Alice’s Adventures Underground ......................................................................................................................1

Lewis Carroll...........................................................................................................................................1

Chapter I ..................................................................................................................................................1

Chapter II.................................................................................................................................................6

Chapter III ..............................................................................................................................................11

Chapter IV ..............................................................................................................................................16

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or

twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, and

where is the use of a book, thought Alice, without pictures or conversations? So she was considering in her

own mind, (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid,) whether the pleasure

of making a daisychain was worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when a white rabbit with

There was nothing very remarkable in that, nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the

rabbit say to itself "dear, dear! I shall be too late!" (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her

that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the rabbit

actually took a watch out of its waistcoatpocket, looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet,

for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoatpocket or a

watch to take out of it, and, full of curiosity, she hurried across the field after it, and was just in time to see it

pop down a large rabbithole under the hedge. In a moment down went Alice after it, never once considering

The rabbithole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly,

that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself, before she found herself falling down what

seemed a deep 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, and to wonder what would happen next. First, she tried to look down and make

out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything: then, she looked at the sides of the well, and

noticed that they were filled with cupboards and bookshelves: here and there were maps and pictures hung

on pegs. She took a jar down off one of the shelves as she passed: it was labelled “Orange Marmalade", but to

her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar, for fear of killing somebody

"Well!" thought Alice to herself, "after such a 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 top of the

Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to and end? "I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this

time?" said she aloud, "I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be

four thousand miles down, I think" (for you see Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in

the schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity of showing off her knowledge, as there was

no one to hear her, still it was good practice to say it over,) "yes, that’s the right distance, but then what

Longitude or Latitudeline shall I be in?" (Alice had no idea what Longitude was, or Latitude either, but she

Presently she began again: "I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it’ll be to come out

among the people that walk with their heads downwards! But I shall have to ask them what the name of the

country is, you know, Please, Ma’am, is this New Zealand or Australia?"and she tried to curtsey as she

spoke, (fancy curtseying as you’re falling through the air! do you think you could manage it?) "and what an

ignorant little girl she’ll think me for asking! No, it’ll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up

Down, down, down: there was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. "Dinah will miss me

very much tonight, I should think!" (Dinah was the cat.) "I hope they’ll remember her saucer of milk at

teatime! Oh, dear Dinah, I wish I had you here! There are no mice in the air, I’m afraid, but you might catch

a bat, and that’s very like a mouse, you know, my dear. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?" And here Alice

began to get rather sleepy, and kept on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way "do cats eat bats? do cats eat

bats?" and sometimes, "do bats eat cats?" for, as she couldn’t answer either question, it didn’t much matter

which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand

in hand with Dinah, and was saying to her very earnestly, "Now, Dinah, my dear, tell me the truth. Did you

ever eat a bat?" when suddenly, bump! bump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and shavings, and the fall

Alice was not a bit hurt, and jumped on to her feet directly: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead;

before her was another long passage, and the white rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. there was not a

moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind, and just heard it say, as it turned a corner, "my ears and

whiskers, how late it’s getting!" She turned the corner after it, and instantly found herself in a long, low hall,

There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked, and when Alice had been all round it, and tried

them all, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again: suddenly she

came upon a little threelegged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing lying upon it, but a tiny

golden key, and Alice’s first ideas was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall, but alas! either the

locks were too large, or the key too small, but at any rate it would open none of them. However, on the

second time round, she came to a low curtain, behind which was a door about eighteen inches high: she tried

the little key in the keyhole, and it fitted! Alice opened the door, and looked down a small passage, not larger

than a rathole, into the loveliest garden you ever say. How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and

wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her

head through the doorway, "and even if my head would go through", thought poor Alice, "it would be very

little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only

knew how to begin." For, you see, so many outoftheway things had happened lately, that Alice began to

There was nothing else to do, so she went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at

any rate a book of rules for shutting up people like telescopes: this time there was a little bottle on it"

which certainly was not there before" said Aliceand tied round the neck of the bottle was a paper label

It was all very well to say "drink me", "but I’ll look first," said the wise little Alice, "and see whether the

bottle’s marked "poison" or not," for Alice had read several nice little stories about children that got burnt,

and eaten up by wild beasts, and other unpleasant things, because they would not remember the simple rules

their friends had given them, such as, that, if you get into the fire, it will burn you, and that, if you cut your

finger very deeply with a knife, it generally bleeds, and she had never forgotten that, if you drink a bottle

However, this bottle was not marked poison, so Alice tasted it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort

of mixed flavour of cherrytart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffy, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon

It was so indeed: she was not only ten inches high, and her face brightened up as it occurred to her that she

was now the right size for going through the little door into that lovely garden. First, hwoever, she waited for

a few minutes to see whether she was going to shrink any further: she felt a little nervious about this, "for it

might end, you know," said Alice to herself, "in my going out altogether, like a candle, and what should I be

like then, I wonder?" and she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle is like after the candle is blown out,

for she could not remember having ever seen one. However, nothing more happened, so she decided on going

into the garden at once, but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the door, she found she had forgotten the

little golden key, and when she went back to the table for the key, she found she could not possibly reach it:

she could see it plainly enough through the glass, and she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of the

table, but it was too slippery, and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and

"Come! there’s no use in crying!" said Alice to herself rather sharply, "I advise you to leave off this minute!"

