Down the Rabbit Hole　

    Down the Rabbit Hole

Alice and her big sister were sitting on the grass. Her sister was reading 1 a book, but Alice had nothing to read. She looked at her sister's book again. There were no pictures in it.

    "What good is a book without pictures?" She wondered.

    It was a very hot day, and Alice wondered what to do. " I'm so sleepy," she said to herself. " Shall 2 I look for some flowers, or is it too hot?"She saw a leaf falling from a tree, but she was too sleepy to look at it.

    Just then, a white rabbit ran by, very near to her. That does not happen every day, but Alice did not wonder about it. She did not wonder very much even when the rabbit said to itself, "Oh! Oh! I shall be too late!"But she did wonder when the rabbit took a watch out of its pocket and looked at it.

    "A rabbit with a pocket?" Alice asked herself. "And a watch in it?"She jumped up and ran after the White Rabbit. She was just in time to see him go down a big rabbit hole.

    Alice went into the hole too. She didn't stop to wonder how she could get out again.

    The rabbit hole went along just under the ground, and then… Alice was falling … down…down… down.

    She was not falling quickly. She had time to wonder 'What's going to happen next?" She looked down, but there was no light there.

    Down, down, down. "Oh!" she said, "it's a long way. I shall never be afraid of falling again. I wonder where the hole will come out.

    Down, down, down. "Will Dinah wonder where I am tonight?" Alice asked herself. (Dinah was Alice's cat.) 'Will they remember her milk at tea time? Oh, Dinah! Why aren't you here with me? There are no mice here, but there may be some bats 3. Do cats eat bats, I wonder?" Alice was beginning to get sleepy. "Do cats eat bats?" she asked herself. "Do cats eat bats?" And sometimes she asked, "Do bats eat cats?"Thump 4! Bump 5! Alice came down on something that was not very hard.

    She sat up quickly. She could still see the White Rabbit, far away along the rabbit hole.

    " Run!" Alice told herself, and she ran very quickly after the White Rabbit,"Oh, my ears!" she heard him say. "How late it's getting!" Then he went quickly through an opening 6 at the side of the rabbit hole.

    Alice ran through the opening. She was in a long hall, and she could not see the White Rabbit.

    There were doors on every side of the hall, but she could not open any of them, and she could not find the opening from the rabbit hole.

    "What can I do?" she wondered. Then she saw a little table. It was a glass table, and there was a very small golden 7 key on it. " Will it open one of the doors?" she wondered. She went to all the doors, but the key was much too small to open any of them. "It must open something," she told herself.

    Then she saw a very little door, hidden near one of the big doors. The little key opened it. Alice put her head down and looked through it into a very beautiful garden. She could see a lot of flowers and grass, and she wanted to go there. But the door was much too small. Sadly 8 she shut it again and took the key back to the table.

    "Why can't I become smaller?" Alice wondered. "It's not like home here-it's more magic-so there must be a way to get smaller." She looked at the glass table. There was a little bottle on it. ("That was not on the table before," Alice told herself.) She read a note on the bottle. It was in very good, big writing: "Drink me'.

    " I shall try just a little," Alice said, " a very little." She tried it, and it was very nice. She drank some more.

    " Oh! My feet are much smaller and much nearer," Alice said. "I must be very small now."She was. "Now I can go through the little door." she told herselfShe went to the door, but she could not open it, and the key was on the glass table. She could see it through the glass, but she was now much too small to get it. She tried to get to it up one of the glass legs, but she could not.

    The poor little girl sat down and cried.

    "Alice! Alice!" she said bravely. "It's no good crying like that. Stop it at once!" She sometimes spoke 9 to herself like that, but it did not help her this time. She was still crying when she saw a little glass box under the table.

    Alice opened the box. There was a very small cake in it. "Eat me", she read.

    "Yes, I shall eat it," Alice said. "If I grow bigger after that, I can get the key. If I grow smaller, I can get under the door into the garden." So she ate the cake.