Chapter One: Down the Rabbit-Hole, page 2

To her astonishment, Alice began to fall. But the hole was either very deep, or she was falling very slowly, for Alice had plenty of time to consider her situation. “Well!” thought Alice to herself, “after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling offstage in front of a thousand stylists!”

Down, down, down. Would this fall never come to an end? “I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it would be to come out among people who walk with their heads downward! How would they style their hair? I suppose I shall have to ask them. ‘Please, ma’am, but how do you get your hair to stand up when it’s upside down?’ And how ignorant they’ll think me. No, it’ll never do to ask.” Her musings were interrupted with a thump! as she landed on a heap of sticks and dry leaves.

Before her was a long passage and she could see the White Rabbit hurrying down it. Without a moment to lose, Alice raced after it, but once she turned the corner, the Rabbit was no longer to be seen.

Doors on all sides surrounded her, but they were all locked. She was wondering how she was ever to get out when she bumped into a table with nothing on it except a tiny golden key. After trying the key in every keyhole without success, she came upon a little curtain that hid a small door about 15 inches high, and to her joy it opened the door!

But Alice was not 15 inches high and could not get through the door. “Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a pair of shears! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin.” For, so many strange things had been happening that Alice had begun to think that very few things were really impossible.