(she generally gave herself very good advice, and sometimes scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into

her eyes, and once she remembered boxing her own ears for having been unkind to herself in a game of

croquet she was playing with herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people,)

"but it’s no use now," thought poor Alice, "to pretend to be two people! Why, there’s hardly enough of me

Soon her eyes fell on a little ebony box lying under the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake,

on which was lying a card with the words beautifully printed on it in large letters. "I’ll eat," said Alice, "and

if it makes me larger, I can reach the key, and if it makes me smaller, I can creep under the door, so either

She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, "which way? which way?" and laid her hand on the top of

her head to feel which way it was growing, and was quite surprised to find that she remained the same size: to

be sure this is what generally happens when one eats cake, but Alice had got into the way of expecting

nothing but outofthe way things to happen, and it seemed quite dull and stupid for things to go on in the

"Curiouser and curiouser!" cried Alice, (she was so surprised that she quite forgot how to speak good

English,) "now I’m opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Goodbye, feet!" (for when she

looked down at her feet, they seemed almost out of sight, they were getting so far off,) "oh, my poor little

feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I’m sire I ca’n’t! I shall be a

great deal too far off to bother myself about you: you must manage the best way you canbut I must be kind

to them", thought Alice, "or perhaps they won’t walk the way I want to go! Let me see: I’ll give them a new

And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it: "they must go by the carrier," she thought,

"and how funny it’ll seem, sending presents to one’s own feet! And how odd the directions will look!

Just at this moment, her head struck against the root of the hall: in fact, she was now rather more than nine

feet high, and she at once took up the little golden key, and hurried off to the garden door.

Poor Alice! it was as much as she could do, lying down on one side, to look through into the garden with one

eye, but to get through was more hopeless than ever: she sat down and cried again.

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," said Alice,"a great girl like you," (she might well say this,) "to cry in

this way! Stop this instant, I tell you!" But she cried on all the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there was

a large pool, about four inches deep, all round her, and reaching half way across the hall. After a time, she

heard a little pattering of feet in the distance, and dried her eyes to see what was coming.

It was the white rabbit coming back again, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in one hand,

and a nosegay in the other. Alice was ready to ask help of any one, she felt so desperate, and as the rabbit

passed her, she said, in a low, timid voice, "If you please, Sir" the rabbit started violently, looked up once

into the roof of the hall, from which the voice seemed to come, and then dropped the nosegay and the white

Alice took up the nosegay and gloves, and found the nosegay so delicious that she kept smelling at it all the

time she went on talking to herself"dear, dear! how queer everything is today! and yesterday everything

happened just as usual: I wonder if I was changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up

this morning? I think I remember feeling rather different. But if I’m not the same, who in the world am I? Ah,

that’s the great puzzle!" And she began thinking over all the children she knew of the same age as herself, to

"I’m sure I’m not Gertrude," she said, "for her hair goes in such long ringlets, and mine doesn’t go in ringlets

at alland I’m sure I can’t be Florence, for I know all sorts of things, and she, oh! she knows such a very

little! Besides, she’s she, and I’m I, andoh dear! how puzzling it all is! I’ll try if I know all the things I

used to know. Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is

fourteenoh dear! I shall never get to twenty at this rate! But the Multiplication Table don’t signifylet’s

try Geography. London is the capital of France, and Rome is the capital of Yorkshire, and Parisoh dear!

dear! that’s all wrong, I’m certain! I must have been changed for Florence! I’ll try and say "How doth the

little"," and she crossed her hands on her lap, and began, but her voice sounded hoarse and strange; and the

"I’m sure those are not the right words", said poor Alice, and her eyes filled with tears as she thought "I must

be Florence after all, and I shall have to go and live in that poky little house, and have next to no toys to play

with, and oh! ever so many lessons to learn! No! I’ve made up my mind about it: if I’m Florence, I’ll stay

down here! It’ll be no use their putting their heads down and saying ‘come up, dear!’ I shall only look up and

say "who am I, then? answer me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I’ll come up: if not, I’ll stay

down here till I’m somebody elsebut, oh dear!" cried Alice with a sudden burst of tears, "I do wish they

As she said this, she looked down at her hands, and was surprised to find she had put on one of the rabbit’s

little gloves while she was talking. "How can I have done that?" thought she, "I must be growing small

again." She got up and went to the table to measure herself by it, and found that, as nearly as she could guess,

she was now about two feet high, and was going on shrinking rapidly: soon she found out that the reason of it

was the nosegay she held in her hand: she dropped it hastily, just in time to save herself from shrinking away

"Now for the garden!" cried Alice, as she hurried back to the little door, but the little door was locked again,

and the little gold key was lying on the glass table as before, and "things are worse than ever!" thought the

poor little girl, "for I never was as small as this before, never! And I declare it’s too bad, it is!"

At this moment her foot slipped, and splash! she was up to her chin in salt water. Her first idea was that she

had fallen into the sea: then she remembered that she was under ground, and she soon made out that it was

the pool of tears she had wept when she was nine feet high. "I wish I hadn’t cried so much! said Alice, as she

swam about, trying to find her way out, "I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my

own tears! Well! that’ll be a queer thing, to be sure! However, every thing is queer today." Very soon she saw

something splashing about in the pool near her: at first she thought it must be a walrus or a hippopotamus, but

then she remembered how small she was herself, and soon made out that it was only a mouse, that had

"Would it be any use, now," thought Alice, "to speak to this mouse? The rabbit is something quite

outoftheway, no doubt, and so have I been, ever since I came down here, but that is no reason why the

So she began: "oh Mouse, do you know how to get out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here,

oh Mouse!" The mouse looked at her rather inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little

"Perhaps it doesn’t understand English", thought Alice; "I daresay it’s a French mouse, come over with

William the Conqueror!" (for, with all her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion how long ago

anything had happened,) so she began again: "où est ma chatte?" which was the first sentence out of her

French lessonbook. The mouse gave a sudden jump in the pool, and seemed to quiver with fright: "oh, I beg

your pardon!" cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor animal’s feelings, "I quite forgot you

"Not like cats!" cried the mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice, "would you like cats if you were me?"

