ALICE'S ADVENTURES INWONDERLANDLewis CarrollCHAPTER IDown the Rabbit-HoleAlice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sisteron the bank,and of having nothing to do:once or twice she hadpeeped into the bookher sister was reading,but it had nopictures or conversations in it,'andwhat is the use of a book,'thought Alice 'without pictures orconversation?'So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could,for thehot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid),whetherthe pleasure ofmaking a daisy-chain would be worth the troubleof getting up andpicking the daisies,when suddenly a WhiteRabbit with pink eyes ranclose by her.There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that;nor did Alicethink itso VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say toitself,'Oh dear!Oh dear!I shall be late!'(when she thoughtit over afterwards,itoccurred to her that she ought to havewondered at this,but at the time itall seemed quite natural);but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCHOUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-POCKET,and looked at it,and then hurriedon,Alice started toher feet,for it flashed across her mind that she hadneverbefore seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket,or a watchtotake out of it,and burning with curiosity,she ran across thefield after it,and fortunately was just in time to see it popdown a large rabbit-holeunder the hedge.In another moment down went Alice after it,never onceconsideringhow in the world she was to get out again.The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way,and thendipped suddenly down,so suddenly that Alice had not amoment to thinkabout stopping herself before she found herselffalling down a very deepwell.Either the well was very deep,or she fell very slowly,for shehadplenty of time as she went down to look about her and towonder whatwas going to happen next.First,she tried to lookdown and make outwhat she was coming to,but it was too dark tosee anything;then shelooked at the sides of the well,andnoticed that they were filled withcupboards and book-shelves;here and there she saw maps and pictureshung upon pegs.Shetook down a jar from one of the shelves as shepassed;it waslabelled 'ORANGE MARMALADE',but to her greatdisappointment itwas empty:she did not like to drop the jar for fear ofkillingsomebody,so managed to put it into one of the cupboards asshefell past it.'Well!'thought Alice to herself,after such a fall as this,Ishall thinknothing of tumbling down stairs!How brave they'llall think me at home!Why,I wouldn't say anything about it,even if I fell off the top of thehouse!'(Which was very likelytrue.)Down,down,down.Would the fall NEVER come to an end!Iwonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?'she said aloud.'I mustbe getting somewhere near the centre of the earth.Letme see:thatwould be four thousand miles down,I think--'(for,you see,Alice hadlearnt several things of this sort in herlessons in the schoolroom,andthough this was not a VERY goodopportunity for showing off herknowledge,as there was no one tolisten to her,still it was good practiceto say it over)--yes,that's about the right distance--but then I wonderwhat Latitudeor Longitude I've got to?'(Alice had no idea what