Alice sat beside her sister on the riverbank, bored enough to wonder whether making a daisy chain was worth standing up. Then a White Rabbit with pink eyes hurried past.
“Oh dear! I shall be late!” he cried, taking a watch from his waistcoat pocket.
A talking rabbit was surprising. A rabbit with a waistcoat and a watch demanded investigation.
Alice chased him across the field and jumped after him into a large rabbit hole. The tunnel dipped like a well. She fell slowly past cupboards, maps, and shelves. From one shelf she took a jar marked ORANGE MARMALADE, but it was empty. She carefully returned it to another shelf while falling, which was good manners in a very unusual situation.
She landed on dry leaves and saw the Rabbit vanish around a corner.
Alice followed into a hall lined with locked doors. A glass table stood in the middle, holding a tiny golden key. It opened a door barely taller than a mouse. Through it Alice saw the loveliest garden—bright flowers, cool fountains, and paths that definitely did not contain long falls.
But she was too large to enter.
On the table appeared a bottle labelled DRINK ME. Alice checked that it was not marked poison, tasted it, and shrank until she was only ten inches tall.
Now the door fitted—but the key remained on the high table.
Under the table she found a cake marked EAT ME. One bite made her shoot upward like a telescope. Her head pressed against the ceiling.
“Curiouser and curiouser!” Alice cried.
The White Rabbit returned, wearing white gloves and carrying a fan. At the sight of giant Alice, he squeaked, dropped everything, and fled.
Alice picked up the fan. While wondering who she had become, she began shrinking again. She hurried toward the little door, but slipped—splash!—into a pool of salt water.
Only then did she realise she was swimming in the enormous puddle made by her own tears.