"Well, perhaps not," said Alice in a soothing tone, "don’t be angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you

our cat Dinah: I think you’d take a fancy to cats if you could only see her. She is such a dear quiet thing," said

Alice, half to herself as she swam lazily about in the pool, "she sits purring so nicely by the fire, licking her

paws and washing her face: and she is such a nice soft thing to nurse, and she’s such a capital one for

catching miceoh! I beg your pardon!" cried poor Alice again, for this time the mouse was bristling all over,

"Offended indeed!" cried the mouse, who seemed to be positively trembling with rage, "our family always

"I won’t indeed!" said Alice, in a great hurry to change the conversation, "are youare youfond

ofdogs?" The mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly: "there is such a nice little dog near our

house I should like to show you! A little brighteyed terrier, you know, with oh! such long curly brown hair!

And it’ll fetch things when you throw them, and it’ll sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts of thingsI

ca’n’t remember half of themand it belongs to a farmer, and he says it kills all the rats andoh dear!" said

Alice sadly, "I’m afraid I’ve offended it again!" for the mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it

So she called softly after it: "mouse dear! Do come back again, and we wo’n’t talk about cats and dogs any

more, if you don’t like them!" When the mouse heard this, it turned and swam slowly back to her: its face

was quite pale, (with passion, Alice thought,) and it said in a trembling low voice "let’s get to the shore, and

then I’ll tell you my history, and you’ll understand why it is I hate cats and dogs."

It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite full of birds and animals that had fallen into it. There

was a Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious creatures. Alice led the way, and the

They were indeed a curious looking party that assembled on the bankthe birds with draggled feathers, the

animals with their fur clinging close to themall dripping wet, cross, and uncomfortable. The first question

of course was, how to get dry: they had a consultation about this, and Alice hardly felt at all surprised at

finding herself talking familiarly with the birds, as if she had known them all her life. Indeed, she had quite a

long argument with the Lory, who at last turned sulky, and would only say "I am older than you, and must

know best," and this Alice would not admit without knowing how old the Lory was, and as the Lory

At last the mouse, who seemed to have some authority among them, called out "sit down, all of you, and

attend to me! I’ll soon make you dry enough!" They all sat down at once, shivering, in a large ring, Alice in

the middle, with her eyes anxiously fixed on the mouse, for she felt sure she would catch a bad cold if she did

"Ahem!" said the mouse, with a selfimportant air, "are you all ready? This is the driest thing I know. Silence

all round, if you please! "William the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the pope, was soon submitted

to by the English, who wanted leaders, and had been of late much accustomed to usurpation and conquest.

"I beg your pardon?" said the mouse, frowning, but very politely, "did you speak?"

"I thought you did," said the mouse, "I proceed. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria,

declared for him and even Stigand, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found it advisable to go with

Edgar Atheling to meet William and offer him the crown. William’s conduct was at first moderatehow are

"In that case," said the Dodo solemnly, rising to his feet, "I move that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate

"Speak English!" said the Duck, "I don’t know the meaning of half of those long words, and what’s more, I

don’t believe you do either!" And the Duck quacked a comfortable laugh to itself. Some of the other birds

"I only meant to say," said the Dodo in a rather offended tone, "that I know of a house near here, where we

could get the young Lady and the rest of the party dried, and then we could listen comfortably to the story

which I think you were good enough to promise to tell us," bowing gravely to the mouse.

The mouse made no objection to this, and the whole party moved along the river bank, (for the pool had by

this time begun to flow out of the hall, and the edge of it was fringed with rushes and forgetmenots,) in a

slow procession, the Dodo leading the way. After a time the Dodo became impatient, and, leaving the Duck

to bring up the rest of the party, moved on at a quicker pace with Alice, the Lory, and the Eaglet, and soon

brought them to a little cottage, and there they sat snugly by the fire, wrapped up in blankets, until the rest of

Then they all sat down again in a large ring on the bank, and begged the mouse to begin his story.

"Mine is a long and a sad tale!" cried the mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing.

"It is a long tail, certainly," said Alice, looking down with wonder at the mouse’s tail, which was coiled

nearly all round the party, "but why do you call it sad?" and she went on puzzling about this as the mouse

"You are not attending!" said the mouse to Alice severely, "what are you thinking of?" "I beg your pardon,"

"A knot!" said Alice, always ready to make herself useful, and looking anxiously about her, "oh, do let me

"I shall do nothing of the sort!" said the mouse, getting up and walking away from the party, "you insult me

"I didn’t mean it!" pleaded poor Alice, "but you’re so easily offended, you know."

"Please come back and finish your story!" Alice called after it, and the others all joined in chorus "yes, please

do!" but the mouse only shook its ears, and walked quickly away, and was soon out of sight.

"What a pity it wouldn’t stay!" sighed the Lory, and an old Crab took the opportunity of saying to its

daughter "Ah, my dear! let this be a lesson to you never to lose your temper!" "Hold your tongue, Ma!" said

the young Crab, a little snappishly, "you’re enough to try the patience of an oyster!"

