.

Very soon the Rabbit noticed Alice, and told her in an angry tone, “Why, Mary Ann[29], what are you doing here? Run home, and bring me a pair of gloves and a fan! Quick, now!”

And Alice was so much afraid that she ran off at once.

“He took me for[30] his housemaid,” she said to herself as she ran. “But it’s better to bring him his fan and gloves—that is, if I can find them.”

As she said this, she came to a neat little house, on the door of which was a bright brass plate with the name “W. RABBIT” upon it. She went in, and hurried upstairs.

“How queer it is!” Alice said to herself. “I am the Rabbit’s servant. I think my next master will be Dinah herself!”

By this time she found her way into a tidy little room with a table by the window, and on it a fan and two or three pairs of tiny white gloves. She took up the fan and a pair of gloves, and noticed a little bottle that stood near the looking-glass. There was no label this time with the words “DRINK ME,” but Alice opened it and put it to her lips.

“Let’s see,” she said to herself, “what this bottle does. I hope it’ll make me large again!”

It did so indeed, and soon her head was near the ceiling. She said, “That’s enough.”

Alas! it was too late! She was growing, and growing, and growing. In another minute there was not even room for her, and she put one arm out of the window[31], and one foot up the chimney. Luckily for Alice, the magic stopped, and she grew no more. But she felt unhappy.

“It was much better at home,” thought poor Alice, “when I wasn’t always growing larger and smaller, when mice and rabbits did not order me. Why did I crawl into that rabbit-hole?”

After a few minutes she heard a voice outside.

“Mary Ann! Mary Ann!” said the voice. “Bring me my gloves!”

Alice knew it was the Rabbit, and she trembled. The Rabbit came up to the door, and tried to open it; but the door opened inwards, and Alice’s elbow was pressed hard against it.

The Rabbit said to itself “Then I’ll go round and get in at the window[32].”

“You won’t” thought Alice, and she suddenly spread out her hand. She heard a little shriek and a crash of broken glass. Next came an angry voice—the Rabbit’s—“Pat[33]! Pat! Where are you?”

And another voice, “I’m here!”

“Now tell me, Pat, what’s that in the window?”

“It’s an arm, your honour!”

“An arm, you fool! So big! It fills the whole window!”

“Sure, it does, your honour: but it’s an arm.”

“Well, go and take it away!”

There was a long silence after this, and Alice could only hear whispers; such as, “I don’t like it, your honour, at all, at all!”

“Do as I tell you, you coward! We must burn the house down!” said the Rabbit’s voice; and Alice shouted as loud as she could, “If you do this, I’ll call Dinah!”

There was a dead silence instantly, and Alice thought to herself, “What will they do next?”

After a minute or two, a shower of little pebbles came in at the window, and some of them hit her in the face. Alice noticed with some surprise that the pebbles were all turning into little cakes, and a bright idea came into her head.

“If I eat one of these cakes,” she thought, “it’ll make some change in my size; it can make me smaller, I suppose.”

So she swallowed one of the cakes, and she became smaller. Soon she was small enough to get through the door. She ran out of the house, and found a crowd of little animals and birds outside. Alice ran away. She was running and running, and finally she saw a large mushroom near her, about the same height as herself. Her eyes immediately met a large caterpillar, that was sitting on the top, quietly smoking a hookah[34].

Chapter V

Advice from a Caterpillar

The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a sleepy voice.

“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.

Alice replied, rather shyly, “I—I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I changed several times.”

“What do you mean by that?” said the Caterpillar sternly. “Explain!”

“I can’t, I’m afraid,” said Alice very politely. “I—”

“You!” said the Caterpillar contemptuously. “Who are YOU?”

It brought them back again to the beginning of the conversation.

Alice thought that the Caterpillar was in a very unpleasant state of mind[35], and she turned away.

“Come back!” the Caterpillar demanded. “I want to tell you something important!”

Alice turned and came back again.

“Keep your temper[36],” said the Caterpillar.