"I wish I had our Dinah here, I know I do!" said Alice aloud, addressing no one in particular, "she’d soon

Alice replied eagerly, for she was always ready to talk about her pet, "Dinah’s our cat. And she’s such a

capital one for catching mice, you ca’n’t think! And oh! I wish you could see her after the birds! Why, she’ll

This answer caused a remarkable sensation among the party: some of the birds hurried off at once; one old

magpie began wrapping itself up very carefully, remarking "I really must be getting home: the night air does

not suit my throat," and to its children "come away from her, my dears, she’s no fit company for you!" On

She sat for some while sorrowful and silent, but she was not long before she recovered her spirits, and began

talking to herself again as usual: "I do wish some of them had stayed a little longer! and I was getting to be

such friends with themreally the Lory and I were almost like sisters! and so was that dear little Eaglet! And

then the Duck and the Dodo! How nicely the Duck sang to us as we came along through the water: and if the

Dodo hadn’t known the way to that nice little cottage, I don’t know when we should have got dry again"

and there is no knowing how long she might have prattled on in this way, if she had not suddenly caught the

It was the white rabbit, trotting slowly back again, and looking anxiously about it as it went, as if it had lost

something, and she heard it muttering to itself "the Marchioness! the Marchioness! oh my dear paws! oh my

fur and whiskers! She’ll have me executed, as sure as ferrets are ferrets! Where can I have dropped them, I

wonder?" Alice guessed in a moment that it was looking for the nosegay and the pair of white kid gloves, and

she began hunting for them, but they were now nowhere to be seeneverything seemed to have changed

since her swim in the pool, and her walk along the riverbank with its fringe of rushes and forgetmenots,

Soon the rabbit noticed Alice, as she stood looking curiously about her; and at once said in a quick angry

tone, "why, Mary Ann! what are you doing out here? Go home this moment, and look on my dressingtable

for my gloves and nosegay, and fetch them here, as quick as you can run, do you hear?" and Alice was so

much frightened that she ran off at once, without saying a word, in the direction which the rabbit had pointed

She soon found herself in front of a neat little house, on the door of which was a bright brass plate with the

name . She went in, and hurried upstairs, for fear she should meet the real Mary Ann and be turned out of the

house before she had found the gloves: she knew that one pair had been lost in the hall, "but of course,"

thought Alice, "it has plenty more of them in its house. How queer it seems to be going messages for a rabbit!

I suppose Dinah’ll be sending me messages next!" And she began fancying the sort of things that would

happen: "Miss Alice! come here directly and get ready for your walk!" "Coming in a minute, nurse! but I’ve

got to watch this mousehole till Dinah comes back, and see that the mouse doesn’t get out" "only I don’t

think," Alice went on, "that they’d let Dinah stop in the house, if it began ordering people about like that!"

By this time she had found her way into a tidy little room, with a table in the window on which was a

lookingglass and, (as Alice had hoped,) two or three pairs of tiny white kid gloves: she took up a pair of

gloves, and was just going to leave the room, when her eye fell upon a little bottle that stood near the

lookingglass: there was no label on it this time with the words "drink me", but nevertheless she uncorked it

and put it to her lips: "I know something interesting is sure to happen," she said to herself, "whenever I eat or

drink anything, so I’ll see what this bottle does. I do hope it’ll make me grow larger, for I’m quite tired of

It did so indeed, and much sooner than she expected: before she had drunk half the bottle, she found her head

pressing against the ceiling, and she stooped to save her neck from being broken, and hastily put down the

bottle, saying to herself "that’s quite enoughI hope I sha’n’t grow any moreI wish I hadn’t drunk so

Alas! it was too late: she went on growing and growing, and very soon had to kneel down: in another minute

there was not room even for this, and she tried the effect of lying down, with one elbow against the door, and

the other arm curled round her head. Still she went on growing, and as a last resource she put one arm out of

the window, and one foot up the chimney, and said to herself "now I can do no morewhat will become of

Luckily for Alice, the little magic bottle had now had its full effect, and she grew no larger: still it was very

uncomfortable, and as there seemed to be no sort of chance of ever getting out of the room again, no wonder

she felt unhappy. "It was much pleasanter at home," thought poor Alice, "when one wasn’t always growing

larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and rabbitsI almost wish I hadn’t gone down that

rabbithole, and yet, and yetit’s rather curious, you know, this sort of life. I do wonder what can have

happened to me! When I used to read fairytales, I fancied that sort of thing never happened, and now here I

am in the middle of one! There ought to be a book written about me, that there ought! and when I grow up I’ll

write onebut I’m grown up now" said she in a sorrowful tone, "at least there’s no room to grow up any

"But then," thought Alice, "shall I never get any older than I am now? That’ll be a comfort, one waynever

to be an old womanbut thenalways to have lessons to learn! Oh, I shouldn’t like that!"

"Oh, you foolish Alice!" she said again, "how can you learn lessons in here? Why, there’s hardly room for

And so she went on, taking first one side, and then the other, and making quite a conversation of it altogether,

but after a few minutes she heard a voice outside, which made her stop to listen.

"Mary Ann! Mary Ann!" said the voice, "fetch me my gloves this moment!" Then came a little pattering of

feet on the stairs: Alice knew it was the rabbit coming to look for her, and she trembled till she shook the

house, quite forgetting that she was now about a thousand times as large as the rabbit, and had no reason to be

afraid of it. Presently the rabbit came to the door, and tried to open it, but as it opened inwards, and Alice’s

elbow was against it, the attempt proved a failure. Alice heard it say to itself "then I’ll go round and get in at

"That you wo’n’t!" thought Alice, and, after waiting till she fancied she heard the rabbit just under the

window, she suddenly spread out her hand, and made a snatch in the air. She did not get hold of anything, but

she heard a little shriek and a fall and a crash of breaking glass, from which she concluded that it was just

Next came an angry voicethe rabbit’s"Pat, Pat! where are you?" And then a voice she had never heard

"Digging for apples indeed!" said the rabbit angrily, "here, come and help me out of this!"Sound of more

"An arm, you goose! Who ever say an arm that size? Why, it fills the whole window, don’t you see?"

There was a long silence after this, and Alice could only hear whispers now and then, such as "shure I don’t

like it, yer honour, at al at all!" "do as I tell you, you coward!" and at last she spread out her hand again and

made another snatch in the air. This time there were two little shrieks, and more breaking glass" what a

number of cucumberframes there much be!" thought Alice, "I wonder what they’ll do next! As for pulling

me out of the window, I only wish they could! I’m sure I don’t want to stop in here any longer!"

She waited for some time without hearing anything more: at last came a rumbling of little cartwheels, and

the sound of a good many voices all talking together: she made out the words "where’s the other

ladder?why, I hadn’t to bring but one; Bill’s got the otherhere, put ‘em up at this cornerno, tie ‘em

together firstthey don’t reach high enough yetoh, they’ll do well enough, don’t be particularhere,

Bill! catch hold of this ropewill the roof bear?mind that loose slateoh, it’s coming down! heads

below!" (a loud crash) "now, who did that?it was Bill, I fancywho’s to go down the chimney?nay,

I sha’n’t! you do it!that I won’t thenBill’s got to go downhere, Bill! the master says you’ve to go

"Oh, so Bill’s got to come down the chimney, has he?" said Alice to herself, "why, they seem to put

everything upon Bill! I wouldn’t be in Bill’s place for a good deal: the fireplace is a pretty tight one, but I

She drew her foot as far down the chimney as she could, and waited till she heard a little animal (she couldn’t

guess what sort it was) scratching and scrambling in the chimney close above her: then, saying to herself "this

is Bill", she gave one sharp kick, and waited again to see what would happen next.

The first thing was a general chorus of "there goes Bill!" then the rabbit’s voice alone "catch him, you by the

hedge!" then silence, and then another confusion of voices, "how was it, old fellow? what happened to you?

Last came a little feeble squeaking voice, ("that’s Bill" thought Alice,) which said "well, I hardly knowI’m

all of a fluster myselfsomething comes at me like a Jackinthebox, and the next minute up I goes like a

"We must burn the house down!" said the voice of the rabbit, and Alice called out as loud as she could "if

you do, I’ll set Dinah at you!" This caused silence again, and while Alice was thinking "but how can I get

Dinah here?" she found to her great delight that she was getting smaller: very soon she was able to get up out

of the uncomfortable position in which she had been lying, and in two or three minutes more she was once

She ran out of the house as quick as she could, and found quite a crowd of little animals waiting

outsideguineapigs, white mice, squirrels, and "Bill" a little green lizard, that was being supported in the

arms of one of the guineapigs, while another was giving it something out of a bottle. They all made a rush at

her the moment she appeared, but Alice ran her hardest, and soon found herself in a thick wood.

"The first thing I’ve got to do," said Alice to herself, as she wandered about in the wood, "is to grow to my

right size, and the second thing is to find my way into that lovely garden. I think that will be the best plan."

It sounded an excellent plan, no doubt, and very neatly and simply arranged: the only difficulty was, that she

had not the smallest idea how to set about it, and while she was peering anxiously among the trees round her,

An enormous puppy was looking down at her with large round eyes, and feebly stretching out one paw,

trying to reach her: "poor thing!" said Alice in a coaxing tone, and she tried hard to whistle to it, but she was

terribly alarmed all the while at the thought that it might be hungry, in which case it would probably devour

her in spite of all her coaxing. Hardly knowing what she did, she picked up a little bit of stick, and held it out

to the puppy: whereupon the puppy jumped into the air off all its feet at once, and with a yelp of delight

rushed at the stick, and made believe to worry it: then Alice dodged behind a great thistle to keep herself from

being run over, and, the moment she appeared at the other side, the puppy made another dart at the stick, and

tumlbed head over heels in its hurry to get hold: then Alice, thinking it was very like having a game of play

with a carthorse, and expecting every moment to be trampled under its feet, ran round the thistle again: then

the puppy began a series of short charges at the stick, running a very little way forwards each time and a long

way back, and barking hoarsely all the while, till at last it sat down a good way off, panting, with its tongue

This seemed to Alice a good opportunity for making her escape: she set off at once, and ran till the puppy’s

bark sounded quite faint in the distance, and till she was quite tired and out of breath.

"And yet what a dear little puppy it was!" said Alice, as she leant against a buttercup to rest herself, and

fanned herself with her hat, "I should have liked teaching it tricks, ifif I’d only been the right size to do it!

Oh! I’d nearly forgotten that I’ve got to grow up again! Let me see: how is it to be managed? I suppose I

The great question certainly was, what? Alice looked all round her at the flowers and the blades of grass, but

could not see anything that looked like the right thing to eat under the circumstances. There was a large

mushroom near her, about the same height as herself, and when she had looked under it, and on both sides of

it, and behind it, it occurred to her to look and see what was on the top of it.

She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of the mushroom, and her eyes immediately met

those of a large blue caterpillar, which was sitting with its arms folded, quietly smoking a long hookah, and

For some time they looked at each other in silence: at last the caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth,

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation: Alice replied rather shyly, "II hardly know, sir,

just at presentat least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed

"I ca’n’t explain myself, I’m afraid, sir," said Alice, "because I’m not myself, you see."