“Is that all?” asked Alice.

“No,” said the Caterpillar.

Alice was waiting.

“So you think you changed, do you?” said the Caterpillar.

“I’m afraid I am,” said Alice; “I can’t remember some things.”

“What things can’t you remember?” asked the Caterpillar.

“Some verses, for example,” Alice replied in a very melancholy voice.

“Repeat, ‘You Are Old, Father William[37],’” said the Caterpillar.

Alice folded her hands, and began to recite the poem:

“That is wrong,” said the Caterpillar.

“Maybe, not quite right, I’m afraid,” said Alice, timidly.

“It is wrong from beginning to end,” said the Caterpillar decidedly, and there was silence for some minutes.

“What size do you want to be?” asked the Caterpillar.

“You know—” Alice began.

“I DON’T know,” said the Caterpillar.

Alice said nothing; she felt that she was losing her temper[38].

“Are you content now?” said the Caterpillar.

“Well, I want to be a little larger,” said Alice: “three inches is such a wretched height to be.”

“It is a very good height indeed!” said the Caterpillar angrily (it was exactly three inches high); and it put the hookah into its mouth and began to smoke again.

This time Alice waited patiently until the Caterpillar spoke again. In a minute or two the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and yawned once or twice. Then it got down off the mushroom[39], and crawled away in the grass. And it remarked, “One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.”

“One side of what? The other side of what?” thought Alice to herself.

“Of the mushroom,” said the Caterpillar.

The mushroom was perfectly round, so Alice found this a very difficult question. However, at last she decided to eat a bit of the mushroom. The next moment her chin hit her foot!

She was frightened by this change; so she ate some of the other bit. Finally, she was near the right size. She went forward and saw a little house about four feet high. She ate a bit of the mushroom again and became nine inches high.

“This is the right size to enter the house,” said Alice

Chapter VI

Pig and Pepper

For a minute or two she stood near the house. She was wondering what to do next, when suddenly a servant—a fish—came out of the wood and knocked loudly at the door. Another servant with a round face, and large eyes like a frog opened the door.

The Fish-Servant said, in a solemn tone, “For the Duchess. An invitation from the Queen to play croquet.”

The Frog-Servant repeated, in the same solemn tone, “From the Queen. An invitation for the Duchess to play croquet.”

Then the Fish-Servant ran away. Alice went timidly up to the door, and knocked.

“Why do you knock?” asked the Frog, “I’m on the same side of the door as you are. And they’re making such a noise inside, no one can possibly hear you.”

And certainly there was a most extraordinary noise within.

“Please, then,” said Alice, “how to get in?”

“Are you sure you want to get in?” said the Frog. “That’s the first question, you know.”

“It’s really dreadful,” Alice muttered to herself, “they like to argue, these animals!”

The Frog said, “I shall sit here, for days and days.”

“But what am I to do?” said Alice.

“Anything you like,” said the Servant, and began to whistle.

“Oh, he’s idiotic!” said Alice desperately. And she opened the door and went in.

The door led right into a large kitchen, which was full of smoke from one end to the other. The Duchess was sitting on a three-legged stool in the middle, she was nursing a baby. The cook was leaning over the fire, there was a large cauldron full of soup.

“There’s certainly too much pepper in that soup!” Alice said to herself, and began to sneeze.

Even the Duchess sneezed occasionally; and the baby was sneezing and howling all the time. Only the cook and a large cat did not sneeze. The cat was sitting on the hearth and grinning from ear to ear[40].

“Please can you tell me,” said Alice timidly, “why does your cat grin?”

“It’s a Cheshire cat[41],” said the Duchess, “and that’s why. Pig!”

She said the last word with such sudden violence that Alice jumped. But she saw in another moment that it was addressed to the baby, and not to her. So she took courage, and went on again:

“I didn’t know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn’t know that cats could grin.”

“They all can,” said the Duchess, “and most of them do.”

“I don’t know anything about it,” Alice said very politely.