"I’m afraid I ca’n’t put it more clearly," Alice replied very politely, "for I ca’n’t understand it myself, and

"Well, perhaps you haven’t found it so yet," said Alice, "but when you have to turn into a chrysalis, you

know, and then after that into a butterfly, I should think it’ll feel a little queer, don’t you think so?"

Which brought them back again to the beginning of the conversation: Alice felt a little irritated at the

caterpillar making such very short remarks, and she drew herself up and said very gravely "I think you ought

Here was another puzzling question: and as Alice had no reason ready, and the caterpillar seemed to be in a

"Come back!" the caterpillar called after her, "I’ve something important to say!"

Alice thought she might as well wait, as she had nothing else to do, and perhaps after all the caterpillar might

tell her something worth hearing. For some minutes it puffed away at its hookah without speaking, but at last

it unfolded its arms, took the hookah out of its mouth again, and saidk "so you think you’re changed, do

"Yes, sir," said Alice, "I ca’n’t remember the things I used to knowI’ve tried to say "How doth the little

"Not quite right, I’m afraid," said Alice timidly, "some of the words have got altered."

"It is wrong from beginning to end," said the caterpillar decidedly, and there was silence for some minutes:

"Oh, I’m not particular as to size," Alice hastily replied, "only one doesn’t like changing so often, you know."

"Well, I should like to be a little larger, sir, if you wouldn’t mind," said Alice, "three inches is such a

"It is a very good height indeed!" said the caterpillar loudly and angrily, rearing itself straight up as it spoke

"But I’m not used to it!" pleaded poor Alice in a piteous tone, and she thought to herself "I wish the creatures

"You’ll get used to it in time," said the caterpillar, and it put the hookah into its mouth, and began smoking

This time Alice waited quietly until it chose to speak again: in a few minutes the caterpillar took the hookah

out of its mouth, and got down off the mushroom, and crawled away into the grass, merely remarking as it

went: "the top will make you grow taller, and the stalk will make you grow shorter."

"Of the mushroom," said the caterpillar, just as if she had asked it aloud, and in another moment it was out of

Alice remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for a minute, and then picked it and carefully broke it

"Which does the stalk do?" she said, and nibbled a little bit of it to try: the next moment she felt a violent

She was a good deal frightened by this very sudden change, but as she did not shrink any further, and had not

dropped the top of the mushroom, she did not give up hope yet. There was hardly room to open her mouth,

with her chin pressing against her foot, but she did it at last, and managed to bite off a little bit of the top of

the mushroom. "Come! my head’s free at last!" said Alice in a tone of delight, which changed into alarm in

another moment, when she found that her shoulders were nowhere to be seen: she looked down upon an

immense length of neck, which seemed to rise like a stalk out of a sea of green leaves that lay far below her.

"What can all that green stuff be?" said Alice, "and where have my shoulders got to? And oh! my poor hands!

how is it I ca’n’t see you?" She was moving them about as she spoke, but no result seemed to follow, except a

little rustling among the leaves. Then she tried to bring her head down to her hands, and was delighted to find

that her neck would bend about easily in every direction, like a serpent. She had just succeeded in bending it

down in a beautiful zigzag, and was going to dive in among the leaves, which she found to be the tops of the

trees of the wood she had been wandering in, when a sharp hiss made her draw back: a large pigeon had

"I’ve tried every way!" the pigeon said desperately, with a kind of sob: "nothing seems to suit ‘em!"

"I’ve tried the roots of trees, and I’ve tried banks, and I’m tried hedges," the pigeon went on without

Alice was more and more puzzled, but she thought there was no use in saying anything till the pigeon had

"As if it wasn’t trouble enough hatching the eggs!" said the pigeon, "without being on the look out for

serpents, day and night! Why, I haven’t had a wink of sleep these three weeks!"

"I’m very sorry you’ve been annoyed," said Alice, beginning to see its meaning.

"And just as I’d taken the highest tree in the wood," said the pigeon raising its voice to a shriek, "and was just

thinking I was free of ‘em at least, they must beeds come down from the sky! Ugh! Serpent!"

"Well! What are you?" said the pigeon, "I see you’re trying to invent something."

"I I’m a little girl," said Alice, rather doubtfully, as she remembered the number of changes she had gone

"A likely story indeed!" said the pigeon, "I’ve seen a good many of them in my time, but never one with such

a neck as yours! No, you’re a serpent, I know that well enough! I suppose you’ll tell me next that you never

"I have tasted eggs, certainly," said Alice, who was a very truthful child, "but indeed I do’n’t want any of

"Well, be off, then!" said the pigeon, and settled down into its nest again. Alice crouched down among the

trees, as well as she could, as her neck kept getting entangled among the branches, and several times she had

to stop and untwist it. Soon she remebered the pieces of mushroom which she still held in her hands, and set

to work very carefully, nibbling first at one and then at the other, and growing sometimes taller and

sometimes shorter, until she had succeeded in bringing herself down to her usual size.

It was so long since she had been of the right size that it felt quite strange at first, but she got quite used to it

in a minute or two, and began talking to herself as usual: "well! there’s half my plan done now! How

puzzling all these changes are! I’m never sure what I’m going to be, from one minute to another! However,

I’ve got to my right size again: the next thing is, to get into that beautiful gardenhow is that to be done, I

Just as she said this, she noticed that one of the trees had a doorway leading right into it. "That’s very

curious!" she thought, "but everything’s curious today: I may as well go in." And in she went.

Once more she found herself in the long hall, and close to the little glass table: "now, I’ll manage better this

time" she said to herself, and began by taking the little golden key, and unlocking the door that led into the

garden. Then she set to work eating the pieces of mushroom till she was about fifteen inches high: then she

walked down the little passage: and then she found herself at last in the beautiful garden, among the

A large rose tree stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses on it were white, but there were three

gardeners at it, busily painting them red. This Alice thought a very curious thing, and she went near to watch

them, and just as she came up she heard one of them say "look out, Five! Don’t go splashing paint over me

On which Seven lifted up his head and said "that’s right, Five! Always lay the blame on others!"

"You’d better not talk!" said Five, "I heard the Queen say only yesterday she thought of having you

"Yes, it is his business!" said Five, "and I’ll tell him: it was for bringing tuliproots to the cook instead of

Seven flung down his brush, and had just begun "well! Of all the unjust things" when his eye fell upon

Alice, and he stopped suddenly: the others looked round, and all of them took off their hats and bowed low.

"Would you tell me, please," said Alice timidly, "why you are painting those roses?"

Five and Seven looked at Two, but said nothing: Two began, in a low voice, "why, Miss, the fact is, this

ought to have been a red rose tree, and we put a white one in by mistake, and if the Queen was to find it out,

we should all have our heads cut off. So, you see, we’re doing our best, before she comes, to" At this

moment Five, who had been looking anxiously across the garden called out "the Queen! the Queen!" and the

three gardeners instantly threw themselves flat upon their faces. There was a sound of many footsteps, and

First came ten soldiers carrying clubs: these were all shaped like the three gardeners, flat and oblong, with

their hands and feet at the corners: next the ten courtiers; these were all ornamented with diamonds, and

walked two and two, as the soldiers did. After these came the Royal children: there were ten of them, and the

little dears came jumping merrily along, hand in hand, in couples: they were all ornamented with hearts. Next

came the guests, mostly kings and queens, among whom Alice recognised the white rabbit: it was talking in a

hurried nervous manner, smiling at everything that was said, and went by without noticing her. Then

followed the Knave of Hearts, carrying the King’s crown on a cushion, and, last of all this grand procession,

When the procession came opposite to Alice, they all stopped and looked at her, and the Queen said severely

"who is this?" She said it to the Knave of Hearts, who only bowed and smiled in reply.

"Idiot!" said the Queen, turning up her nose, and asked Alice "what’s your name?"

"My name is Alice, so please your Majesty," said Alice boldly, for she thought to herself, "why, they’re only

"Who are these?" said the Queen, pointing to the three gardeners lying round the rose tree, for, as they were

lying on their faces, and the pattern on their backs was the same as the rest of the pack, she could not tell

whether they were gardeners, or soldiers, or courtiers, or three of her own children.

"How should I know?" said Alice, surprised at her own courage, "it’s no business of mine."

The Queen turned crimson with fury, and, after glaring at her for a minute, began in a voice of thunder, "off

The King laid his hand upon her arm, and said timidly "remember my dear! She is only a child!"

"Get up!" said the Queen, in a shrill loud voice, and the three gardeners instantly jumped up, and began

"Leave off that!" screamed the Queen, "you make me giddy." And then, turning to the rose tree, she went on

"May it please your Majesty," said Two very humbly, going down on one knee as he spoke, "we were

"I see!" said the Queen, who had been examining the roses, "off with their heads!" and the procession moved

on, three of the soldiers remaining behind to execute the three unfortunate gardeners, who ran to Alice for

"You sha’n’t be beheaded!" said Alice, and she put them into her pocket: the three soldiers marched once

"Their heads are gone," the soldiers shouted in reply, "if it please your Majesty!"

The soldiers were silent, and looked at Alice, as the question was evidently meant for her.

"Come on then!" roared the Queen, and Alice joined the procession, wondering very much what would

"It’s it’s a very find day!" said a timid little voice: she was walking by the white rabbit, who was peeping

"Hush, hush!" said the rabbit in a low voice, "she’ll hear you. The Queen’s the Marchioness: didn’t you know

"Queen of Hearts," said the rabbit in a whisper, putting its mouth close to her ear, "and Marchioness of Mock

"What are they?" said Alice, but there was no time for the answer, for they had reached the croquetground,

Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquetground in all her life: it was all in ridges and

furrows: the croquetballs were live hedgehogs, the mallets live ostriches, and the soldiers had to double

The chief difficulty which Alice found at first was to manage her ostrich: she got its body tucked away,

comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck

straightened out nicely, and was going to give a blow with its head, it would twist itself round, and look up

into her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had

got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very confusing to find that the hedgehog had unrolled

itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge or a furrow in her way,

wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and as the doubledup soldiers were always getting up and

walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game

The players all played at once without waiting for turns, and quarrelled all the while at the tops of their

voices, and in a very few minutes the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about and shouting

"off with his head!" or "off with her head!" about once in a minute. All those whom she sentenced were taken

into custody by the soldiers, who of course had to leave off being arches to do this, so that, by the end of half

an hour or so, there were no arches left, and all the players, except the King, the Queen, and Alice, were in

Then the Queen left off, quite out of breath, and said to Alice "have you seen the Mock Turtle?"

As they walked off together, Alice heard the King say in a low voice, to the company generally, "you are all

"Come, that’s a good thing!" thought Alice, who had felt quite grieved at the number of executions which the

They very soon came upon a Gryphon, which lay fast asleep in the sun: (if you don’t know what a Gryphon

is, look at the picture): "up, lazy thing!" said the Queen, "and take this young lady to see the Mock Turtle,

and to hear its history. I must go back and see after some executions I ordered," and she walked off, leaving

Alice with the Gryphon. Alice did not quite like the look of the creature, but on the whole she thought it quite

The Gryphon sat up and rubbed its eyes: then it watched the Queen till she was out of sight: then it chuckled,

"Why, she," said the Gryphon; "it’s all her fancy, that: they never executes nobody, you know: come on!"

"Everybody says ‘come on!’ here," thought Alice, as she walked slowly after the Gryphon; "I never was

They had not gone far before they saw the Mock Turtle in the distance, sitting sad and lonely on a little ledge

of rock, and, as they came nearer, Alice could hear it sighing as if its heart would break. She pitied it deeply:

"what is its sorrow?" she asked the Gryphon, and the Gryphon answered, very nearly in the same words as

before, "it’s all its fancy, that: it hasn’t got no sorrow, you know: come on!"

So they went up to the Mock Turtle, who looked at them with large eyes full of tears, but said nothing.

"This here young lady" said the Gryphon, "wants for to know your history, she do."

"I’ll tell it," said the Mock Turtle, in a deep, hollow tone, "sit down, and don’t speak till I’ve finished."

So they sat down, and no one spoke for some minutes: Alice thought to herself "I don’t see how it can ever

These words were followed by a very long silence, broken only by an occasional exclamation of "hjckrrh!"

from the Gryphon, and the constant heavy sobbing of the Mock Turtle. Alice was very nearly getting up and

saying, "thank you, sir, for your interesting story," but she could not help thinking there must be more to

"When we were little," the Mock Turtle went on, more calmly, though still sobbing a little now and then, "we

went to school in the sea. The master was an old Turtlewe used to call him Tortoise"

"We called him Tortoise because he taught us," said the Mock Turtle angrily, "really you are very dull!"

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself for asking such a simple question," added the Gryphon, and then they

both sat silent and looked at poor Alice, who felt ready to sink into the earth: at last the Gryphon said to the

Mock Turtle, "get on, old fellow! Don’t be all day!" and the Mock Turtle went on in these words:

"You may not have lived much under the sea" ("I haven’t," said Alice,) "and perhaps you were never even

introduced to a lobster" (Alice began to say "I once tasted" but hastily checked herself, and said "no,

never," instead,) "so you can have no idea what a delightful thing a Lobster Quadrille is!"

"Two lines!" cried the Mock Turtle, "seals, turtles, salmon, and so onadvance twice:"

"That’s all," said the Mock Turtle, suddenly dropping its voice, and the two creatures, who had been jumping

about like mad things all this time, sat down again very sadly and quietly, and looked at Alice.

"Come, let’s try the first figure!" said the Mock Turtle to the Gryphon, "we can do it without lobsters, you

So they began solemnly dancing round and round Alice, ever now and then treading on her toes when they

came too close, and waving their forepaws to mark the time, while the Mock Turtle sang, slowly and sadly,

"Shall we try the second figure?" said the Gryphon, or would you prefer a song?"

"Oh, a song, please!" Alice replied, so eagerly, that the Gryphon said, in a rather offended tone, "hm! no

The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and began, in a voice sometimes choked with sobs, to sing this:

"Chorus again!" cried the Gryphon, and the Mock Turtle had just begun to repeat it, when a cry of "the trial’s

"Come on!" cried the Gryphon, and, taking Alice by the hand, he hurried off, without waiting for the end of

"What trial is it?" panted Alice as she ran, but the Gryphon only answered "come on!" and ran the faster, and

more and more faintly came, borne on the breeze that followed them, the melancholy words:

The King and Queen were seated on their throne when they arrived, with a great crowd assembled around

them: the Knave was in custody: and before the King stood the white rabbit, with a trumpet in one hand, and

a scroll of parchment in the other. "Herald! read the accusation!" said the King.

"On this the white rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet, and then unrolled the parchment scroll, and read as

"The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts All on a summer day: The Knave of Hearts he stole those tarts,

"Now for the evidence," said the King, "and then the sentence." "No!" said the Queen, "first the sentence, and

"Nonsense!" cried Alice, so loudly that everybody jumped, "the idea of having the sentence first!"

"I won’t!" said Alice, "you’re nothing but a pack of cards! Who cares for you?"

At this the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon her: she gave a little scream of fright,

and tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her head in the lap of her sister, who was

gently brushing away some leaves that had fluttered down from the trees on to her face.

"Oh, I’ve had such a curious dream!" said Alice, and she told her sister all her Adventures Under Ground, as

you have read them, and when she had finished, her sister kissed her and said "it was a curious dream, dear,

So Alice ran off, thinking while she ran (as well she might) what a wonderful dream it had been.

But her sister sat there some while longer, watching the setting sun, and thinking of little Alice and her

Adventures, till she too began dreaming after a fashion, and this was her dream: She saw an ancient city, and

a quiet river winding near it along the plain, and up the stream went slowly gliding a boat with a merry party

of children on boardshe could hear their voices and laughter like music over the waterand among them

was another little Alice, who sat listening with bright eager eyes to a tale that was being told, and she listened

for the words of the tale, and lo! it was the dream of her own little sister. So the boat wound slowly along,

beneath the bright summerday, with its merry crew and its music of voices and laughter, till it passed round

Then she thought, (in a dream within the dream, as it were,) how this same little Alice would, in the

aftertime, be herself a grown woman: and how she would keep, through her riper years, the simple and

loving heart of her childhood; and how she would gather around her other little children, and make their eyes

bright and eager with many a wonderful tale, perhaps even with these very adventures of the little Alice of

longago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys,